Patent · US Expired

Protected control of devices by user applications in multiprogramming environments

US6751680B2 · kind B2 · utility

89Cited by
11References
6Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 25, 2002
Grant dateJun 15, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 14, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/1081
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A user program directly accesses a storage device for I/O operations, bypassing the operating system. The user registers a virtual memory region and an “extent”, or region, of the storage device with a host bus adapter. A virtual interface is created between the user and the storage device including a queue for transmitting commands from the user to the storage device. To perform I/O, the user creates a descriptor including command information identifying the type of I/O operation, a buffer handle identifying the registered virtual memory region, virtual memory address information identifying the locations of data buffers in the registered virtual memory region to be used for the I/O operation, an extent handle identifying the registered extent, and disk address information identifying an area within the registered extent to or from which data is to be written or read. The user posts this descriptor to the virtual interface by placed it on the associated queue.The adapter reads the descriptor and verifies that the descriptor and the data buffers are located within the registered virtual memory region identified by the buffer handle. The adapter also verifies that the ar…

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