Information handling system with dynamic interrupt allocation apparatus and methodology
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorsMarc D. Alexander, Matthew B. Mendelow
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An information handling system is provided which includes a dynamic interrupt router for balancing interrupt assignments among a plurality of devices requesting interrupt assignments. The system balances interrupt assignments among both fixed devices mounted on the processor board and interrupt assignments to devices situated in expansion slots. When the system is populated with a large number of devices relative to the number of available interrupts, the interrupts are shared between devices which generates a high number of interrupts and devices which generate a lower number of interrupts.
Claims23
An information handling system comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor;
- an interrupt controller coupled to the processor;
- a dynamic router, coupled to the interrupt controller, for allocating interrupts to devices;
- a first device which requests a first interrupt and which is assigned the first interrupt by the dynamic router;
- and
- a second device which requests the first interrupt and which is instead assigned a second interrupt by the dynamic router such that interrupt requests are dynamically allocated to provide a more balanced interrupt distribution.
An information handling system handling comprising:
- a processor situated on a circuitry board;
- a plurality of expansion slots mounted on the circuitry board for receiving devices;
- a memory, coupled to the processor, to facilitate execution of programs by the processor;
- an interrupt controller coupled to the processor;
- a dynamic router, coupled to the interrupt controller, for allocating interrupts to devices;
- a first device, situated in one of the expansion slots, which requests a first interrupt and which is assigned the first interrupt by the dynamic router;
- and
- a second device, situated in another of the expansion slots, which requests the first interrupt and which is instead assigned a second interrupt by the dynamic router such that interrupt requests are dynamically allocated to provide a more balanced interrupt distribution.
A method of allocating interrupts in an information handling system comprising:
- assigning a first interrupt to a first device when the first device requests to be assigned the first interrupt;
- and
- assigning a second interrupt to a second device when the second device requests to be assigned the first interrupt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.