International Business Machines Corporation

John M Dinwiddie, Jr

John M Loffredo

Lonnie E Grice

Kenneth R Sanderson

Gustavo A Suarez

Ernest D Baker

James M Joyce

Bobby J Freeman

Bruce James Wilkie

Timothy Jackson

William L Zipoy

Thomas J Micallef

The functions of two virtual operating systems (e.g., S/370 VM and S/88 OS) are merged into one physical system. Partner pairs of S/88 processors run the S/88 OS and handle the fault tolerant and single system image aspects of the system. One or more partner pairs of S/370 processors are coupled to corresponding S/88 processors directly and through the S/88 bus. The S/370 processors are alien to the S/88 Operating System, i.e., not in its configuration tables. Means are provided to isolate partner pairs of S/88 processors from the S/88 Operating System and couple the S/88 processors directly to corresponding pairs of S/370 processors for interaction therewith, transparent to the S/88 Operating System.

Isolating a central processing unit from the operating system

A multimedia solution is presented which allows a multimedia architecture to be implemented on an existing computer system. According to the invention, an expansion unit which incorporates a multimedia architecture is provided. The expansion unit is connected to an existing computer system via an expansion slot of an I/O bus of the existing computer as well as via a display device output terminal of the computer. The expansion unit is also connected to a display device. Accordingly, the expansion unit controls the presentation which is provided on the display device.

Multimedia expansion unit

An information handling apparatus for transferring and composing image signals including a plurality of media sources configured to provide a corresponding plurality of image signals, a media bus connected to the media sources, and a media control module coupled to the media bus. The media bus allows selective access for the plurality of image signals. The selective access enables composition of the independent image signals in response to control information. The media control module receives a composed image signal from the media bus and provides the composed image signal to a display device.

Multimedia system

The functions of two virtual operating systems (e. S/370 VM, VSE or IX370 and S/88 OS) are merged into one physical system. Partner pairs of S/88 processors run the S/88 OS and handle the fault tolerant and single system image aspects of the system. One or more partner pairs of S/370 processors are coupled to corresponding S/88 processors directly and through the S/88 bus. Each S/370 processor is allocated from 1 to 16 megabytes of contiguous storage from the S/88 main storage. Each S/370 virtual operating system thinks its memory allocation starts at address 0, and it manages its memory through normal S/370 dynamic memory allocation and paging techniques. The S/370 is limit checked to prevent the S/370 from accessing S/88 memory space. The S/88 Operating System is the master over all system hardware and I/O devices. The S/88 processors access the S/370 address space in direct response to a S/88 application program so that the S/88 may move I/O data into the S/370 I/O buffers and process the S/370 I/O operations. The S/88 and S/370 peer processor pairs execute their respective Operating Systems in a single system environment without significant rewriting of either operating system. Neither operating system is aware of the other operating system nor the other processor pairs.

Uncoupling a central processing unit from its associated hardware for

The functions of two virtual operating systems (e.g., S/370 VM, VSE or IX370 and S/88 OS) are merged into one physical system. Partner pairs of S/88 processors run the S/88 OS and handle the fault tolerant and single system image aspects of the system. One or more partner pairs of S/370 processors are coupled to corresponding S/88 processors directly and through the S/88 bus. Each S/370 processor is allocated from 1 to 16 megabytes of contiguous storage from the S/88 main storage. Each S/370 virtual operating system thinks its memory allocation starts at address 0, and it manages its memory through normal S/370 dynamic memory allocation and paging techniques. The S/370 is limit checked to prevent the S/370 from accessing S/88 memory space. The S/88 Operating System is the master over all system hardware and I/O devices. The S/88 processors access the S/370 address space in direct response to a S/88 application program so that the S/88 may move I/O data into the S/370 I/O buffers and process the S/370 I/O operations. The S/88 and S/370 peer processor pairs execute their respective Operating Systems in a single system environment without significant rewriting of either operating system. Neither operating system is aware of the other operating system nor the other processor pairs.

