Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Matthew J Tedone

John C Schell

Kenneth A Schmahl

Drew George Doblar

David C Banks

Tai Quan

Teshager Tesfaye

Kin M Ho

Igor Karminsky

Ray P Chan

A method, in a host adapter circuit configured for coupling a host electronic device with one of a fiber channel loop and a point-to-point communication channel, for receiving data at the host adapter circuit from one of the fiber channel loop and the point-to-point communication channel. The method includes providing a selectable control signal configured for indicating whether the host adapter circuit is coupled to the fiber channel loop or the point-to-point communication channel. The method further includes providing a front-end receive circuit. The front-end receive circuit is configured for coupling with an input data port. The input data port represents one of the fiber channel loop and the point-to-point communication channel. The method also includes coupling the front-end receive circuit with the selectable control signal. Additionally, the method includes coupling an output of the front-end receive circuit with a decoder of the host adapter circuit, wherein the front-end receive circuit is configured to process, responsive to the selectable control signal, either fiber channel loop data from the fiber channel loop or point-to-point data from the point-to-point communication channel from the input data port to provide parallel data having a predefined size to the decoder circuit.

Communication controllers and methods therefor

A method for passing mastership of a bus is described. According to the method, it is determined whether to use the bus. If the bus is to be used, it is determined whether the bus is available. If the bus is available, the bus is accessed and a signal is generated to indicate that the bus is being accessed. A timer is also started and access to the bus is yielded when the timer expires. A processor that passes mastership to a shared resource is also described. The processor comprises a resource accessing unit. The resource accessing unit allows the processor to access a resource upon receiving a first signal from a component coupled to the resource. The resource accessing unit yields access of the resource to the component upon receiving a second signal from the component.

Method and apparatus for passing bus mastership between processors using

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Matthew J Tedone