Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for an efficient data transfer mechanism

US6405237B1 · kind B1 · utility

23Cited by
3References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 9, 1997
Grant dateJun 11, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 10, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/544
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described that permit an application to control data transfer from a memory object of a source device to a sink device. The application can request that an operating system establish a mapping between a fast buffer and a memory object storing the data. The operating system then establishes the mapping between the fast buffer and the memory object thereby permitting the application to direct that the data of the memory object be transferred to the sink device. Thus, the sink device can use direct memory access to the source device to transfer the data from the memory object. Furthermore, if the application modifies a portion of the data of the memory object prior to directing the transfer, only the modified portion of the data is copied to main memory prior to transfer to the sink device.

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