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:
Sep. 04, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 26, 1998
Rinaldo DiGiorgio, Easton, CT (US);
Michael Bender, Boulder Creek, CA (US);
Stephen Uhler, Los Altos, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing modular I/O expansion. Apparatus are provided on a host computing device and an expansion unit to support multiple port types, and multiplexing apparatus are provided to support simultaneous I/O sessions between multiple applications on the host computing device and multiple I/O ports on the expansion unit over a single host I/O port. The expansion unit is equipped with one or more port interface modules that are each configured to support data transmission in accordance with one port type from a set of port types. Apparatus on the expansion unit perform multiplexing and demultiplexing of data transmitted between the host computing device and the port interface modules of the expansion unit. Port interface objects in the host computing device each support data transmission in accordance with one port type from the set of port types. A host multiplexor on the host computing device performs multiplexing and demultiplexing of data between the expansion unit and the port interface objects. A registry is maintained to map port interface objects to port interface modules.