Patent ID: 6049808
Filing Date: 2000-04-11
Classification: G06F,H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of performing a remote disk read operation between first and second computers, comprising the steps of:at the second computer, responding to receipt of a request message from the first computer, the request message specifying data to be retrieved from a disk located at the second computer and a range of global addresses associated with an allocated receive buffer; the responding step including:mapping the range of global addresses specified in the request message to a corresponding range of local physical addresses, wherein the mapped local physical addresses do not denote locations in a memory in the second computer's memory;performing a DMA operation for directly transferring the data specified in the request message from the disk to the mapped local physical addresses, the DMA operation transmitting the specified data to a network interface in the second computer at which the mapped local physical addresses to which the data is being transferred are converted into the corresponding global addresses; andtransmitting the specified data with the corresponding global addresses to the first computer.