Patent ID: 8190784

Claim:
A method of operating a computer connected to a storage device, comprising: employing a command-response protocol between first and second functional components of a storage input/output (I/O) interface stack of the computer, the command-response protocol including exchange of protocol data used to control processing of storage I/O commands by the second functional component, the protocol data including identification data identifying the protocol data as data of the command-response protocol; at the first functional component, creating a storage read command as a protocol transport message in a memory of the computer, the storage read command being directed to the storage device and including a read command data structure and a read data buffer specifically associated therewith, the read data buffer including first protocol data constituting a protocol command, the read command data structure including a storage read command and predetermined read address information used to identify the storage read command as the protocol transport message; and at the second functional component: 1) accessing the read command data structure from the memory and testing it to make a first determination that it contains the predetermined read address information; 2) based on the first determination, accessing the read data buffer from the memory and testing it to make a second determination that it includes the identification data; and 3) based on the second determination and the protocol data in the read data buffer, (a) executing a protocol-controlled processing action with respect to the storage I/O commands, and (b) returning a protocol response to the first functional component by creating and storing response data in the read data buffer and signaling a completion of the storage read command to the first functional component.