Method of controlling the transfer of information across an interface between two buses

• US 5,987,554 A
• Filed: 10/01/1997
• Issued: 11/16/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Round Rock Research LLC
• Original Assignee: Micro Electronics Incorporated
• Inventors: Nguyen, Ken, Johnson, Karl S., Mahalingam, Mallikarjunan, Liu, Ji-hwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Application Number:
  US08/942,413
• Time in Patent Office: 776 Days
• Field of Search: 395/309, 395/306, 395/308, 395/872, 395/873, 395/733, 395/736, 395/740, 710/129, 710/126, 710/128, 710/52, 710/53, 710/260, 710/263, 710/267
• US Class Current: 710/310
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0787 Storage of error reports, e.g. persistent data storage, storage using memory protection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2005 using redundant communication controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2007 using redundant communication media
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2012 and using different communication protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3027 where the computing system component is a bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3041 where the computing system component is an input/output interface interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units G06F13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4027 using bus bridges G06F13/4022 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4081 Live connection to bus, e.g. hot-plugging current or voltage limitation during live insertion H02H9/004
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/305 : by remotely controlling device operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 : User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/86 : Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 : Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 : Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 : Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: H02P 7/285 : controlling armature supply only
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/12 : Arrangements for remote connection or disconnection of substations or of equipment thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 : Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 : Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 : comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/00 : Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0817 : by checking functioning
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 : Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 : Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 : Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 : Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1001 : for accessing one among a plurality of replicated servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10015 : Access to distributed or replicated servers, e.g. using brokers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 : Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 : in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

A method and apparatus for interfacing buses includes a system interface processor coupled to a first bus and including a command register accessible via a second bus. A request buffer and a response buffer are provided which are accessible via the second bus and coupled to the interface processor. The request buffer can be used to store information to be transmitted from the second bus to the first via the interface processor while the response buffer can be used to store information to be transmitted from the first bus to the second bus via the interface processor. The interface processor may include a status register to indicate the status of the interface controller. The interface controller may also include a command register to receive commands transmitted over the second bus.

Claims

1. A method of controlling the transfer of information between a first bus and clients on a second bus through an interface, comprising:

placing client messages to be transferred across the interface into a queue;

reviewing a status register associated with the interface to determine whether the interface is currently allocated to a client;

if the interface is not currently allocated to a client, then assuming control of the interface;

writing the first message in the queue to a request buffer;

writing a command to the interface to transfer the message in the request buffer to the first bus;

determining whether a message result has arrived in response to the last transmitted message;

transmitting an interrupt to the second bus by the interface;

reading the status register and determining whether the interrupt indicates a response to a message or an event, if the interrupt is in response to a message, reading a response buffer or if the interrupt is in response to an event, placing an event query message into the message queue;

determining the size of the response in the response buffer;

verifying that the client associated with the message being process has allocated sufficient space to receive the response; and

writing the contents of the response register to a memory location allocated by the client.

2. The method of claim 1, further including repeating the method for each message placed in the queue.

3. The method of claim 1, further including deallocating the interface.

4. A program storage device storing instructions that when executed by a computer perform the method comprising:

placing client messages to be transferred across the interface into a queue;

reviewing a status register associated with the interface to determine whether the interface is currently allocated to a client;

if the interface is not currently allocated to a client, then assuming control of the interface;

writing the first message in the queue to a request buffer;

writing a command to the interface to transfer the message in the request buffer to the first bus;

determining whether a message result has arrived in response to the last transmitted message;

transmitting an interrupt to the second bus by the interface;

reading the status register and determining whether the interrupt indicates a response to a message or an event, if the interrupt is in response to a message, reading a response buffer or if the interrupt is in response to an event, placing an event query message into the message queue;

determining the size of the response in the response buffer;

verifying that the client associated with the message being process has allocated sufficient space to receive the response; and

writing the contents of the response register to a memory location allocated by the client.

5. The program storage device of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises repeating the method for each message placed in the queue.

6. The program storage device of claim 4, wherein the method further comprises deallocating the interface.