Communication protocol
AssigneeDigital Equipment Corporation
InventorsBruce E. Newman, Randall A. White, Steven D. DiPirro
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of communicating between two control units includes transmitting a message from one control unit to the other, checking the message at the other control unit for proper reception, if the reception is not proper, sending a NAK signal from the other to the one control unit, if the reception is proper, sending an ACK signal from the other to the one control unit, and upon receiving an NAK at said one control unit, resending the original message.
Claims22
A method of communicating between a first control unit, a second control unit and a plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices, comprising:
- (a) transmitting a communication from the first control unit to the second control unit, the second control unit being the intermediary to confirm and/or verify the communication between the first control unit and the plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices;
- (b) checking the communication received at the second control unit to verify that the communication received from the first control unit is the transmitted communication;
- (c) sending an ACK signal from the second control unit to the first control unit when the communication received is the transmitted communication;
- (d) sending a NAK signal from the second control unit to the first control unit when the communication received is not the transmitted communication;
- and
- (e) upon receiving the NAK signal at the first control unit, retransmitting the communication from the first control unit to the second control unit.
A method of communicating between a first control unit, a second control unit and a plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices, comprising:
- (a) transmitting a communication from one of the plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices to the second control unit, the second control unit being the intermediary to confirm and/or verify the communication between the first control unit and the plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices;
- (b) transmitting the communication received by the second control unit to the first control unit;
- (c) checking the communication received at the first control unit to verify that the communication received is the transmitted communication from the second control unit;
- (d) sending an ACK signal from the first control unit to the second control unit when the communication received is the transmitted communication;
- (e) sending a NAK signal from the first control unit to the second control unit when the communication received is not the transmitted communication;
- and
- (f) upon receiving the NAK signal at the second control unit, retransmitting the communication from the second control unit to the first control unit.
A computer system which comprises:
- (a) a control unit;
- (b) a centralized communication unit coupled to said control unit;
- (c) said centralized communication unit coupled to a plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices to form a communication link between the control unit and the plurality of non-intelligent peripheral devices;
- (d) said centralized communication unit operated to confirm and verify,
- (i) a communication sent from the control unit to at least one of the non-intelligent peripheral devices;
- and
- (ii) a communication sent from at least one of the non-intelligent peripheral devices to the control unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.