Digital Equipment Corporation

Barry A Henry

Allan R Kent

Milton V Mills

Ronald C Carn

Charles E Kaczor

Harold A Read

Donald R Metz

Robert C Kirk

Steven P Zagame

Robert E Stewart

Steven P Zagama

Ronald E Goodstein

A computer interconnect coupler has channel transmitters and channel receivers and logic circuitry for the routing of messages from the channel receivers which are addressed to the channel transmitters. When a message is received by a channel receiver, the channel receiver stores the beginning portion of the message in a first-in-first-out buffer, and sends a route message request to central switch logic. If the destination transmitter or receiver is busy, the central logic places the message request on a destination queue and returns a signal to the requesting source transmitter to turn on a flow control signal which is transmitted back to the data processing device having originated the message. Any message addressed to this data processing device, however, is inserted into the flow control carrier with pauses both before and after the message, and provisions are also made to allow the data processing device to return an acknowledgment responsive to the incoming message. To permit incremental expansion of the coupler to accommodate an increased number of channels, additional channel interface boards may be added. The coupler also includes a plurality of timers which determine fault conditions, and a diagnostic processor monitors the timers and associated error flags to diagnose faults to the board level. The conditions existing at the time of fault diagnosis are written into a non-volatile memory located on the circuit board. Therefore, the information is physically carried along with the board to the repair facility.

Blocking message transmission or signaling error in response to message

A computer interconnect coupler has channel transmitters and logic and channel receivers and logic circuitry for the routing of messages from the channel receivers which are addressed to the channel transmitters. When a message is received by a channel receiver, the channel receiver stores the beginning portion of the message in a first-in-first-out buffer, and sends a route message request to central switch logic. If the destination transmitter or receiver is busy, the central logic places the message request on a destination queue and returns a signal to the requesting source transmitter to turn on a flow control signal which is transmitted back to the data processing device having originated the message. Any message addressed to this data processing device, however, is inserted into the flow control carrier with pauses both before and after the message, and provisions are also made to allow the data processing device to return an ackowledgement responsive to the incoming message. To permit incremental expansion of the coupler to accommodate an increased number of channels, additional channel interface boards may be added. The coupler also includes a plurality of timers which determine fault conditions, and a diagnostic processor monitors the timers and associated error flags to diagnose faults to the board level. The conditions existing at the time of fault diagnosis are written into a non-volatile memory located on the circuit board. Therefore, the information is physically carried along with the board to the repair facility.

Flow control of messages in a local area network

The reliability of a complex electronic system such as a computer interconnect coupler is enhanced by providing diagnostic capabilities in the system so that internal faults will be quickly diagnosed and repaired. To facilitate the repair process and enhance the likelihood that a defective circuit board will be properly repaired before being re-installed, pertinent internal diagnostic information about the defective circuit is stored in a nonvolatile memory on the circuit board for the defective circuit, so that the information will be physically carried to the repair facility along with the defective circuit.

Storage of repair history and diagnostic information on a circuit board

A hierarchical arbitration system is especially useful in a computer interconnect coupler having a set of junctors which are assigned to channel transmitters and channel receivers for the routing of messages from the channel receivers to the channel transmitters. When a message is received by a channel receiver, the channel receiver stores the beginning portion of the message in a first-in-first-out buffer, and sends a route message request to central switch logic. If the destination transmitter or receiver is busy, the central logic places the message request on a destination queue and returns a signal to the requesting source transmitter to turn on a flow control signal which is transmitted back to the data processing device having originated the message. To permit incremental expansion of the coupler to accommodate an increased number of channels, additional channel interface boards may be added and a hierarchical rotating priority scheme enables the additional channels to have equal priority with the previously existing channels without requiring reprogramming. A ring channel arbitrator is provided for selecting a particular one of the boards during each cycle when a service request is presented and each channel interface board includes a ring channel arbitrator for selecting on the board a particular one of the channels which have presented a service request. Moreover, the processing and queueing of routing requests is made more effective by grouping the requests into different priority levels and usig separate but duplicate arbitration logic to resolve simultaneous requests within the same priority group.

Hierarchical arbitration system

A computer interconnect coupler has channel transmitters and channel receivers and logic circuitry for the routing of messages from the channel receivers which are addressed to the channel transmitters. When a message is received by a channel receiver, the channel receiver stores the beginning portion of the message in a first-in-first-out buffer, and sends a route message request to central switch logic. If the destination transmitter or receiver is busy, the central logic places the message request on a destination queue and returns a signal to the requesting source transmitter to turn on a flow control signal which is transmitted back to the data processing device having originated the message. Any message addressed to this data processing device, however, is inserted into the flow control carrier with pauses both before and after the message, and provisions are also made to allow the data processing data to return an acknowledgment responsive to the incoming message. To permit incremental expansion of the coupler to accommodate an increased number of channels, additional channel interface boards may be added. The coupler also includes a plurality of timers which determine fault conditions, and a diagnostic processor monitors the timers and associated error flags to diagnose faults to the board level. The conditions existing at the time of fault diagnosis are written into a non-volatile memory located on the circuit board. Therefore, the information is physically carried along with the board to the repair facility.

Computer interconnect coupler for clusters of data processing devices

A computer interconnect coupler has a set of junctors which are assigned to channel transmitters and channel receivers for the routing of messages from the channel receivers which are addressed to the channel transmitters. When a message is received by a channel receiver, the channel receiver stores the beginning portion of the message in a first-in-first-out buffer, and sends a route message request to central switch logic. If the destination transmitter or receiver is busy, the central logic places the message request on a destination queue and returns a signal to the requesting source transmitter to turn on a flow control signal which is transmitted back to the data processing device having originated the message. Any message addressed to this data processing device, however, is inserted into the flow control carrier with pauses both before and after the message, and provisions are also made to allow the data processing device to return an acknowledgment code responsive to the imcoming message. To permit incremental expansion of the coupler to accommodate an increased number of channels, additional channel interface boards may be added and a hierarchical rotating priority scheme enables the additional channels to have equal priority with the previously existing channels without requiring reprogramming. Moreover, the processing and queueing of routing requests is made more effective by grouping the requests into different priority levels and using separate but duplicate arbitration logic to resolve simultaneous requests within the same priority group.

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Penacook, NH, United States of America

Barry A Henry