Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/ – Input/output data processing – Input/output access regulation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-14
2001-11-20
Lee, Thomas (Department: 2182)
Electrical computers and digital data processing systems: input/
Input/output data processing
Input/output access regulation
C710S040000, C710S064000, C709S241000, C709S241000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321279
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer system using intelligent input-output (I
2
O), and more particularly, to a multi-processor computer system using at least one of its processors for processing I
2
O transactions.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Use of computers, especially personal computers, in business and at home is becoming more and more pervasive because the computer has become an integral tool of most information workers who work in the fields of accounting, law, engineering, insurance, services, sales and the like. Rapid technological improvements in the field of computers have opened up many new applications heretofore unavailable or too expensive for the use of older technology mainframe computers. These personal computers may be used as stand-alone workstations (high end individual personal computers) or linked together in a network by a “network server” which is also a personal computer which may have a few additional features specific to its purpose in the network. The network server may be used to store massive amounts of data, and may facilitate interaction of the individual workstations connected to the network for electronic mail (“E-mail”), document databases, video teleconferencing, whiteboarding, integrated enterprise calendar, virtual engineering design and the like. Multiple network servers may also be interconnected by local area networks (“LAN”) and wide area networks (“WANs”).
A significant part of the ever-increasing popularity of the personal computer, besides its low cost relative to just a few years ago, is its ability to run sophisticated programs and perform many useful and new tasks. Personal computers today may be easily upgraded with new peripheral devices for added flexibility and enhanced performance. A major advance in the performance of personal computers (both workstation and network servers) has been the implementation of sophisticated peripheral devices such as video graphics adapters, local area network interfaces, SCSI bus adapters, full-motion video, redundant error checking and correcting disk arrays, and the like. These sophisticated peripheral devices are capable of data transfer rates approaching the native speed of the computer system microprocessor central processing unit (“CPU”). The peripheral devices' data transfer speeds are achieved by connecting the peripheral devices to the microprocessor(s) and associated system random access memory through high speed information (data and address) buses.
The computers system has a plurality of information buses such as a host bus, a memory bus, at least one high speed local peripheral expansion bus, and other peripheral buses such as the Small Computer System Interface (“SCSI”), Extension to Industry Standard Architecture (“EISA”), Industry Standard Architecture (“ISA”), and Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”). The microprocessor(s) of the computer system communicates with main memory and with the peripherals that make up the computer system over these various buses. The microprocessor(s) communicates to the main memory over a host bus to memory bus bridge. The peripherals, depending on their data transfer speed requirements, are connected to the various buses which are connected to the microprocessor host bus through bus bridges that detect required actions, arbitrate, and translate both data and addresses between the various buses.
A widely used peripheral expansion bus that may be used in IBM-compatible PCs, Apple computers and RISC workstations is a high speed expansion bus standard called the “Peripheral Component Interconnect” or “PCI.” The PCI bus standard is microprocessor-independent and has been embraced by a significant number of peripheral hardware manufacturers and software programmers. A more complete definition of the PCI local bus may be found in the PCI Local Bus Specification, revision 2.1; PCI/PCI Bridge Specification, revision 1.0; PCI System Design Guide, revision 1.0; and PCI BIOS Specification, revision 2.1, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference. These PCI specifications are available from the PCI Special Interest Group, P.O. Box 14070, Portland, Oreg. 97214.
Computer system peripheral hardware devices, i.e., hard disks, CD-ROM readers, network interface cards, video graphics controllers, modems and the like, may be supplied by various hardware vendors. These hardware vendors must supply software drivers for their respective peripheral devices used in each computer system even though the peripheral device may plug into a standard PCI bus connector. The number of software drivers required for a peripheral device multiplies for each different computer and operating system. In addition, both the computer vendor, operating system vendor and software driver vendor must test and certify the many different combinations of peripheral devices and the respective software drivers used with the various computer and operating systems. Whenever a peripheral device or driver is changed or an operating system upgrade is made, retesting and recertification may be necessary.
The demand for peripheral device driver portability between operating systems and host computer systems, combined with increasing requirements for intelligent, distributed input-output (“I/O”) processing has led to the development of an “Intelligent Input/Output” (“I
2
O”) specification. The basic objective of the I
2
O specification is to provide an I/O device driver architecture that is independent of both the specific peripheral device being controlled and the host operating system. This is achieved by logically separating the portion of the driver that is responsible for managing the peripheral device from the specific implementation details for the operating system that it serves. By doing so, the part of the driver that manages the peripheral device becomes portable across different computer and operating systems. The I
2
O specification also generalizes the nature of communication between the host computer system and peripheral hardware, thus providing processor and bus technology independence.
The I
2
O specification, entitled “Intelligent I/O (I
2
O) Architecture Specification,” Draft Revision 1.5, dated March 1997, is available from the I
2
O Special Interest Group, 404 Balboa Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94118; the disclosure of this I
2
O specification is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIG. 1
illustrates a schematic block diagram of a multi-processor computer system. The computer system is generally indicated by the numeral
100
and comprises central processing units (“CPUs”)
102
, core logic
104
, system random access memory (“RAM”)
106
, a video graphics controller
110
, a local frame buffer
108
, a video display
112
, a PCI/SCSI bus adapter
114
, a PCI/EISA/ISA bridge
116
, a PCI/IDE controller
118
, and PCI/PCI bus bridges
124
a,
124
b.
The local frame buffer
108
connects to a video graphics controller
110
which interfaces and drives a video display
112
. Single or multilevel cache memory (not illustrated) may also be included in the computer system
100
according to the current art of microprocessor computer systems.
The CPUs
102
are connected to the core logic
104
through a CPU host bus
103
. The system RAM
106
is connected to the core logic
104
through a memory bus
105
. The core logic
104
includes a host-to-PCI bridge between the host bus
103
, the memory bus
105
and a first PCI bus
109
. The local frame buffer memory
108
, and PCI/PCI bridges
124
a,
124
b
are connected to the first PCI bus
109
. The PCI/SCSI bus adapter
114
and PCI/EISA/ISA bridge
116
are connected to the PCI/PCI bridge
124
a
through a second PCI bus
117
. The PCI/IDE controller
118
and a network interface card (“NIC”)
122
are connected to the PCI/PCI bridge
124
b
through a third PCI bus
115
. Some of the PCI devices such as the local frame buffer
108
/Video controller
110
and NIC
122
may plug into PCI connectors on the computer system
100
motherboard
Compaq Computer Corporation
Conley & Rose & Tayon P.C.
Elamin Abdelmoniem
Lee Thomas
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