Methods and apparatus for managing a buffer of events in the background

A data processing system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor;
• and
• a background event buffer manager BEBM coupled to the processor, the BEBM including a port for receiving event identifications (IDs) from a device, a queuing function enabled for queuing event IDs received, and a notification function for notifying the processor of queued event IDs;
• wherein the BEBM handles event ordering and accounting for the processors
• wherein the queuing function queues event IDs by type, and by even priority within type queues, and also associates an acknowledgement (ack) with each event;
• and
• wherein the ack has multiple states, and acks for events first queued are set in a processor unaware state.

A network packet router, comprising:

• an input/output (I/O) device for receiving and sending packets on the network;
• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor;
• and
• a background event buffer manager BEBM coupled to the processor, the BEBM including a port for receiving event identifications (IDs) of arriving packets from the I/O device, a queuing function enabled for queuing event identifications IDs received, and a notification function for notifying the processor of queued event identifications IDs for processing;
• wherein the BEBM handles event ordering and account for the processors;
• wherein the queuing function queues event IDs by type, and by event priority within type queues, and also associates an acknowledgement (ack) with each event;
• and
• wherein the ack has multiple states, and acks for events first queued are set in a processor unaware state.

A method for ordering and accounting for events in a data processing system having a processor, the method comprising steps of:

• (a) generating event identifications (IDs) by a device;
• (b) sending the event IDs to a background event buffering manager (BEBM) by the device;
• (c) queuing event IDs received by the BEBM;
• and
• (d) notifying the processor by the BEBM of events queued for processing, such that the BEBM handles all event ordering and accounting for the processors;
• wherein, in step (c), event IDs are queued by type, and by event priority within type queues, and an acknowledgement (ack) is associated with each event;
• and
• wherein in step (c), event IDs are queued by type, and by event priority within type queues, and an acknowledgement (ack) is associated with each event.