Patent ID: 6810440
Filing Date: 2004-10-26
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A method of automatically transferring an I/O status block from a RAM of a host adapter to a memory of a host system, the method comprising:providing a response free buffer list in said adapter, said response free buffer list containing indices to buffers in said adapter where an adapter processor has allocated space for I/O responses; providing a response filled buffer list in said adapter, said response filled buffer list identifying the address of a buffer in said adapter RAM in which said I/O status block is stored and a valid entry indicating that a response has been loaded onto to a buffer in said host adapter RAM; wherein the response free buffer list and response filled buffer list are used to track buffers in the host adapter RAM; monitoring said response filled buffer list to determine said address of said adapter RAM buffer; determining if space is available in said host system memory to store said I/O status block by comparing a response queue in pointer controlled by an outbound logic of said adapter with a response queue out pointer controlled by a host system processor; transferring said I/O status block from said buffer in said adapter RAM to a response queue in said host system memory; and writing said buffer address to the free buffer list in said adapter.