>How can we handle it, if we do not even know that it failed?
>How should the user recognize something is broken?
We probably shouldn't have used the word "fail" here.
I expect the IO and MSR accesses will always "succeed",
but they may not always have the exact effect the OS requested.
I think we (the OS) need to get used to this.
The HW reserves the right to second guess the OS for a
variety of reasons, including temperature, power,
reliability, or dependencies between different hardware
units that may not be exposed to the OS. I think as
hardware becomes more complex and more power-optimized,
we'll see more of this, not less.
cheers,
-Len