Computer system with multiple classes of device IDs

• US 9,110,853 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2003
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cypher, Robert E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder, Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): WIDHALM, ANGELA M
• Application Number:
  US10/385,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20040181608A1
• Time in Patent Office: 4,544 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0292 using tables or multilevel address translation means G06F12/023 takes precedence; address translation in virtual memory systems G06F12/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/60 Types of network addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function

Abstract

Various systems and methods implement multiple classes of device IDs. A computer system may include a network, a sending device, and a receiving device. The sending device is configured to encode less than all of a device ID identifying the sending device in a packet before sending the packet on the network. In response to receiving the packet, the receiving device is configured to send a responsive packet to the sending device. The receiving device is configured to encode the entire device ID identifying the sending device in the responsive packet. A portion of the device ID that the initiating device does not encode in the packet identifies the initiating device as one of the devices in a particular device class. Only devices in that device class are configured to send packets having a characteristic of the packet on the network.

Claims

1. A computer system, comprising:

a network;

a first device coupled to the network and configured to send a packet on the network, wherein the first device is further configured to encode a partial device ID in the packet, wherein the partial device ID uniquely identifies the first device as a particular one of a plurality of devices in a device class, wherein devices belonging to a given device class are configured to send packets having a particular characteristic on the network; and

a second device coupled to the network and configured to receive the packet from the network, wherein the second device is further configured to send a responsive packet to the first device, wherein the second device is configured to encode a device ID that identifies the first device in the responsive packet, wherein the device ID includes the partial device ID and a remaining portion of the device ID, wherein the remaining portion of the device ID identifies the first device as belonging to a particular device class.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the remaining portion of the device ID identifies the first device as one of a plurality of devices configured to initiate coherence transactions by sending address packets on an address network.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the second device is configured to generate and encode the remaining portion of the device ID into the responsive packet in response to the packet having a particular characteristic.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the packet has the particular characteristic if the packet is a type of packet sent to initiate a coherency transaction.

5. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising an other device, wherein a partial device ID of the other device is identical to the encoded partial device ID in the packet sent by the first device, and wherein the device ID of the other device is not identical to the device ID of the first device.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the network comprises an address network, and wherein the first device is configured to send the packet on the address network to initiate a coherence transaction for a cache line, wherein the second device is configured to send the responsive packet on a data network, and wherein the responsive packet includes a copy of the cache line.

7. A system, comprising:

a transaction-initiating client device, wherein a subset ID portion of a respective device ID of the transaction-initiating client device has a first value;

a non-transaction-initiating client device, wherein the subset ID portion of a respective device ID of the non-transaction-initiating client device also has the first value, wherein the respective device ID of the transaction-initiating client device is not equal to the respective device ID of the non-transaction initiating client device;

wherein the subset ID portion uniquely identifies the transaction-initiating client device and the non-transaction-initiating client device as a particular ones of a plurality of client devices in respective device classes, wherein devices belonging to a given device class are configured to send packets having a particular characteristic on the network;

wherein a remaining portion of the respective device ID identifies the particular device class to which each of the transaction-initiating client device and the non-transaction-initiating client device belongs;

an address network coupling the transaction-initiating client device and the non-transaction-initiating client device; and

wherein the transaction-initiating client device is configured to initiate coherency transactions by sending address packets on the address network, wherein the transaction-initiating client device is configured to only encode the subset ID portion of the respective device ID in each address packet.

8. The computer system of claim 7, further comprising a receiving device and a data network, wherein the receiving device is configured to receive an address packet that only includes the subset ID portion of the respective device ID of the transaction-initiating client, wherein the receiving device is configured to generate and encode the respective device ID of the transaction-initiating device in a data packet and to send the packet on the data network.