Method and apparatus for improved peripheral bus utilization

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for minimizing the utilization of an I/O bus by a first data-writing peripheral device that is connected to the I/O bus. The system has a second peripheral device that shares the I/O bus connection. The system includes the operations of transferring data to a drive buffer that is in the first data-writing peripheral device. The transferring being configured to continue until the drive buffer has reached a full state. Performing a pre-write calibration of the first data-writing peripheral device after the drive buffer has reached the full state. Commencing a writing of a portion of the data contained in the drive buffer, such that the first data received by the drive buffer is written first. The system further including releasing the I/O bus connection by placing a write thread of the first data-writing peripheral device in a sleep mode. Wherein when the write thread of the first data-writing peripheral device is in the sleep mode the I/O bus connection is made available to the second peripheral device while the first data-writing peripheral device is not transferring data. The system further includes continually bring the write thread of the first data-writing peripheral device out of the sleep mode to perform a data burst when the drive buffer has emptied to a critical level and then placing the write thread back to the sleep mode after the data burst.