Ring transition bypass
OwnerFrank Berryinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for bypassing a ring transition according to one embodiment may include: substituting an instruction from an application program that would cause a ring transition with a trigger signal, the application program running at a first ring level on a computer system, the instruction requesting an operation, the trigger signal comprising data representative of the operation; and providing the trigger signal to an integrated circuit, the integrated circuit signaling software running at a second ring level on a host processor of the computer system, the software providing the operation requested by the application program, the second ring level having a higher priority level than the first ring level. Of course, many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.
Claims19
A method for bypassing a ring transition, said method comprising:
- replacing an instruction from an application program that would cause a ring transition with a trigger signal, said application program running at a first ring level on a computer system, said instruction requesting an operation, said trigger signal comprising data representative of said operation;
- and
- providing said trigger signal to an integrated circuit, said integrated circuit signaling software running at a second ring level on a host processor of said computer system, said software providing said operation requested by said application program, said second ring level having a higher priority level than said first ring level.
An apparatus comprising:
- an integrated circuit capable of receiving a trigger signal to bypass a ring transition and perform a requested operation of an application program, said integrated circuit further capable of signaling software running at a second ring level on a host processor of said apparatus in response to said trigger signal, said software providing said operation requested by said application program, said second ring level having a higher priority level than said first ring level.
A system comprising:
- a network interface card capable of being coupled to a bus, said network interface card comprising an integrated circuit capable of receiving a trigger signal to bypass a ring transition and perform a requested operation of an application program, said integrated circuit further capable of signaling software running at a second ring level on a host processor of said system in response to said trigger signal, said software providing said operation requested by said application program, said second ring level having a higher priority level than said first ring level.
An article comprising:
- a machine readable medium having stored thereon instructions that when executed by a machine results in the following:
- replacing an instruction from an application program that would cause a ring transition with a trigger signal, said application program running at a first ring level on a computer system, said instruction requesting an operation, said trigger signal comprising data representative of said operation;
- and
- signaling software running at a second ring level on a host processor of said computer system in response to said trigger signal, said software providing said operation requested by said application program, said second ring level having a higher priority level than said first ring level.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.