I/O stress test
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsPrashanth Kumar Adamane, Shakti Kapoor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method, computer program product, input/output device, and computer system for stress testing the I/O subsystem of a computer system. An input/output device capable of engaging in repetitive direct memory access (DMA) transfers with pseudo-randomized transfer parameters is allowed to execute multiple DMA transfers with varying parameters. In this way, a single type of device may be used to simulate the effects of multiple types of devices. Multiple copies of the same I/O device may be used concurrently in a single computer system along with processor software to access the same portions of memory. In this way, false sharing, true sharing may be effected.
Claims36
A method operative in an input/output device associated with a computer system, comprising:
- performing a plurality of direct memory access transfers with respect to memory of the computer system, wherein parameters of the direct memory access transfers are varied pseudo-randomly.
A computer program product in a computer readable medium and operative in an input/output device associated with a computer system, comprising functional descriptive material that when processed by an input/output device, enables the input/output device to perform acts of:
- performing a plurality of direct memory access transfers with respect to memory of the computer system, wherein parameters of the direct memory access transfers are varied pseudo-randomly.
A computer program product in a computer readable medium comprising functional descriptive material that when processed by an input/output device, enables the input/output device to perform acts of:
- directing the at least one peripheral device to perform direct memory access transfers with respect to the memory and with pseudo-random variations in direct memory access transfer parameters;
- accessing a portion of the memory concurrently with the at least one peripheral device.
An input/output device comprising means for:
- performing a plurality of direct memory access transfers with respect to memory of a computer system, wherein parameters of the direct memory access transfers are varied pseudo-randomly.
A computer system comprising:
- memory;
- at least one peripheral device configured to be able to access the memory;
- at least one processor associated with the memory;
- and
- functional descriptive material within the memory, wherein the at least one processor processes the functional descriptive material to perform acts of:
- directing the at least one peripheral device to perform direct memory access transfers with respect to the memory and with pseudo-random variations in direct memory access transfer parameters;
- and
- accessing a portion of the memory concurrently with the at least one peripheral device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.