Unenforced allocation of disk and CPU bandwidth for streaming I/O

A method of allocating processor bandwidth to a processor bandwidth consumer, comprising:

• determining processor bandwidth availability for allocation to the processor bandwidth consumer to meet processing requirements of the processor bandwidth consumer by referencing an entry in a bandwidth lookup table that identifies total processor bandwidth corresponding to a relevant processor and subtracting bandwidth currently allocated to one or more other bandwidth consumers;
• allocating processor bandwidth to the processor bandwidth consumer if there is sufficient processor bandwidth available;
• and
• denying processor bandwidth if sufficient processor bandwidth is not available.

A method of allocating disk bandwidth to a disk bandwidth consumer, comprising:

• referring to a disk bandwidth lookup table to determine a streaming bandwidth capacity for a system disk;
• determining disk bandwidth availability for allocation to a disk bandwidth consumer as the difference between the streaming bandwidth capacity for the system disk and streaming bandwidth that is currently allocated from the disk;
• determining if the available bandwidth is sufficient to meet disk I/O requirements of the disk bandwidth consumer;
• allocating disk bandwidth to the disk bandwidth consumer if there is sufficient disk bandwidth available;
• and
• denying disk bandwidth if sufficient disk bandwidth is not available.

A system for processing streaming I/O, comprising:

• a computing unit;
• a streaming provider lookup table stored in system memory that stores a streaming bandwidth capacity for one or more streaming I/O bandwidth providers;
• one or more streaming I/O bandwidth providers;
• one or more streaming I/O bandwidth consumers;
• and
• a resource manager configured to receive a request from a streaming I/O bandwidth consumer requesting bandwidth from a streaming I/O bandwidth provider and reference the provider lookup table to determine if there is sufficient bandwidth available from the streaming I/O bandwidth provider to satisfy the request.

A streaming I/O bandwidth provider that provides unenforced allocation of streaming I/O processor bandwidth to one or more streaming I/O consumers, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a processor bandwidth manager configured to:
• allocate processor bandwidth requested by a first streaming I/O processor bandwidth consumer if sufficient processor bandwidth is available;
• deny processor bandwidth requested by the first streaming I/O processor bandwidth consumer;
• and
• reclaim allocated processor bandwidth and re-allocate the reclaimed processor bandwidth to a second streaming I/O processor bandwidth consumer in the event that the processor bandwidth manager has allocated processor bandwidth to the first streaming I/O processor bandwidth consumer.

One or more computer readable media containing computer executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, perform the following:

• determining whether to allocate streaming I/O bandwidth from a disk to a streaming I/O bandwidth consumer according to a first request, or to deny the bandwidth requested in the first request;
• in the event that the requested bandwidth is denied, determining whether to allocate streaming I/O bandwidth from the disk to the streaming I/O bandwidth consumer according to a second request or to deny the bandwidth requested in the second request;
• and
• the first request and the second request having different criteria.