Independent control of DMA and I/O resources for mixed-endian computing systems
US5781763A · kind A · utility
27Cited by
5References
9Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 22, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jul 14, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 22, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/4013
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A mixed-endian computer system enhanced to manage I/O DMA without a software DMA performance penalty. A mixed-endian computer system can change endian mode on a task by task basis if necessary. The mixed-endian system, as enhanced, performs one of two well-defined DMA operations based on control bits either in the DMA control register or in a bit vector associated with each page of processor storage. This invention also describes means for treating I/O registers as if they were of the endian of the executing processor, instead of the more typical need to have the register operate in a particular endian.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.