Method and apparatus for object-oriented interrupt system

• US 6,052,739 A
• Filed: 03/26/1998
• Issued: 04/18/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Saulpaugh, Thomas, Zheng, Xiaoyan, Bopardikar, Sunil K., Slaughter, Gregory K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pan, Daniel H.
• Application Number:
  US09/047,938
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 710/852, 710/10, 710/261, 710/104, 710/266, 710/9, 710/8, 710/3, 710/260, 395/712, 395/708, 709/305, 709/303, 709/300, 709/301, 713/200, 345/351, 345/356, 707/103
• US Class Current: 719/321
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4812 by interrupt, e.g. masked

Abstract

An object-oriented interrupt processing system in a computer system creates a system database including a device namespace containing an entry for each device in the computer system and an interrupt namespace containing each entry in the interrupt source, arranged as an Interrupt Source Tree. Each entry in the Interrupt Source Tree is cross-referenced to a corresponding entry in the device namespace and contains a reference to an interrupt handler for the corresponding interrupt source. When an interrupt occurs, a single interrupt dispatcher is invoked, to access the Interrupt Source Tree and cause execution of the corresponding interrupt handler.

Claims

1. A method for processing interrupts in an object-oriented computer system having a CPU, a memory containing a microkernel, a plurality of devices constituting sources capable of generating interrupts, a plurality of drivers each associated with at least one of the sources, and a system database, comprising the steps of:

creating a device entry in the database for each of the devices;

creating an interrupt source tree in the database comprising a plurality of source tree entries each comprising an object representing one of the sources;

implementing an interrupt registration interface comprising methods which install interrupt management software components associated with each source in a corresponding source tree entry;

cross-referencing each of the device entries with a corresponding one of the source tree entries;

responding to an interrupt generated by a device by causing a single interrupt dispatcher to execute and identifying the device to the interrupt dispatcher; and

processsing the interrupt with a handler invoked by the interrupt dispatcher and corresponding to the identified device.

2. Apparatus for processing interrupts in an object-oriented computer system having a CPU, a plurality of devices constituting sources capable of generating interrupts, and a plurality of drivers each associated with at least one of the sources, and, comprising:

a plurality of interrupt management software components supplied by the drivers each associated with an interrupt source;

a memory containing a database having a device entry for each of the devices; and

an interrupt source tree comprising a plurality of interrupt source tree entries each comprising an object representing one of the sources and crossreferenced to a corresponding device entry, each of the interrupt source tree entries including a reference to at least one of the interrupt management software components; and

a single interrupt dispatcher for responding to an interrupt identified by the CPU by executing a corresponding interrupt management software component specified by an interrupt source tree entry.

3. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for providing functionality to process interrupts in an object-oriented computer system having a CPU, a memory, and a plurality of devices constituting sources capable of generating interrupts, by:

creating a database in the memory;

creating a device entry in the database for each of the devices;

creating an interrupt source tree in the database comprising a plurality of source tree entries each comprising an object representing one of the sources;

implementing an interrupt registration interface comprising methods which install interrupt management software components associated with each source in a corresponding source tree entry;

cross-referencing each of the device entries with a corresponding one of the source tree entries;

responding to an interrupt generated by a device by causing a single interrupt dispatcher to execute and by identifying the device to the interrupt dispatcher; and

processsing the interrupt by invoking a handler, corresponding to the identified device, by the interrupt dispatcher.

4. A computer data signal on a carrier wave containing instructions for providing functionality to process interrupts in an object-oriented computer system having a CPU, a memory, and a plurality of devices constituting sources capable of generating interrupts, by:

creating a database in the memory;

creating a device entry in the database for each of the devices;

creating an interrupt source tree in the database comprising a plurality of source tree entries each comprising an object representing one of the sources;

implementing an interrupt registration interface comprising methods which install interrupt management software components associated with each source in a corresponding source tree entry;

cross-referencing each of the device entries with a corresponding one of the source tree entries;

responding to an interrupt generated by a device by causing a single interrupt dispatcher to execute and by identifying the device to the interrupt dispatcher; and

processsing the interrupt by invoking a handler, corresponding to the identified device, by the interrupt dispatcher.