System for controlling responses to requests over a data bus between a plurality of master controllers and a slave storage controller by inserting control characters

An information handling system, comprising:

• one or more processors connected to a common bus;
• one or more I/O controllers connected to the common bus and to one or more storage subsystems, each I/O controller comprising:
• a plurality of master controllers for communicating with a slave storage controller which controls data flow to and from a storage subsystem by granting access to one or more of the plurality of master controllers;
• a data bus connecting the master controllers and the slave storage controller, said data bus operating synchronously between the master controllers and the slave storage controller;
• means for controlling responses to requests over the data bus after access has been granted, the control means comprising:
• means for inserting one or more control characters into a data stream, each control character having a field which identifies characteristics of data transmission between one of the master controllers and the slave memory controller;
• and
• one or more storage subsystems for storing data.