Patent ID: 6125407
Filing Date: 2000-09-26
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A process for flushing high-speed buffers in a serial link including two-way communication channels used between a mover circuit (4) executing read and write data move operations and at least two memories (12a, 12c), the mover circuit being linked to each memory (12a, 12c) by at least two two-way channels (400, 401), the data move operations each being constituted by a move request followed by the return of a response or acknowledgement of the request, the mover circuit using the two two-way channels (400, 401) to cyclically link the mover circuit to a memory (12a, 12c) with interleaving, for the same operation, each channel (400, 401) being adapted to maintain the order in which the requests, and respectively the responses, of the same request stream and respectively the same response stream are sent, the responses following the same pair of channels (400, 401) as the responses for which they constitute the acknowledgements, characterized in that the process comprises the following steps:placing the mover circuit (4) into an ""absorption"" mode of operation in which the responses are accepted independent of any order of arrival through the channels (400, 401) and are ignored by the mover circuit (4),generating a specific write request and a specific read request in at least some of the channels (400, 401) establishing a serial link, the specific requests having no effect on the memories (12a, 12c) and each request comprising a ""barrier"" marker contained in a control character preceding and/or following the specific request, the barrier marker also being contained in a control character associated with a response corresponding to each specific request,accumulating the received responses comprising a barrier marker, andcomparing the received responses comprising a barrier marker with the specific requests generated, so as to either locate a potential failure in the case where the expected responses for a barrier marker are missing, or to recognize that flushing of the channels (400, 401) has been carried out in the case where all of the expected responses with a barrier marker have been received.