International Business Machines Corporation

George M Calhoun

Edward Stanely Suffern

Jean L Calvignac

Kenneth James Barker

Warren D Bailey

Edward Stanley Suffern

Bernard J Naudin

Jean Claude Dispensa

Joan Marie Bellinghausen

Rene R Castel

Yves J Huchet

Ruggero Ulivastro

David Charles Sips

Edward Suffern

Kenenth J Barker

A data buffer management system and method between two different types of systems, The data buffer management system employs circular buffer chaining, wherein multiple state machines service buffer updates from multiple sources, dual buffer structures are maintained, mapping is provided between two different control block structures, and full duplex operation is supported. The data buffer management system manages use of a data buffer memory. A transmit operation is performed by transferring and storing data from one of the two different systems to the data buffer memory The data in the data buffer memory is converted and read by another of the two different systems. A receive operation is performed by transferring and storing data from the other of the two different systems to the data buffer memory.

Data buffer management between two different systems

A communications system for transmitting data utilizes one or more picoprocessors located logically out of the main data path for conducting calculations and control functions in a fashion which is decoupled or separate from the main data path. In particular, the system utilizes multiple picoprocessors for performing buffer management and high performance buffer chaining processes out of the main data path so that the main data path may be continually used in parallel. In this manner, data transfer is enhanced by offloading functions and responsibilities from the main system processor and removing unnecessary traffic from the main data path.

Coupler for providing a high speed interface between a communication

The connection capability of a communication controller is extended. The communication controller includes a central control unit CCU, running a network control program NCP stored in a memory having a direct memory access facility through a DMA bus. The input/output bus of the communication controller and DMA bus are connected to line adapters, and channel adapters and a controller extension through a coupler which allows additional adapters to be connected to the controller. At initialization, a table is built into a coupler memory, which is then used in steady state mode for controlling the transmission of the messages to the additional users and the reception of the messages from the additional users, by improving the buffer unchaining and chaining processes into the NCP memory.

Coupling apparatus and method for increasing the connection capability

Growing community of inventors

Raleigh, NC, United States of America

George M Calhoun