Method and means for sharing I/O resources by a plurality of operating systems

US5414851A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Frank W. Brice, Jr. · Kingston, US
• Joseph C. Elliott · Hopewell Junction, US
• Kenneth J. Fredericks · Poughkeepsie, US
• Robert Edward Galbraith · Rochester, US
• Marten J. Halma · Poughquag, US
• Roger E. Hough · Austin, US
• Suzanne M. John · Poughkeepsie, US
• Paul A. Malinowski · Poughkeepsie, US
• Allan S. Meritt · Poughkeepsie, US
• Kenneth J. Oakes · Wappingers Falls, US
• John C. Rathjen, Jr. · Rhinebeck, US
• Martin W. Sachs · Westport, US
• David E. Stucki · Poughkeepsie, US
• Leslie W. Wyman · Poughkeepsie, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 15, 1992
• Grant date: May 9, 1995
• Expiry date: Jun 15, 2012

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F2009/45579
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Provides a method for increasing the connectivity of I/O resources to a multiplicity of operating systems (OSs) running in different resource partitions of a computer electronic complex (CEC) to obtain sharing of the I/O resources among the OSs of the CEC, including channels, subchannels (devices), and control units (CUs). The invention provides image identifiers (IIDs) for assigning resources to the different OSs. Each shared I/O resource has a sharing set of control blocks (CBs) in which a respective CB is assigned to (and located by) a respective IID of one of the OSs. Each of the CBs in a sharing set provides a different image of the same I/O resource. The different CB images are independently set to different states by I/O operations for the different OSs, so that the OSs can independently share the same I/O resource.