Indirect addressing of channels via logical channel groups
First Claim
1. In a computer system in which a plurality of channels electrically couple an active data unit to one or more devices, an IO subsystem for establishing physical paths between the active data unit and the devices, the subsystem comprising:
- (1) multiple channel path identifiers for identifying the channels;
(2) one or more logical channel groups comprising lists, stored in a memory unit, comprising varying numbers of said channel path identifiers, the respective lengths of said lists being limited only by the storage capacity of said memory unit; and
(3) one or more subchannels each exclusively assigned to one of said devices, each of said subchannels maintaining one or more pointers, each of said pointers addressing one of said logical channel groups.
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Abstract
A computer system for using logical channel groups to indirectly address channels. The computer system includes a processor, a memory, and an input/output (IO) system for transferring information between devices and the processor. The IO system includes channels, channel path identifiers for identifying the channels, logical channel groups having lists of the channel path identifiers, and subchannels having pointers to the logical channel groups. The IO system also includes one or more switches for routing information between the channels and devices.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. In a computer system in which a plurality of channels electrically couple an active data unit to one or more devices, an IO subsystem for establishing physical paths between the active data unit and the devices, the subsystem comprising:
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(1) multiple channel path identifiers for identifying the channels; (2) one or more logical channel groups comprising lists, stored in a memory unit, comprising varying numbers of said channel path identifiers, the respective lengths of said lists being limited only by the storage capacity of said memory unit; and (3) one or more subchannels each exclusively assigned to one of said devices, each of said subchannels maintaining one or more pointers, each of said pointers addressing one of said logical channel groups. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A computer system comprising:
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active data means; a plurality of peripheral devices; and IO means for transferring information between said peripheral devices and said active data means, said IO means comprising; multiple channels electrically coupled to said active data means; one or more switches each electrically coupled to one or more, of said channels and one or more of said peripheral devices, for routing said information between said channels and said peripheral devices; multiple channel path identifiers for identifying said channels; one or more logical channel groups comprising lists, stored in a memory device, of varying numbers of said channel path identifiers, the respective lengths of said lists being limited only by the storage capacity of said memory device, the channel path identifiers in any one of said logical channel groups identifying channels which are electrically coupled to a particular one of said peripheral devices via a particular one of said switches; one or more subchannels each exclusively assigned to one of said peripheral devices, each of said subchannels maintaining one or more pointers, each of said pointers addressing one of said logical channel groups; and means for establishing a physical communication path between said active data means and one of said peripheral devices by selecting one of the channel path identifiers in the logical channel group addressed by one of the pointers maintained by the subchannel assigned to said peripheral device, wherein said physical communication path includes the channel identified by said selected channel path identifier. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. In a computer system having an active data unit, a plurality of channels and devices, and a switch, wherein said switch comprises a plurality of ports coupled to said channels and devices, a method for establishing a communication link between the active data unit and one of the devices, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) establishing a logical channel between the active data unit and the device; (b) associating one or more of said channels with said logical channel; and (c) establishing a physical path via one of said associated channels between the active data unit and the device; wherein step (a) comprises the steps of; identifying a subchannel associated with the device, wherein said subchannel references one or more logical channel groups; and selecting one of said logical channel groups; wherein said selected logical channel group comprises a first channel path identifier, a last channel path identifier, and a flag means for identifying optimized channels, wherein said first and last channel path identifiers identify a range of said channels, and wherein said optimized channels represent channels which are each optimized to perform a particular function. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification