Patent · US Expired

Method for reducing the rate of interrupts in a high speed I/O controller

US5943479A · kind A · utility

30Cited by
5References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 2, 1997
Grant dateAug 24, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 2, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F13/24
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method to reduce the rate of interrupts by the central processing unit (CPU) without any loss of interrupts. The method uses two parameters. The first parameter sets the event threshold, which is the maximum value of consecutive events allowed to occur, for example, the maximum number of received data packets before an interrupt is posted (for example, a receive interrupt) to the CPU. The second parameter sets the event time-out, which is the maximum time an event can be pending before posting an interrupt to the CPU. The second parameter is needed since the flow of events in the system is unpredictable and without the time-out limit handling of the event can be delayed indefinitely.

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