Method and apparatus for shared I/O in a load/store fabric
First Claim
1. A shared data storage controller for accessing network data storage from a plurality of operating system domains (OSDs) via a common load/store link, the controller comprising:
- a network interface configured to be coupled to a network and communicate with said network using a first protocol;
a bus interface configured to be coupled to the OSDs, wherein in lieu of including a controller within each of the OSDs that is configured to communicate using said first protocol, each of the OSDs are coupled to share the controller in order to communicate via the network using the first protocol;
a plurality of resources for use in processing packets transferred between the OSDs and said network; and
target logic configured to store data that allocates each of said plurality of resources to respective ones of the OSDs.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method is provided for allowing I/O devices to be shared and/or partitioned among a plurality of processing complexes within the load/store fabric of each of the processing complexes without requiring modification to the operating system or driver software of the processing complexes. The apparatus and method includes a switch for selectively coupling each of the processing complexes to one or more shared I/O devices. The apparatus and method further includes placing information within packets transmitted between the switch and the I/O devices to identify which of the processing complexes the packets are associated with. The invention further includes an apparatus and method within the shared I/O devices to allow the shared I/O devices to service each of the processing complexes independently.
165 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A shared data storage controller for accessing network data storage from a plurality of operating system domains (OSDs) via a common load/store link, the controller comprising:
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a network interface configured to be coupled to a network and communicate with said network using a first protocol; a bus interface configured to be coupled to the OSDs, wherein in lieu of including a controller within each of the OSDs that is configured to communicate using said first protocol, each of the OSDs are coupled to share the controller in order to communicate via the network using the first protocol; a plurality of resources for use in processing packets transferred between the OSDs and said network; and target logic configured to store data that allocates each of said plurality of resources to respective ones of the OSDs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification