Patent ID: 6466997
Filing Date: 2002-10-15
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
A method of requesting an interrupt from a host system to service an adapter connected to the host system and a data interface, wherein data packets including one or more data cells are transferred between the data interface and the host system, the host system comprising a host memory that includes a plurality of memory slots to store data packets transferred between the data interface and the host system, the method comprising:determining when a transfer of data has resulted in an occurrence of an interrupt event, an interrupt event occurring when the transfer of data includes a transfer of a data cell between the data interface and the host system, wherein the data cell is defined to be an end of a data packet; in response to the occurrence of an interrupt event, determining whether to generate an interrupt request to the host system, including: determining whether a predetermined interval of time has elapsed since the host system last processed an interrupt request, wherein, if the predetermined interval of time has elapsed, the interrupt request is to be generated; and if it is determined that the interrupt request is to be generated, generating the interrupt request from the adapter to the host system.