Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for validating I/O addresses in a fault-tolerant computer system

US5586253A · kind A · utility

41Cited by
17References
2Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 15, 1994
Grant dateDec 17, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 15, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/141
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A novel mapping and protection circuit arrangement comprises a plurality of checking mechanisms that collectively cooperate to verify the accuracy of I/O addresses generated by input/output (I/O) controllers of a fault-tolerant computer. These verified I/O addresses are translated into system addresses to enable direct memory access (DMA) transactions between the controllers and the computer's host memory. Specifically, certain of the checking mechanisms cooperate to ensure that the DMA accesses are directed to correct pages in host memory, while other checking mechanisms are provided to ensure that memory access operations are performed at correct locations within the page. Additional checking mechanisms are provided to further verify the accuracy of generated I/O addresses.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.