Patent ID: 6128672
Filing Date: 2000-10-03
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A device for efficient transfer of data items between a host processor and an external device comprising:the host processor, coupled to external queue pointers, for queuing a plurality of data items and transferring the plurality of data items to the external device using an interrupt service routine unit, andthe external device, coupled to the host processor for storing and incrementing/decrementing the external queue pointers, and processing the data items; wherein the external device further comprises:a data register unit, coupled to the interrupt service routine unit and a data register interface, for storing at least one data item of the plurality of data items,a data processing unit, coupled to the data register unit, for processing the at least one data item stored in the data register unit,a status unit, coupled to the data register unit, for storing a data register status flag,an interrupt request unit, coupled to the status unit and a queue pointer unit, for asserting an interrupt, andthe queue pointer unit, coupled to the interrupt service routine unit and the data register interface, for storing queue head and queue tail pointers and determining a queue status.