Method and apparatus for a shared I/O serial ATA controller
US7664909B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 9, 2004 |
| Grant date | Feb 16, 2010 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 18, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/0683
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An apparatus and method is provided for allowing one or more processing complexes to share a disk controller, particularly a serial ATA (SATA) controller. Each processing complex utilizes its own load-store domain to couple to the shared SATA controller, either directly, or indirectly through a shared I/O switch. Ultimately, requests from the processing complexes are presented to the switch with operating system domain header (OSD header) information so that the shared SATA controller can determine which request came from which processing complex, and allocate resources accordingly. Upstream responses from the shared SATA controller include the OSD header so that the shared I/O switch can accurately route the responses to their respective processing complexes. The shared SATA controller includes OSD ID logic to determine the source/result of packets, one or more task files to support multiple processing complexes, and one or more DMA engines to improve performance for requests from multiple processing complexes.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.