Doorbell mechanism

A method capable of writing doorbell information, comprising:

• receiving doorbell information;
• decoding a doorbell structure address from the doorbell information;
• determining a first protection domain identifier from the doorbell structure address;
• determining a resource context of a data structure from the doorbell information;
• reading the resource context to determine a second protection domain identifier;
• and
• comparing the first protection domain identifier and the second protection domain identifier to determine whether to update the resource context.

A system for writing doorbell information, comprising:

• a motherboard;
• an Input/Output device including a doorbell space and coupled to a bus;
• and
• an Input/Output device driver coupled to the bus and coupled to the motherboard;
• wherein the Input/Output device driver is operable to:
• create one or more protection domains in the doorbell space;
• create one or more data structures, wherein each of the data structures is associated with at least one protection domain;
• update one of the data structures;
• compute a doorbell structure address for a doorbell structure associated with the updated data structure;
• and
• write doorbell information at the computed doorbell structure address.

A system for writing doorbell information, comprising:

• a motherboard;
• a doorbell space partitioned into one or more protection domains;
• and
• an Input/Output controller coupled to the doorbell space and coupled to the motherboard;
• wherein the Input/Output controller is operable to:
• receive doorbell information;
• decode a doorbell address from the doorbell information;
• determine a first protection domain identifier from the doorbell structure address;
• determine a resource context of a data structure from the doorbell information;
• read the resource context to determine a second protection domain identifier;
• and
• compare the first protection domain identifier and the second protection domain identifier to determine whether to update the resource context.

An article of manufacture for writing doorbell information, wherein the article of manufacture comprises a computer readable medium storing instructions, and wherein the article of manufacture is operable to:

• create one or more protection domains;
• create one or more data structures, wherein each of the data structures is associated with at least one protection domain;
• update one of the data structures;
• compute a doorbell structure address for a doorbell structure associated with the updated data structure;
• and
• write doorbell information at the computed doorbell structure address.

An article of manufacture for transmitting data, wherein the article of manufacture comprises a computer readable medium storing instructions, and wherein the article of manufacture is operable to:

• receive doorbell information;
• decode a doorbell address from the doorbell information;
• determine a first protection domain identifier from the doorbell structure address;
• determine a resource context of a data structure from the doorbell information;
• read the resource context to determine a second protection domain identifier;
• and
• compare the first protection domain identifier and the second protection domain identifier to determine whether to update the resource context.