Gateway device for connecting a computer bus to a ring network

• US 5,237,659 A
• Filed: 04/28/1992
• Issued: 08/17/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Takats, Gilbert
• Primary Examiner(s): RICHARDSON, ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US07/877,254
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• Field of Search: 370/85.4, 370/85.5, 364/DIG. 1, 364/DIG. 2, 395/200, 395/275, 395/325
• US Class Current: 709/236
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/128 for dedicated transfers to a network for protocol converters G06F13/387
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/433 with asynchronous transmission, e.g. token ring, register insertion

Abstract

A gateway device for connecting a computer bus to a high-speed fiber optic ring network including an I/O host module of the computer connected to the computer bus and having at least one external communication bus for carrying both data and control blocks containing parameters relative to the composition of data frames. The gateway device also includes an adapter device physically connected to the network, and an interface which ensures transfer of the data and control blocks between the I/O host module and the adapter device. The adapter device includes a memory for storing the data frames before they are transmitted to the network and after they are received from the network, and a transfer management controller for managing the transfer of data frames between the I/O host module and the network. The controller includes a control bus which carries the control blocks and the control characters of the data frames. The adapter device further includes a high-speed bus which transports the data. The transfer interface is connected to the communication bus as well as to the high-speed bus and the control bus.

Claims

1. An adapter device having a plurality of interface ports coupled to a ring network, said adapter device comprising:

a network access controller;

a control bus coupled to said network access controller;

a storage memory;

a data bus coupled between the network access controller and the storage memory;

an access device having a first port coupled to said network access controller, having a second port coupled to said control bus and having a plurality of opto-electric couplers with each of said plurality of opto-electric couplers corresponding to one of the plurality of interface ports of said adapter device and wherein first ones of said plurality of opto-electric couplers are for receiving data from the ring network coupled thereto and second ones of said plurality of opto-electric couplers are for transmitting data fed thereto to said ring network; and

a transfer management controller coupled to said control bus for interpreting and transmitting frames to said access device and for receiving control blocks from said access device to form frame control characters, and for interpreting frame control characters to form control blocks, and for managing the transfer of data frames to said access device through the data bus, the storage memory, and the network access controller and for providing transfer of data and control blocks, corresponding to different frames on the data bus and the control bus, with such transfers capable of being performed independently and simultaneously.

2. The adapter device of claim 1 wherein said plurality of opto-electric couplers correspond to:

a first pair of opto-electric couplers for transmitting and receiving, with a first one of said first pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a first one of said plurality of interface ports of said adapter device and a second one of said first pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a second one of said plurality of interface ports of said adapter device; and

a second pair of opto-electric couplers for transmitting and receiving with a first one of said second pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a third one of said plurality of interface ports of said adapter device and a second one of said second pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a fourth one of said plurality of interface ports of the adapter device.

3. The adapter device of claim 2 wherein said transfer management controller comprises:

a microprocessor coupled to said control bus;

a transfer management control bus coupled to said microprocessor;

at least one memory element coupled to said transfer management control bus and said control bus; and

a decoder, coupled to said transfer management control bus, for addressing said microprocessor and the at least one memory element.

4. The adapter device of claim 3 wherein:

said ring network comprises;

a first fiber optic ring network having at least one interface port of said adapter device coupled thereto; and

a second fiber optic ring network having at least one interface port of said adapter device coupled thereto.

5. A gateway device, for coupling a computer bus to a ring network, said gateway device having a plurality of interface ports coupled to said ring network and said gateway device comprising:

a first control bus;

a data bus;

a transfer interface, coupled to said control bus and said data bus, for transmitting control blocks to the control bus and capable of simultaneously and independently transmitting data blocks to the data bus;

a network access controller, coupled to said control bus and said data bus, for selectively providing said transfer interface access to the data bus;

an access device, having a first port coupled to said network access controller having a second port coupled to said control bus and having a plurality of opto-electric couplers with each one of said opto-electric couplers coupled to a corresponding one of the interface ports of said gateway device and wherein said access device receives a message from said ring network and provides the message in a first format to said network access controller and said network access controller receives the message in the first format and provides said message to said data bus in a second format; and

a transfer management controller, coupled to said control bus, for carrying control blocks coming from or going to the transfer interface and for interpreting and transmitting frames to the access device and for receiving control blocks from the access device to form frame control characters and for interpreting frame control characters to form control blocks, and for managing the transfer of data frames between the transfer interface and the access device.

6. The gateway device of claim 5 wherein:

said transfer interface comprises;

a control interface circuit coupled to said control bus; and

a data interface circuit coupled to said data bus;

said access controller comprises;

a data path controller coupled to said control bus and said data bus; and

a storage memory controller coupled to said data path controller, said control bus and said data bus; and

said transfer management controller comprises;

a first microprocessor coupled to said control bus;

a transfer management control bus coupled to said first microprocessor;

at least one memory element coupled to said transfer management control bus; and

a decoder, coupled to said transfer management control bus for addressing said first microprocessor and the at least one memory element.

7. The gateway device of claim 6 wherein said plurality of opto-electric couplers correspond to:

a first pair of opto-electric couplers for transmitting and receiving with a first one of said first pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a first one of said plurality of interface ports of said gateway device and a second one of said first pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a second one of said plurality of interface ports of said gateway device; and

a second pair of opto-electric couplers for transmitting and receiving with a first one of said second pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a third one of said plurality of interface ports of said gateway device and a second one of said second pair of opto-electric couplers coupled to a fourth one of said plurality of interface ports of the adapter device.

8. A method for transferring information from a computer to a ring network, said method comprising the steps of:

programming a first microprocessor to send information to the ring network;

generating, by said first microprocessor, at least one control block;

verifying by said first microprocessor that a first interface and a first mail box contain no information;

transferring frame data from said first microprocessor to said first interface;

transferring the at least one control block from said first microprocessor to said first mail box;

generating and causing, in response to the transferring frame data step, a first one of;

(a) an interrupt to a second microprocessor;

or

(b) an interrupt to the first microprocessor if there is a parity error;

resending the control block from said first microprocessor if said generating step provides the interrupt to the first microprocessor;

verifying by said second microprocessor whether the operation to be performed and for which an interrupt was received in said transferring frame data step is a transfer to the ring network;

forming control characters in a transfer management controller;

sending said control characters from said transfer management controller to a storage memory; and

transferring data by an access controller to transfer data by reading said first interface and writing said data in the storage memory before transferring said frame data and control block to the ring network.