Executing programs of a first system on a second system

• US 5,983,012 A
• Filed: 09/28/1993
• Issued: 11/09/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bull HN Information Systems Incorporated (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull HN Information Systems Incorporated (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Flynn, Dennis R., Lemay, Richard A., Woods, William E., Bianchi, Richard S., Fogelgren, Marcia T., Tovell, Mary E.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US08/128,456
• Time in Patent Office: 2,233 Days
• Field of Search: 395/500.44, 395/500.45, 395/500.46, 395/500.47, 395/500.48, 395/527, 395/701
• US Class Current: 703/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/10 Program control for peripheral devices G06F13/14 - G06F13/42 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/105 where the programme performs an input/output emulation function
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6281 at program execution time, where the protection is within the operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2105 Dual mode as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105

Abstract

An emulator executes on a second data processing system as a second system user level process including a first system user level program, a first system executive program, and first system user and executive tasks. An emulator level is interposed between the second system user level process and a kernel level and contains pseudo device drivers. Each pseudo device driver corresponds to a first system input/output device. The kernel level includes kernel processes, each kernel process corresponding to a pseudo device driver. The second system hardware platform includes a plurality of second system input/output devices, wherein each second system input output device corresponds to a kernel process. Each combination of a pseudo device driver, a corresponding kernel process and a corresponding second system input/output device executes in a second system process and emulates the operations of a corresponding first system input/output task and the corresponding first system input/output device. The pseudo device drivers are constructed of a plurality of pseudo device queues, a return queue and a queue manager.

Claims

1. An emulator for emulating a first data processing system on a second data processing system, the first data processing system including a user level, an executive level, an input/output level and a hardware platform, the user level including at least one user program and at least one executive program for managing operations of the first data processing system and the hardware platform including a plurality of first system input/output devices, including a first system memory, the executive level including at least one user task performing user level program operations and at least one executive task performing executive program operations, the user and executive tasks generating requests for first system input/output operations, the input/output level including a plurality of input/output tasks, each input/output task corresponding to a first system input/output device and performing input/output operations in response to the input/output requests and each first system input/output devices performing input/output operations in response to the corresponding input/output task, the emulator executing on the second data processing system and comprising:

a second system user level process executing in a user level of the second data processing system, the second system user level process including

the first system user level program,

the first system executive program, and

the first system user and executive tasks,

an emulator level interposed between the second system user level process and a kernel level, the emulator level including

a plurality of pseudo device drivers, each pseudo device driver corresponding to a first system input/output device,

the kernel level, including

a plurality of kernel processes, each kernel process corresponding to a pseudo device driver, and

a second system hardware platform including,

a plurality of second system input/output devices, each second system input output device corresponding to a kernel process, and

each combination of a pseudo device driver, a corresponding kernel process and a corresponding second system input/output device executing in a second system process and emulating the operations of a corresponding first system input/output task and corresponding input/output device.

2. The emulator of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pseudo device drivers further comprise:

a plurality of pseudo device queues,

each pseudo device queue corresponding to a pseudo device driver and including

a device queue frame for each input/output request directed to the corresponding first system input/output device, each device queue frame containing the request directed to the corresponding input/output device, wherein

each kernel process is responsive to a request stored in a device queue frame of the corresponding pseudo device queue for reading the input/output request from the device queue frame and controlling the corresponding second system input/output device in executing the input/output request,

a return queue,

the return queue including a return queue frame for each input/output request executed by a kernel process, wherein

each kernel process is responsive to the completion of the execution of an input/output request for writing a request result into a return queue frame of the return queue, and

a pseudo device queue manager responsive to

each input/output request generated by a task for writing the input/output request into the pseudo device queue corresponding to the first system input/output device that the input/output request is directed to, and

to each return queue frame in the return queue for providing the request result to the task which generated the corresponding input/output request.

3. The emulator of claim 2 wherein each input/output requests generated by a task is associated with an input/output instruction and wherein the pseudo device queue manager further comprises:

an instruction monitor for detecting first system input/output instructions and generating a input/output instruction output indication upon the occurrence of an input/output instruction, and

a queue write mechanism responsive to an input/output instruction indication from the instruction monitor for writing the associated input/output request into the pseudo device queue corresponding to the first system input/output device to which the input/output request is directed.

