Patent ID: 7149821
Filing Date: 2006-12-12
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method of providing input/output (I/O) configurations of a computing environment, said method comprising: explicitly pre-specifying in an I/O configuration data set which one or more peripheral units of a computing environment, comprising a switching network fabric and a plurality of peripheral units coupled thereto, are accessible by a program of the computing environment based on at least one human generated I/O configuration input statement, the I/O configuration data set providing a predictable, pre-specified I/O configuration for the program at initialization of the program, wherein the one or more peripheral units are accessible via a channel subsystem and the switching network fabric, the switching network fabric being separate from the channel subsystem and comprising a plurality of switches and links, the switching network fabric having autonomy over a choice of one or more links coupling one or more switches of the plurality of switches to define a path from the channel subsystem to a peripheral unit of the one or more peripheral units, wherein the program employs the switching network fabric to only access the one or more peripheral units accessible to it as defined in the pre-specified I/O configuration data set, and wherein the explicitly specifying comprises indicating an address for a peripheral unit of the one or more peripheral units, wherein the address comprises one portion that identifies an exit switch of the switching network fabric and another portion that identifies a port on that exit switch.