Communications interface adapter for a computer system including posting of system interrupt status

A bus interface apparatus comprising:

• a bus;
• a host system coupled to the bus, the host system including a system memory;
• a host interface that is connectable to the bus for communicative interfacing to the host system;
• and
• a command channel control and monitoring circuit coupled to the host interface and including a data buffer, the command channel control and monitoring circuit controlling and monitoring communication functionality between the data buffer and the bus;
• the command channel control and monitoring circuit including an interrupt posting status register consolidating a summary of interrupt status information of interrupts arising from a plurality of functional blocks coupled to the bus, the system memory including a mirror storage of the interrupt posting status register that receives data transmitted from the interrupt posting status register by a direct memory access (DMA) operation, values in the mirror storage of the interrupt posting status register being updated automatically when a change occurs in a value within the interrupt posting status register in the command channel control and monitoring circuit.

A bus interface apparatus comprising:

• a bus;
• a host system;
• means connectable to the bus for interfacing [a] the host system to the bus, the host system including:
• a host driver;
• means for storing a mirror image of the summary of interrupt status information that is posted by the posting means;
• and
• means for automatically updating the mirror image when a change occurs in the summary of interrupt status information;
• a data buffer;
• means coupled to the interfacing means and coupled to the data buffer for controlling and monitoring communication functionality between the data buffer and the bus, the controlling and monitoring means further including:
• means for consolidating a summary of interrupt status information of interrupts arising from a plurality of functional blocks coupled to the bus;
• and
• means for posting the summary of interrupt status information, the posting means being readable by the host driver.

A method of operating a bus interface for interfacing a host system to a bus, the bus interface including a data buffer, the host system including a host driver, the method comprising:

• interfacing the host system to the bus;
• controlling and monitoring communication functionality between the data buffer and the bus including:
• consolidating a summary of interrupt status information of interrupts arising from a plurality of functional blocks coupled to the bus;
• posting the summary of interrupt status information in a storage that is readable by the host driver;
• storing a mirror image of the summary of interrupt status information;
• and
• automatically updating the mirror image when a change occurs in the summary of interrupt status information.