System and method for file based I/O directly between an application instance and an I/O adapter

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory includes instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive, from a queue of an application instance, in response to a file name based I/O request generated by the application instance, the file name based I/O request including one or more file name based work requests, a doorbell message identifying a number of work requests to be added to a processing queue of the I/O adapter;
• generate a processing queue entry in the processing queue of the I/O adapter based on the number of work requests to be added to the processing queue identified in the doorbell message;
• and
• process at least one work request in the application instance's queue based on the processing queue entry in the processing queue of the I/O adapter.

A method, in a data processing device, for processing a work request, comprising:

• receive, from a queue of an application instance, in response to a file name based I/O request generated by the application instance, the file name based I/O request including one or more file name based work requests, a doorbell message identifying a number of work requests to be added to a processing queue of the I/O adapter;
• generate a processing queue entry in the processing queue of the I/O adapter based on the number of work requests to be added to the processing queue identified in the doorbell message;
• and
• process at least one work request in the application instance's queue based on the processing queue entry in the processing queue of the I/O adapter.