A method for handling upgrades of systems comprising two circuit packs which contain memory. In one embodiment, on some trigger signal to a circuit pack, that circuit pack acts as a slave circuit pack, and causes version information for the data stored in the memory of the second circuit pack, which acts as a master circuit pack, to be transferred to the slave circuit pack. If the transferred version information indicates that the data in the slave circuit pack should be updated, the slave circuit pack causes a transfer of information from memory in the master circuit pack to the slave circuit pack, and stores the new information in the memory of the slave circuit pack.

The present invention provides an information processor and an information processing method, which reduces the memory capacity and utilizes a free space in a memory area as a cache area for EPG. This information processor includes a program obtaining means 5, a program storage means 2 which has plural storage areas, a program execution means 13, a selection information updating means 11 that stores execution memory information indicating a storage area which contains a program to be executed by the program execution means 13, compression information which indicates compression states of programs stored in the storage areas, and memory relation information which indicates the relation of the plural storage areas, a program execution area switching means 4 for selecting one of the storage areas on the basis of the execution memory information, a storage area switching means 3 for selecting one of the storage areas on the basis of the information in the selection information updating means 11, a program writing means 6, a program compression means 7, a program restoration means 12 for restoring a program which has been compressed by the program compression means 7, and a memory information updating means 8 for updating information stored in the selection information updating means 11.

Continuous server service is provided during switching from a current server version to a new server version. After initiating switching, a socket associated with the current server version is left open so that the socket may continue to receive client calls. The socket is then associated with the new server version and client calls received during switching are buffered and subsequently processed by the new server version after switching is complete.

A microprocessor system is provided that includes a first memory bank having a first base address and a second memory bank having a second base address. A memory controller is adapted to register the first and second base addresses. A swap command is adapted to instruct the memory controller to swap the first and second base addresses. A microprocessor issues the swap command. The memory controller includes a first base address register adapted to register the first base address and a second base address register adapted to register the second base address. A command register is adapted to register the swap command. In one embodiment, the first memory bank is a DRAM bank and the second memory bank is a ROM bank. The swap command instructs the memory controller to swap the first and second base addresses before temporary storage is established in the DRAM bank.

Platform and/or application software on all online, machine/servers in a cluster is updated without manually taking each machine/server offline. Initially, platform and/or application software for updating is stored in respective directories in an APPLY phase. Next, the new platform and/or application software is activated with or without a trial/test phase in an ACTIVATE phase. Where the new platform and/or application software is activated with a trial/test phase, a ROLLBACK phase is either automatically or manually invoked by the application in the event of a failure of the new software for backing out the new platform and/or application software and reactivating the previous platform and/or application software. An OFFICLAL phase then transitions the new platform and/or application software to the official state followed by a REACTIVATE phase for reactivating the backup copy of the previous/old platform and/or application software after the new software has been made official.