Method for multithreaded disk drive operation in a computer system
US5911078A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 31, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jun 8, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 31, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/24
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The present invention uses multithreaded interrupt processing to permit simultaneous activation of multiple disk drives in a computer system. A data transfer request from an application software program includes a disk data transfer command identifying the disk drive designated to receive the command and an identification data element indicating the application software process associated with the disk data transfer command. A device driver processing multiple disk transfer commands analyzes the data transfer command and identification data element to identify independent disk data transfer requests. If no independent data transfer requests are identified, the device drive sequentially processes disk data transfer commands. However, if the device driver identifies independent disk data transfer commands, the device driver can process commands out of sequence so that the two independent disk data transfer commands may be simultaneously processed. In this manner, multiple disk drives can be active simultaneously.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.