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:
Feb. 15, 2005
Filed:
Sep. 12, 2001
Thomas P. Webber, Petersham, MA (US);
Thomas P. Webber, Petersham, MA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for reducing the number of memory accesses by a hardware device to a descriptor memory is disclosed. Methods, systems and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention enable software to embed a subsequent descriptor it is posting in the descriptor memory into a current descriptor listed in the descriptor memory. Additionally, hardware is configured to transmit a data packet associated with the current descriptor to a recipient device. When hardware receives an acknowledgment message from the recipient device associated with the transmitted data packet, it fetches the current descriptor to update a completion code within the current descriptor using a Read-Modify-Write (RMW) transfer sequence. As part of the RMW memory operation, hardware may use the embedded copy of the subsequent descriptor within the current descriptor to transmit the next data packet associated with the subsequent descriptor. This process avoids hardware from having to fetch the embedded descriptor from the descriptor memory before transmitting the next data packet.