Method and apparatus for the direct transfer of information between

Servicing interrupt requests in a data processing system without using

The functions of two virtual operating systems (e.g., S/370 VM, VSE or IX370 and S/88 OS) are merged into one physical system. Partner pairs of S/88 processors run the S/88 OS and handle the fault tolerant and single system image aspects of the system. One or more partner pairs of S/370 processors are coupled to corresponding S/88 processors directly and through the S/88 bus. Each S/370 processor is allocated from 1 to 16 megabytes of contiguous storage from the S/88 main storage. Each S/370 virtual operating system thinks its memory allocation starts at address 0, and it manages its memory through normal S/370 dynamic memory allocation and paging techniques, The S/370 is limit checked prevent the S/370 from accessing S/88 memory space. The S/88 Operating System is the master over all system hardware and I/O devices. The S/88 processors access the S/370 address space in direct response to a S/88 application program so that the S/88 may move I/O data into the S/370 I/O buffers and process the S/370 respective Operating Systems in a single system environment without significant rewriting of either operating system. Neither operating system is aware of the other operating system nor the other processor pairs.

System for removing section of memory from first system and allocating

Fault tolerant data processing system

Providing additional system characteristics to a data processing system

An information handling apparatus for transferring and composing image signals for display. The apparatus includes a bus adapted to allow selective access for multiple independent image signals generated by respective independent image sources. The selective access enables composition of the independent image signals in response to control information; the composition enables real time display of a composed image signal.

Bus architecture for a multimedia system

An information handling apparatus for transferring and composing image signals for display including a bus interface circuit adapted to allow selective access to a bus of an independent image signal generated by an independent image source. The selective access enables composition of the independent image signal in response to control information; the composition enables real time display of a composed image signal.

Bus interface circuit for a multimedia system

System for controlling access by first system to portion of main memory

The functions of two virtual operating systems (e.g., S/370 VM, VSE or IX370 and S/88 OS) are merged into one physical system. Partner pairs of S/88 processors run the S/88 OS and handle the fault tolerant and single system image aspects of the system. One or more partner pairs of S/370 processors are coupled to corresponding S/88 processors directly and through the S/88 bus. Each S/370 processor is allocated from 1 to 16 megabytes of contigous storage from the S/88 main storage. Each S/370 virtual operating system thinks its memory allocation starts at address 0, and it manages its memory through normal S/370 dynamic memory allocation and paging techniques. The S/370 is limit checked to prevent the S/370 from accessing S/88 memory space. The S/88 Operating System is the master over all system hardware and I/O devices. The S/88 processors access the S/370 address space in direct response to a S/88 application program so that the S/88 may move I/O data into the S/370 I/O buffers and process the S/370 I/O operations. The S/88 and S/370 peer processor pairs execute their respective Operating Systems in a single system environment without significant rewriting of either operating system. Neither operating system is aware of the other operating system nor the other processor pairs.

Data processing system with system resource management for itself and

A cycle steal mechanism for enabling a host processor to initiate and control the cycle stealing of data to or from a storage unit located in an I/O controller which is connected to the I/O channel bus of the host processor. The I/O controller also includes a microprocessor and a direct memory access (DMA) unit either or both of which can be used to control the transfer of data between the I/O controller storage unit and the host processor. Typically, the DMA unit is used for cycle stealing data between the controller storage unit and the host processor. The cycle steal mechanism of the present invention enables the host processor to also initiate and control the cycle stealing of data to or from the controller storage unit without interrupting the program running in the controller microprocessor and without interrupting the cycle stealing operations of the DMA unit. This new cycle steal mechanism is the reverse of the normal situation where it is the microprocessor or DMA unit that is controlling the cycle stealing. This new cycle steal mechanism makes use of the microprocessor address set-up pulse (ALE) and the DMA unit address set-up pulse (ADSTB) to cause the cycle stealing of the data to or from the controller storage unit to occur during such address set-up time.

Growing community of inventors

West Palm Beach, FL, United States of America

John M Dinwiddie, Jr