Methods and apparatus for enabling bus connectivity over a data network
First Claim
1. A method for defining a network bus between a plurality of hardware devices connected to each other over a data network by network interface circuitry (NIC) without the need for network stack processing, at least one of said plurality of hardware devices being a processor node having processing capability, the method comprising:
- providing, on each processor node, a network bus driver, a bus adapter driver and a NIC, said network bus driver configured to control exchange of network messages by accessing said NIC through said bus adapter driver, said bus adapter driver controlling said NIC;
registering on each processor node, an NIC driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices to permit said network bus driver on that processor node to effect communications with respective NICs for said hardware devices via said data network;
providing, on each processor node, a device driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices for controlling respective hardware devices through said network bus driver; and
creating on each processor node, a software abstraction layer of the network bus for communicating between said plurality of hardware devices by registering said bus adapter driver with said network bus driver instead of an operating system (OS) on said processor node as a network provider thus bypassing network stack processing, and having said bus adapter driver forward received messages to said network bus driver;
wherein said software abstraction layer permits said plurality of hardware devices to be seen as physical resources available to each processor node and configures said hardware devices to communicate as if over a bus to share resources at a network bus level removing need for said network stack processing.
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Abstract
A method and system for interconnecting peripherals, processor nodes, and hardware devices to a data network to produce a network bus providing OS functionality for managing hardware devices connected to the network bus involves defining a network bus driver at each of the processor nodes that couples hardware device drivers to a network hardware abstraction layer of the processor node. The network bus can be constructed to account for the hot-swappable nature of the hardware devices using a device monitoring function, and plug and play functionality for adding and, removing device driver instances. The network bus can be used to provide a distributed processing system by defining a shared memory space at each processor node. Distributed memory pages are provided with bus-network-wide unique memory addresses, and a distributed memory manager is added to ensure consistency of the distributed memory pages, and to provide a library of functions for user mode applications.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A method for defining a network bus between a plurality of hardware devices connected to each other over a data network by network interface circuitry (NIC) without the need for network stack processing, at least one of said plurality of hardware devices being a processor node having processing capability, the method comprising:
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providing, on each processor node, a network bus driver, a bus adapter driver and a NIC, said network bus driver configured to control exchange of network messages by accessing said NIC through said bus adapter driver, said bus adapter driver controlling said NIC; registering on each processor node, an NIC driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices to permit said network bus driver on that processor node to effect communications with respective NICs for said hardware devices via said data network; providing, on each processor node, a device driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices for controlling respective hardware devices through said network bus driver; and creating on each processor node, a software abstraction layer of the network bus for communicating between said plurality of hardware devices by registering said bus adapter driver with said network bus driver instead of an operating system (OS) on said processor node as a network provider thus bypassing network stack processing, and having said bus adapter driver forward received messages to said network bus driver; wherein said software abstraction layer permits said plurality of hardware devices to be seen as physical resources available to each processor node and configures said hardware devices to communicate as if over a bus to share resources at a network bus level removing need for said network stack processing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A system for defining a network bus between a plurality of hardware devices interconnected over a data network by network interface circuitry (NIC) without the need for network stack processing, at least one of said plurality of hardware devices being a processor node having processing capability, the system comprising said at least one processor node, each processor node comprising:
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a network bus driver, a bus adapter driver and a NIC, said network bus driver configured to control exchange of network messages by accessing said NIC through said bus adapter driver, said bus adapter driver controlling said NIC; an NIC driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices registered on said processor node to permit the network bus driver on that processor node to effect communications with respective NICs for said hardware devices via the data network; a device driver for each of said plurality of hardware devices for controlling respective hardware devices through said network bus driver; and program instructions for creating a software abstraction layer of said network bus for communicating between said plurality of hardware devices by registering said bus adapter driver with said network bus driver instead of an operating system (OS) on said processor node as a network provider thus bypassing network stack processing, and having said bus adapter driver forward received messages to said network bus driver; wherein said software abstraction layer permits said plurality of hardware devices to be seen as physical resources available to each processor node and configures said hardware devices to communicate as if over a bus to share resources at a network bus level removing the need for said network stack processing. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification