Patent ID: 6014695
Filing Date: 2000-01-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A network file server connected to at least one client through a network, comprising:a secondary storage device; anda computer connected to said secondary storage device through an input/output bus;wherein said computer includes:a main storage device connected to said secondary storage device through said input/output bus;a central processing unit connected to said secondary storage device and to said main storage device through said input/output bus; anda communication controller, connected to said main storage device through said input/output bus and connected to said at least one client through said network, which accepts a file access request sent from said at least one client through said network and transfers information on a plurality of addresses of said main storage device as one packet to said at least one client;wherein said main storage device includes:a buffer;a file access request control portion which accepts a file access request sent from said communication controller through said input/output bus to thereby allocate an area of said buffer for storing data corresponding to said file access request in accordance with said file access request, and generates an access request to a secondary storage device access control portion and supplies a communication request to a data transfer control portion thereby to execute data transfer between said communication controller and said secondary storage device;said secondary storage device access control portion reading out data from said secondary storage device in accordance with said access request from said file access request control portion and transferring the data thus read to the allocated area of said buffer through said input/output bus; andsaid data transfer control portion generating a header for said data of the allocated area of said buffer on the basis of said communication request from said file access request control portion, sending an address of said header thus generated and a size thereof and an address of said data of the allocated area of said buffer and a size thereof to said communication controller through said input/output bus and generating a communication request to said communication controller so that said header and said data can be collectively transferred to said at least one client; andwherein said communication controller reads out said data in the allocated area of said buffer in accordance with said communication request from said data transfer control portion, reads out said header generated by said data transfer control portion, generates one packet from said data and said header thus read out on the basis of the address of said header and said size thereof and the address of said data and said size thereof from said data transfer control portion and transfers said packet to said client through said network.