Computer-to-computer communication
OwnerMilton E. Morgan, Claire P. Liboironinventors
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Abstract
Improved transmission speed of data between computer systems is achieved by utilizing highest priority interrupts assigned to non-communication devices to control communications. In particular, the normally highest priority timer interrupts are used to poll communication buffers to determine whether data needs to be sent or received with such polling replacing the use of the interrupts typically associated with communication devices.
Claims12
A method of speeding the transfer of data to and from a computer which has first and second devices that generate interrupts with the interrupts generated by the first device being given priority over all the interrupts generated by the second device, said second device being an I/O device and the operation of said computer giving highest priority to the interrupts of the first device.
A method of speeding up the transfer of data to and from a computer which has an I/O device and one or more communication buffers and a timer, said method comprising the step of employing timer interrupts to poll the communication buffer(s) and determine whether any buffer that is polled contains data to be transferred.
A method of speeding up the transfer of data to and from a computer which has an internal timing device which generates interrupts that are employed to poll one or more data buffers and determine whether there is data to be transferred:
- said method comprising the step of determining whether the timing device is operating at its highest frequency;
- and
- if the timing device is not operating at its highest frequency, so increasing the timing device frequency as to speed up data transfer while preserving normal functioning of other computer tasks.
A method of speeding the transfer of data to and from a computer which has a communications buffer, said method comprising the step of transferring data in blocks instead of bytes.
A method of I/O management in a computer system, said method comprising the steps of:
- identifying an I/O device to be managed;
- identifying a first device within the system which generates interrupts at a base frequency with those interrupts being handled before any interrupts conventionally generated by the I/O device are handled;
- increasing the frequency at which the first device generates interrupts;
- mapping a new event handler to the interrupts of the first device;
- using the newly mapped event handler to determine whether data needs to be transferred to and/or from the I/O device when said I/O device requires service;
- and
- using the newly mapped event handler to replace execution of any handler conventionally mapped to the interrupts of the first device at the time the newly mapped event handler was mapped to the interrupts of the first device.
A method of speeding the transfer of data to and from a computer which comprises a clock, a clock handler, an I/O device, and a handler for the I/O device, said method comprising the steps of:
- operating the clock at a base frequency;
- executing the I/O device handler at a frequency which is higher than the base frequency to speed up the transfer of data;
- and
- executing the clock handler only at the base frequency to preserve computer stability.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.