Method and apparatus for support of bottleneck avoidance in an intelligent adapter
First Claim
1. A method for bottleneck avoidance in an adapter, the method comprising:
- receiving workload at an adapter connected to a host, wherein the adapter includes adapter memory and an adapter processor and wherein the host includes a host processor;
determining whether the adapter is a bottleneck;
responsive to a determination that the adapter is a bottleneck, refusing the workload; and
responsive to a determination that the adapter is not a bottleneck, accepting the workload for processing by the adapter.
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Abstract
A mechanism for bottleneck avoidance is provided in an intelligent adapter. The mechanism allows the adapter to be used such that host/adapter system throughput is optimized. The bottleneck avoidance mechanism of the present invention determines when the adapter becomes a bottleneck. If certain conditions exist, then new connections are refused so that the adapter can process packets for existing connections. If certain other conditions exist, the adapter may migrate workload to the host processor for processing. These conditions may be determined by comparing memory usage or central processing unit usage to predetermined thresholds. Alternatively, the conditions may be determined by comparing adapter response time to host response time.
42 Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for bottleneck avoidance in an adapter, the method comprising:
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receiving workload at an adapter connected to a host, wherein the adapter includes adapter memory and an adapter processor and wherein the host includes a host processor;
determining whether the adapter is a bottleneck;
responsive to a determination that the adapter is a bottleneck, refusing the workload; and
responsive to a determination that the adapter is not a bottleneck, accepting the workload for processing by the adapter. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A data processing system, comprising:
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a host processor;
a network interface, connected to the host processor, wherein the network interface performs network protocol processing for the host processor, wherein the network interface includes an interface memory and a network processor, and wherein the network interface receives workload, determines whether the network interface is a bottleneck, refuses the workload responsive to a determination that the network interface is a bottleneck, and accepts the workload for processing by the network processor responsive to a determination that the network interface is not a bottleneck. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer program product, in a computer readable medium, for bottleneck avoidance in an adapter, the computer program product comprising:
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instructions for receiving workload at an adapter connected to a host, wherein the adapter includes adapter memory and an adapter processor and wherein the host includes a host processor;
instructions for determining whether the adapter is a bottleneck;
instructions, responsive to a determination that the adapter is a bottleneck, for refusing the workload; and
instructions, responsive to a determination that the adapter is not a bottleneck, for accepting the workload for processing by the adapter. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification