Support of Option-ROM in Socket-Direct network adapters

A method, comprising:

• in a network adapter, communicating with a communication network via one or more ports, and communicating via multiple bus interfaces with multiple respective Central Processing Units (CPUs) that belong to a multi-CPU device;
• supporting in the network adapter an Option-ROM functionality, by holding in the network adapter Option-ROM program instructions that are loadable and executable by the multi-CPU device during a boot process;
• and
• in response to receiving in the network adapter a request from the multi-CPU device to report a support of the Option-ROM functionality, reporting the support of the Option-ROM functionality over only a single bus interface, selected from among the multiple bus interfaces connecting the network adapter to the respective CPUs, even though one or more of the bus interfaces, other than the single selected bus interface, support the Option-ROM functionality.

A computer software product, the product comprising a tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium in which program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a processor of a network adapter, cause the processor to:

• communicate with a communication network via one or more ports;
• communicate via multiple bus interfaces with multiple respective Central Processing Units (CPUs) that belong to a multi-CPU device;
• support an Option-ROM functionality, by holding in the network adapter Option-ROM program instructions that are loadable and executable by the multi-CPU device during a boot process;
• and
• in response to receiving from the multi-CPU device a request to report a support of the Option-ROM functionality, report the support of the Option-ROM functionality over only a single bus interface, selected from among the multiple bus interfaces connecting the network adapter to the respective CPUs, even though one or more of the bus interfaces, other than the single selected bus interface, support the Option-ROM functionality.