As outlined by the PCI specification, the bottom handle registers outline the begin line of the I/O and reminiscence addresses that each adapter has been allotted in system memory. Also, defined by the PCI specification, an adapter can have as much as six BARs. It is up to the adapter vendor to implement one or more BARS within the adapter for I/O or reminiscence addressing, as desired. According to the PCI specification, every of the six BAR entries in an adapter's configuration house is recognized as to its resource kind (bit zero signifies whether or not this BAR describes a memory space or I/O space).
14 is a flowchart illustrating the method by which one embodiment of the configuration supervisor 1100 handles a request to configure a hotly added adapter 310. 14 is a extra detailed description of state 604 proven in FIG. 6 and the state 714 proven in FIG. Once an adapter 310 is added to the computer system, system sources have to be allotted for the adapter 310. The configuration supervisor 500 then configures the newly added adapter 310 by writing data to the adapter's configuration house registers.
The course of described by FIG. eight is generic to numerous implementations of the invention. For instance, the process shown in FIG. 8 may be utilized by a fault tolerant laptop system one hundred proven in FIGS. The following description of FIG. eight focuses on the new swap of an adapter 310 beneath the NetWare Operating System.
In completely different embodiments of the current invention, the standards primarily based bus system could possibly be Peripheral Component Interconnect , Microchannel, SCSI, Industrial Standard Architecture and Extended ISA architectures. The methodology as outlined in claim 15, moreover comprising receiving a request for the recent add of the brand new mass storage adapter from a user interface program. The method as defined in declare 8, additionally comprising receiving a request for the hot add of the mass storage adapter from a person interface program. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein activating the programmable mass storage adapter contains sending a request from a consumer interface program to a configuration supervisor associated with the mass storage adapter. A NetWare person interface 518 initiates the requests to the configuration supervisor 500 to freeze and restart communications to a specified adapter 310. A distant Simple Network Management Protocol agent 520 can even begin the request to freeze and resume communications to the configuration supervisor 500 through a local SNMP agent 522.
The configuration supervisor 1100 maintains this linked list of knowledge in case an adapter 310 fails. Upon the failure of an adapter 310, the configuration supervisor 1100 reprograms a substitute adapter's configuration space. 10B illustrates the method by which the configuration manager 500 and the Filter CDM 513, shown in FIG. 5, suspend the I/O to a mass storage adapter. At state 900 (FIG. 9A), the configuration manager 500 has decided that the current droop or restart request applies to a mass storage adapter, and proceeds to state 904.
The method as outlined in claim 15, wherein the model new mass storage adapter is configured to communicate with an Standard Architecture bus. The method as outlined in declare 15, wherein restarting communications includes sending an input/output packet from a configuration supervisor to a filter customized device module associated with the mass storage adapter. The method as defined in declare eight, whereby the mass storage adapter is configured to speak with a Peripheral Component Interconnect bus. The methodology as outlined in claim 8, wherein the mass storage adapter is configured to speak with an Industry Standard Architecture bus. The methodology as defined in declare 8, whereby the mass storage adapter is configured to speak with an Extended Industry Standard Architecture bus. 17 is a flowchart illustrating one embodiment of the process by which the configuration manager 1100 suspends and restarts the state of an adapter 310 underneath WinNT.
With demand for 24-hour access to crucial, server-based data assets, planned system downtime for system service or growth has turn into unacceptable. However, numerous entities have tried to implement the new plug of these adapters to a fault tolerant laptop system. One significant problem in designing a hot plug system is protecting the circuitry contained on the adapter from being short-circuited when an adapter is added to a powered system. Typically, an adapter accommodates edge connectors which are positioned on one aspect of the printed circuit board. These edge connectors allow energy to switch from the system bus to the adapter, as nicely as supplying knowledge paths between the bus and the adapter. These edge connectors fit right into a slot on the bus on the computer system.
In a 3rd architectural embodiment of the invention, the I/O platform is plugged in as an choice to control non-intelligent gadgets as are acknowledged by expert technologists. 15 is one embodiment of a flowchart showing the method by which an adapter driver locates and initializes a mass storage adapter beneath the Windows NT Operating System in the scorching add process proven in FIG. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top-level block diagram showing a fault tolerant pc system of one embodiment of the current invention, including a mass storage adapter and a network adapter.
In cat 5 cables , the configuration supervisor 500 de-asserts the bus reset. The configuration supervisor 500 re-initializes the configuration space of each adapter that was previously within the system . Since usb adapter has lost energy during a scorching add, the adapter is in an unknown state after reapplying power. Moving to state 714, the configuration manager 500 applications the configuration area of the new adapter. Finally, the configuration supervisor 500 resumes operations to all of the adapters situated on the canister .
SCSI port and NDIS are interfaces which are exported by the Windows NT Operating system. These interfaces are designed to work together with a miniport 1106 which is an occasion of an adapter driver 308. In Windows NT, every adapter may have its personal miniport.