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. 14, 2017
Filed:
Apr. 29, 2014
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Jesse P. Arroyo, Rochester, MN (US);
Anjan Kumar Guttahalli Krishna, Hyderabad, IN;
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A PCI function, such as a device driver, may request that additional MSI resources be allocated to an I/O device coupled to a PCI Host Bridge (PHB). However, there may not be any unallocated MSI resource remaining in the PHB. Instead, a hypervisor may request to borrow MSI resources assigned to other PCI functions in the system. For example, the PCI function requesting the additional MSI resources may ask for a certain number of MSI resources for a certain period of time—e.g., a lease. The hypervisor then determines which of the other PCI functions (referred to as a loaning PCI functions) are willing to lend or loan their MSI resources. Once the MSI resources available for lease are known, the hypervisor informs the requesting PCI function of these resources which, in turn, binds the additional MSI resources to the I/O device.