4. The emulator of claim 2 wherein the pseudo device queue manager further comprises:

a queue read mechanism responsive to the writing of a return queue frame into the return queue for reading the request result from the return queue from and providing the request result to the task that generated the corresponding input/output request.

5. The emulator of claim 4 wherein each pseudo device queue, further comprises:

a queue header, the queue header including

a semaphore settable by the queue manager when writing a queue frame to the pseudo device queue by the queue manager, wherein

each kernel process is responsive to the setting of the semaphore in the queue header of the corresponding pseudo device queue for reading the corresponding queue frame from the pseudo device queue and for setting the semaphore when reading a queue frame from the pseudo device queue, and wherein

the queue manager and the kernel process corresponding to a pseudo device queue is responsive to the semaphore of the queue header to inhibit writing a queue frame into the pseudo device queue and reading a queue frame from the pseudo device queue when a queue frame is being written to and read from the pseudo device queue.

6. An method for emulating a first data processing system on a second data processing system, the first data processing system including a user level, an executive level, an input/output level and a hardware platform, the user level including at least one user program and at least one executive program for managing operations of the first data processing system and the hardware platform including a plurality of first system input/output devices, including a first system memory, the executive level including at least one user task performing user level program operations and at least one executive task performing executive program operations, the user and executive tasks generating requests for first system input/output operations, the input/output level including a plurality of input/output tasks, each input/output task corresponding to a first system input/output device and performing input/output operations in response to the input/output requests and each first system input/output devices performing input/output operations in response to the corresponding input/output task, the method executing on the second data processing system and comprising the steps of:

executing a second system user level process in a user level of the second data processing system, the second system user level process including

the first system user level program,

the first system executive program, and

the first system user and executive tasks,

constructing a plurality of pseudo device drivers in an emulator level interposed between the second system user level process and a kernel level,

each pseudo device driver corresponding to a first system input/output device,

executing a plurality of kernel processes the kernel level,

each kernel process corresponding to a pseudo device driver, and

providing a plurality of second system input/output devices, each second system input output device corresponding to a kernel process, and

executing each combination of a pseudo device driver, a corresponding kernel process and a corresponding second system input/output device executing in a second system emulation process and,

in each second system emulation process, emulating the operations of a corresponding first system input/output task and corresponding input/output device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of constructing a plurality of pseudo device drivers further comprises the steps of:

constructing a plurality of pseudo device queues,

each pseudo device queue corresponding to a pseudo device driver and including

a device queue frame for each input/output request directed to the corresponding first system input/output device, each device queue frame containing the request directed to the corresponding input/output device, wherein

each kernel process is responsive to a request stored in a device queue frame of the corresponding pseudo device queue for reading the input/output request from the device queue frame and controlling the corresponding second system input/output device in executing the input/output request,

constructing a return queue,

the return queue including a return queue frame for each input/output request executed by a kernel process, wherein

each kernel process is responsive to the completion of the execution of an input/output request for writing a request result into a return queue frame of the return queue, and

constructing a pseudo device queue manager responsive to

each input/output request generated by a task for writing the input/output request into the pseudo device queue corresponding to the first system input/output device that the input/output request is directed to, and

each return queue frame in the return queue for providing the request result to the task which generated the corresponding input/output request.

8. The emulator of claim 7 wherein each input/output requests generated by a task is associated with an input/output instruction and wherein step of writing input/output requests into the pseudo device queues further comprises the steps of:

detecting first system input/output instructions and generating a input/output instruction output indication upon the occurrence of an input/output instruction, and

responsive to an input/output instruction indication, writing the associated input/output request into the pseudo device queue corresponding to the first system input/output device to which the input/output request is directed.

9. The emulator of claim 7 wherein the step of reading a request result from the return queue further comprises the steps of:

responsive to the writing of a return queue frame into the return queue, reading the request result from the return queue from and providing the request result to the task that generated the corresponding input/output request.