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Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is an operating system hardware error handling mechanism introduced withWindows Vista SP1 andWindows Server 2008 as a successor toMachine Check Architecture (MCA) on previous versions ofWindows.[1] The architecture consists of several software components that interact with the hardware and firmware of a given platform to handle and notify regarding hardware error conditions.[2] Collectively, these components provide: a generic means of discovering errors, a common error report format for those errors, a way of preserving error records, and an error event model based up onEvent Tracing for Windows (ETW).[3]
WHEA "builds on the PCI Express Advanced Reporting to provide more detailed information about system errors and a common reporting structure."[4]
WHEA allows third-party software to interact with the operating system and react to certain hardware events. For example, when a new CPU is added to a running system—a Windows Server feature known asDynamic Hardware Partitioning—the hardware error component stack is notified that a new processor was installed.[5]
In contrast,Linux supports theACPI Platform Error Interface (APEI) which is introduced in ACPI 5.0.[6]
