Facilitating access to status and measurement data associated with input/output processing

• US 7,502,873 B2
• Filed: 10/10/2006
• Issued: 03/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Flanagan, John R., Casper, Daniel F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kindred; Alford W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Roche; John B
• Application Number:
  US11/548,093
• Publication Number:
  US 20080147890A1
• Time in Patent Office: 882 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/126 and has means for transferring I/O instructions and statuses between control unit and main processor

Abstract

Input/output processing is facilitated by readily enabling access to information associated with input/output processing. This information includes status information and measurement data provided by a control unit executing input/output commands. The status and measurement data are provided in a status control block identified in a transport control word, which is further used to specify a location in memory that includes the input/output commands to be executed.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating input/output processing of a processing environment, said method comprising:

obtaining by an input/output communications adapter of the processing environment a transport control word, said transport control word including a count of the total amount of data being transferred, an address of a descriptor control block to be sent to a control unit of the processing environment, in which the descriptor control block includes a plurality of input/output commands to be executed, an address of a list that informs the input/output communications adapter where to store or fetch data received from or transmitted to the control unit, and a location in memory where to store ending status from the control unit, said ending status being directly accessible by an operating system of the processing environment;

forwarding from the input/output communications adapter to a control unit the descriptor control block that includes the plurality of input/output commands as one entity, wherein the forwarding includes forwarding from the input/output communications adapter to the control unit the descriptor control block including the plurality of input/output commands in a single communication; and

executing by the control unit the plurality of input/output commands to perform one or more input/output operations, wherein the executing is performed absent a tracking by the input/output communications adapter of state relative to the individual input/output commands of the plurality of input/output commands being executed by the control unit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said ending status is provided in a status control block identified by the location in memory.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining by the control unit measurement data associated with execution of the plurality of input/output commands; and

providing, by the control unit, the measurement data in the status control block specified by the transport control word, wherein said determining and providing by the control unit relieve the input/output communications adapter of having to infer or determine the measurement data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the measurement data comprises at least one of a queue time parameter specifying an amount of time the control unit had an input/output operation on its queue with an exchange open to the input/output communications adapter, and a defer time parameter specifying an amount of time the control unit waited for data, with the exchange open to the input/output communications adapter because of a control unit data cache miss.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the measurement data comprises a control unit active time specifying the time the control unit is active executing the transport control word.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein said status control block further comprises information relating to a failed input/output command of the plurality of input/output commands.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said information comprises at least one of an indication of where execution of the input/output command was interrupted, and an indication of an amount of data not transferred for one or more input/output commands of the plurality of input/output commands.