The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 25, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 13, 1998
Krishnakumar Rao Surugucchi, Fremont, CA (US);
Geeta George, Fremont, CA (US);
Mylex Corporation, Fremont, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention pertains to an apparatus and method for transparently coupling PCI devices behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge. A controller is coupled to a primary PCI bus and includes a secondary PCI bus that is coupled to the primary PCI bus by a PCI-to-PCI bridge. The secondary PCI bus includes a number of exposed PCI devices that are recognizable by the bridge and a number of hidden PCI devices that are hidden from the bridge. A bridge assist device (BASS) is one such exposed PCI device that is used to acquire a memory address space that is part of the system memory. The memory address space is then partitioned by the controller and assigned to each of the hidden PCI devices. The hidden PCI devices use the memory address space to transmit data to the local CPU. The controller also includes a local-to-PCI bridge that is coupled to the secondary PCI bus and a local bus including a memory and a processor. The local-to-PCI bridge acquires a second memory address space that is part of the system memory and which is used to transmit data between the hidden PCI devices and a local memory.