System and method for transferring data over a communication medium using data transfer links

A system for transferring data over a communication medium, the system comprising:

• a data acquisition device coupled to a first end of the communication medium, wherein the data acquisition device comprises a link buffer;
• and
• a host computer system coupled to a second end of the communication medium, wherein the host computer system is operable to communicate through the communication medium to the data acquisition device;
• wherein the host computer system is further operable to prepare a plurality of transfer links and transfer a first portion of the plurality of transfer links to a first portion of the link buffer of the data acquisition device, wherein each of the plurality of transfer links specifies a transfer of data between the data acquisition device and the host computer system;
• wherein the data acquisition device is operable to execute the first portion of the transfer links;
• wherein the host computer system is further operable to transfer a second portion of the plurality of transfer links to a second portion of the link buffer of the data acquisition device;
• and
• wherein at least a portion of said executing the first portion of the transfer links and at least a portion of said transferring the second portion of the plurality of transfer links to the second portion of the link buffer of the data acquisition device are performed concurrently.

A method for transferring data in a system including a host computer system coupled through a communication medium to a data acquisition device, the method comprising:

• configuring a data acquisition device for a data input/output (I/O) operation, wherein the data acquisition device comprises a link buffer;
• the host computer system preparing a linked list of transfer nodes, wherein each of the linked list of transfer nodes includes a true address of physical memory of the host computer system;
• the host computer system preparing a plurality of transfer links, wherein each of the plurality of transfer links specifies a transfer node and a transfer of data between the data acquisition device and the host computer system;
• the host computer system transferring the plurality of transfer links to the link buffer of the data acquisition device over the communication medium;
• the data acquisition device initiating the data I/O operation;
• and
• the data acquisition device executing the plurality of transfer links from the link buffer to transfer data between a data buffer in the data acquisition device and the physical memory of the host computer system;
• wherein, for each transfer node of the linked list of transfer nodes, the true address of the transfer node corresponds to a virtual address of a buffer, wherein the buffer spans contiguous virtual addresses mapping to the physical memory of the host computer system, wherein an Nth transfer node corresponds to an Nth virtual address of the buffer.