System and method for facilitating use of commodity I/O components in a legacy hardware system

A method for processing input/output (I/O) requests, comprising:

• creating I/O request packets via an operating system (OS) to perform corresponding I/O functions;
• entering I/O request packet entries corresponding to the created I/O request packets onto an initiation queue;
• marking the I/O request packet entries that are successfully entered on the initiation queue as valid entries;
• polling for I/O request packet entries marked as valid entries on the initiation queue;
• retrieving the I/O request packet corresponding to the I/O request packet entry;
• invoking one of a plurality of device handlers corresponding to at least an I/O request type and a device identifier (ID) provided in the I/O request packet;
• constructing a command via the invoked one of the plurality of device handlers for a channel type for which a targeted device is connected, wherein constructing the command is based on at least the I/O request type and the device ID provided in the I/O request packet, and based on physical aspects of the targeted device and the channel type provided via the invoked one of the plurality of device handlers;
• and
• issuing the command to the targeted device via a channel corresponding to the channel type.

An input/output (I/O) processing system, comprising:

• a plurality of I/O components;
• a plurality of device handlers each configured to drive commands to at least one of the plurality of I/O components;
• an initiation queue coupled to receive I/O request identifiers from an operating system, wherein each of the I/O request identifiers includes an address of a corresponding I/O packet which includes I/O transaction information that is independent of a channel type and physical attributes associated with the I/O components;
• and
• an I/O manager coupled to the initiation queue to receive the I/O request identifiers and corresponding I/O packets, and to invoke particular ones of the device handlers to drive the commands to targeted ones of the I/O components identified by the corresponding I/O transaction information, wherein the I/O manager is configured to invoke the particular device handler based on the corresponding I/O transaction information provided in the respective I/O packet, and wherein the device handler that has been invoked constructs the commands based on the channel tvpes and physical attributes of the targeted I/O components provided independently of the I/O packet.

A system for facilitating use of input/output (I/O) components in a legacy computing system, comprising:

• (a) a legacy computing system utilizing an operating system (OS) responsible for generating I/O requests;
• (b) an I/O processor;
• (c) a logical interface coupling the legacy computing system and the I/O processor;
• (d) one or more I/O devices;
• (e) wherein the I/O processor comprises:
• (i) a plurality of device handlers each configured to drive commands to at least one of the plurality of I/O components;
• (ii) an initiation queue coupled to, receive I/O request identifiers from an operating system, wherein each of the I/O request identifiers includes an address of a corresponding I/O packet which includes I/O transaction information that is independent of a channel type and physical attributes associated with the I/O devices;
• and
• (iii) an I/O manager coupled to the initiation queue to receive the I/O request identifiers and corresponding I/O packets, and to invoke particular ones of the device handlers to drive the commands to targeted ones of the I/O devices identified by the corresponding I/O transaction information, wherein the I/O manager is configured to invoke the particular device handler based on the corresponding I/O transaction information provided in the respective I/O packet, and wherein the device handler that has been invoked constructs the commands based on the physical attributes of the targeted I/O devices and the channel types provided independently of the I/O packet.

An input/output (I/O) processing system for facilitating use of I/O components in a computing system, comprising:

• means for providing I/O request entries via an operating system (OS) associated with the computing system, wherein the I/O request entries each respectively include a location of an associated I/O packet to provide I/O transaction information that is independent of a particular channel type and physical characteristics associated with a target I/O component;
• means for storing the I/O request entries in a memory accessible to an I/O system;
• means for retrieving the I/O packet associated with validated ones of the I/O request entries by the I/O system;
• means for identifying one of a plurality of device handlers associated with the I/O system based on the I/O transaction information;
• and
• wherein each of the device handlers comprises means for constructing at least one command for the particular channel type and physical characteristics of a target I/O component based on the I/O transaction information, and comprising means for issuing the at least one command to the target I/O component via the particular channel type.