US 2014/0229637 A1 · VIRTUALIZABLE AND FORWARD-COMPATIBLE HARDWARE-SOFTWARE INTERFACE

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for virtualizable, forward-compatible hardware-software interfaces. Embodiments may be used in a driver whether it is a physical driver or a virtual driver. Commands are queued from the driver and fetched to the device. An actions table is accessed to determine if drivers are permitted to perform commands. Events are queued for the drivers responsive to commands. If drivers are not permitted to perform a command, device firmware may forward the command to a privileged driver to perform the required command. If a driver is only permitted to perform a command with assistance the command is forwarded for corrections and execution. If a command is to be dropped, a completion event may be queued as if the command had executed. Drivers may have no indication of which actions were taken. The actions table may be changed for hardware/software modifications or dynamically according to configuration changes.

Claims2

Dependent claims

An I/O apparatus comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium to record functional descriptive material, which if accessed by a machine causes the machine to:

queue a plurality of commands, from a first function driver that is either one of a physical function driver or a virtual function driver, into a first command queue;
fetch a first command of the plurality of commands from the first command queue to a device firmware in the I/O apparatus;
access an actions table stored on the I/O apparatus with the device firmware to determine a type of action, through which the first function driver is permitted to perform the first command;
and
queue a first event from the device firmware into a first event queue responsive to the first command.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application

14/258,966Filed 22 Apr 2014

Priority

27 Jul 2011

Published

14 Aug 2014

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06F 13/105
Program control for peripheral devices: where the program performs an input/output emulation function
G06F 3/0607
Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management: by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for…
G06F 3/0659
Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices: command handling…
G06F 3/0664
Virtualisation aspects: at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system

Virtualizable and forward-compatible hardware-software interface

Life of this patent

Virtualizable and forward-compatible hardware-software interface

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims2