摘要:
The invention provides a new process and apparatus for generating and selectively processing command requests issued over a bus. Command requests are generated by devices, each of which may be authorized or not authorized to cause the execution of the requested command. A unique identifier is provided for each device. The command requests are received and the identity of the device which issued the command request is determined. The command is then executed only if the unique identifier associated with the requesting device indicates that the device is authorized to cause the execution of the requested command.
摘要:
An improved I/O processor (IOP) delivers high I/O performance while maintaining inter-reference ordering among memory reference operations issued by an I/O device as specified by a consistency model in a shared memory multiprocessor system. The IOP comprises a retire controller which imposes inter-reference ordering among the operations based on receipt of a commit signal for each operation, wherein the commit signal for a memory reference operation indicates the apparent completion of the operation rather than actual completion of the operation. In addition, the IOP comprises a prefetch controller coupled to an I/O cache for prefetching data into cache without any ordering constraints (or out-of-order). The ordered retirement functions of the IOP are separated from its prefetching operations, which enables the latter operations to be performed in an arbitrary manner so as to improve the overall performance of the system.