Method, system, and program for configuring components on a...

Details Method, system, and program for configuring components on a... Method, system, and program for configuring components on a...

2002-07-24

2004-10-05

Fleming, Fritz (Department: 2182)

Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/

Input/output data processing

Data transfer specifying

C710S035000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06801963

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system, method, and program for configuring components on a bus for input/output operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1
illustrates a prior art storage device architecture, where an external bus master
2
, such as a network adaptor (e.g., a Fibre Channel controller, Ethernet controller, etc.) may access data in one or more disks
4
,
6
through a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) controller
8
over a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus
10
, which may utilize the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) or PCI-X protocol. In prior art systems, data being transferred between the external bus master
2
and SATA controller
8
first typically flows through a memory controller
12
and memory
14
, such as a Static Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM). For instance, when the external bus master
2
wants to write data to the disks
4
,
6
, the external bus master
2
may transfer the data to the memory
14
. The SATA controller
8
may then read the data sent to the memory
14
in the write request and write the data to disk
4
,
6
. For a read operation, the SATA controller
8
typically transfers requested read data to the memory
14
and the external bus master
2
typically accesses the read data from the memory
14
. The controllers
2
and
8
may include Direct Memory Access (DMA) engines that perform the actual data movement operations therebetween through the memory
14
.
Further, in the PCI-X prior art, the memory buffer
14
enables read and write bursts between an external bus master
2
and a SATA controller
8
, because current SATA controllers must operate as a bus master to handle burst data transfers. Further details of the PCI and PCI-X protocol are described in the publications “PCI Local Bus Specification”, Rev. 2.3 (PCI Special Interest Group, March 2002) and “PCI-X Addendum to the PCI Local Bus Specification”, Rev. 1.0a (PCI Special Interest Group, July 2000).
Using the memory
14
component to buffer data being transferred between the controllers
2
and
8
provides additional latency and delays because of the additional read and write operations involved in using the memory
14
as an intermediary buffer. For these reasons, there is a need in the art for improved techniques for transferring data between controllers in a bus architecture.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5522054 (1996-05-01), Gunlock et al.
patent: 5854894 (1998-12-01), Lancaster et al.
patent: 6070207 (2000-05-01), Bell
patent: 6209042 (2001-03-01), Yanagisawa et al.
patent: 6275876 (2001-08-01), Valk et al.
patent: 6425024 (2002-07-01), Kelley et al.
patent: 0 653 711 (1995-05-01), None
International Search Report, Annex to PCT invitation to pay additional fees (Form PCT/ISA/206), Jan. 9, 2004, for International Application No. PCT/US 03/22941.
PCI Special Interest Group, “PCI-X Addendum to the PCI Local Bus Specification”,PCI Local Bus, Revision 1.0a, Jul. 24, 2000, pp. 1-113.
PCI Special Interest Group, “PCI Local Bus Specification”,PCI Local Bus, Revision 2.3, Mar. 29, 2002, pp. i-xiv, & 1-112.
PCT International Search Report, Jan. 13, 2004, for International Application No. PCT/US 03/22667.
U.S. patent application Serial No. 10/205,662, filed Jul. 24, 2002, entitled “Method, System, and Program for Returning Data to Read Requests Received Over a Bus”, invented by S. Bissessur, M. A. Schmisseur, & D. R. Smith.
U.S. patent application Serial No. 10/205,663, filed Jul. 24, 2002, entitled “Method, System, and Program for Handling Input/Output Commands”, invented by S. Bissessur, R. P. Mackey, M. A. Schmisseur, & D. R. Smith.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Method, system, and program for configuring components on a... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method, system, and program for configuring components on a..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method, system, and program for configuring components on a... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3275741