Patent · US Expired

Interrupt events chaining

US6266732A · kind A · utility

16Cited by
3References
27Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 29, 1998
Grant dateJul 24, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 29, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F2213/2408
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and system for efficiently servicing a peripheral component event. In one embodiment of the present invention, a peripheral component such as, for example, a network interface card generates a first interrupt upon the occurrence of a first peripheral component event. In the present embodiment, a peripheral component driver such as, for example, a network interface card driver then services the first peripheral component event. In this embodiment of the present invention, the peripheral component then services any existing coalesced peripheral component event (or events) which has not yet generated a respective interrupt. In so doing, the present embodiment eliminates the need for the existing coalesced peripheral component event to generate an additional interrupt at some later time. As a result, the present embodiment reduces the frequency with which interrupts are generated, and minimizes the CPU overhead associated with the servicing of interrupts.

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