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:
May. 27, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 01, 1998
Anthony Paul Casano, Felton, CA (US);
David Steven Edrich, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Phoenix Technologies Ltd., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for controlling I/O in a multi-processor environment, comprising the steps of: determining if an I/O instruction requiring an interrupt is being executed by one of the processors in the multi-processor environment to transfer data or a command between the processor and an I/O device; performing an interrupt if such an I/O instruction is detected; determining which of the processors in the multi-processor environment is executing an I/O instruction; if only one of the processors is executing an I/O instruction, setting a Last Processor indicator designating that one processor as the processor executing the I/O instruction; and transferring data or a command between the processor designated in the Last Processor indicator and the I/O device in response to the I/O instruction. In a further aspect of the invention, a method is provided for servicing a software system management interrupt (SMI) initiated by an I/O instruction in a multi-processor environment, comprising the steps of: detecting the occurrence of a software SMI; determining which processor in the multi-processor environment has save state information indicating that that processor initiated the software SMI; and transferring information between an SMI handler and the processor determined to have initiated the software SMI.