Dynamic subchannel allocation
US4437157A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 20, 1981 |
| Grant date | Mar 13, 1984 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 20, 2001 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/122
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus for and a method of Dynamic Subchannel Allocation permitting easily field modifiable assignment of Input/Output (I/O) subchannels to I/O channels. Many present day medium-to-large scale computers have an I/O unit(s) with a fixed number of I/O ports or I/O channels for the transmission of information between the computer and peripheral devices. Improvements to these I/O channels, now common in the art, permit multiple peripheral devices to be coupled to the computer through a single I/O channel. Each of these multiple peripheral devices may be said to communicate through an I/O subchannel. A given I/O subchannel designation logically specifies the hardware within the shared I/O channel that is dedicated to communication with the corresponding one of the multiple peripheral devices coupled to that shared I/O channel. The present invention is an improvement which provides for allocation of I/O subchannels to I/O channels in the field rather than at time of manufacture. A random access memory (RAM) is employed which provides the correlation between each I/O subchannel and the I/O channel to which it has been allocated. The RAM is called the Channel Descriptor Stack (CDS). …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.