Patent ID: 8417865

Claim:
An I/O equipment sharing system comprising: a plurality of CPUs; a plurality of I/O equipments; a plurality of upstream PCI Express-bridges coupled to the plurality of CPUs; a plurality of downstream PCI Express-bridges coupled to the plurality of I/O equipment and coupled to the plurality of upstream PCI Express-bridges through a network; and an apparatus including an I/O equipment information database, wherein: each of the plurality of upstream PCI Express-bridges includes a first identifier-setting unit for setting an identifier and a first filtering unit for carrying out filtering by the set identifier; each of the plurality of downstream PCI Express-bridges includes a second identifier-setting unit for setting an identifier and a second filtering unit for carrying out filtering by the set identifier; the upstream PCI Express-bridge communicates with the downstream PCI Express-bridge by a frame to which the same identifier is added; the apparatus collates first I/O equipment information with second I/O equipment information, the first I/O equipment information being delivered from the plurality of downstream PCI Express-bridges and recorded to the I/O equipment information database, and the second equipment information being delivered from the plurality of upstream PCI Express-bridges and recorded to the I/O equipment information database; and when the I/O equipment specified by the first I/O equipment information is included in the I/O equipment specified by the second I/O equipment information, the apparatus sends a frame including the identifier of the upstream PCI Express-bridge to the downstream PCI Express-bridge coupled to the I/O equipment specified by the first I/O equipment information.