Abstract: Apparatus is provided for transferring user defined data from a parallel storage medium to a serial link driver in an I/O channel subsystem of a processor or I/O device controller. The serial link driver transmits a frame of user defined data over a serial data transfer medium. A data buffer receives and stores user defined data from the parallel storage medium. A control data facility that is distinct from the data buffer forms and transmits control data from the sender of the frame to the recipient of the frame via a path that does not include the data buffer. The control data facility includes respectively different dedicated logic for asynchronously generating each of the following: special character sequences, frame delimiters, headers, and cyclic redundancy checksums. A switching facility receives the user defined data from the data buffer. The switching facility also receives control data from the control data facility.

Abstract: Disclosed is a telephony messaging transfer system permitting a messaging host to redistribute its processing and/or storage load to another messaging host. An administrator can dynamically control the amount of time needed to transfer specified mailboxes by monitoring the progress on-line and increasing or decreasing the number of transfer dialogs to be used in the transfer process. Also provided is a predictive simulator for simulating the transfer process and providing statistics that can be used to adjust the timing of the actual transfer.

Abstract: A technique for accepting test vectors in one format, generally proven to operate correctly, from an IC tester such as the Logic Master XL2 ("off-bench tester") and processing/converting them into another format for use in a stimulus generator such as the HFS 9009 for bench top testing. The process, which in the exemplary embodiment is implemented in software, accepts various parameters as inputs (e.g., channel name(s) for stimulus generator, range of vectors, etc.) for purposes of extraction and translation. The process provides an Interface and Initialization Unit (IIU) and a Translator Unit (TU). The IIU provides a user interface necessary for a user to select the various options available. In addition, the IIU coordinates the use of memory, file I/O and communication with the active files on the off-bench tester. The IIU verifies user selections and does error checking. Once complete, the TU translates the selected signals for the vector range entered by the user.

Abstract: Apparatus and method for coordinating cache coherency between host cache memories in a distributed information system in a system which comprises at least one main storage memory coupled to a plurality of host computers through controllers. Each host computer includes a host cache controller which maintains the state of the data stored in its associated memory and maintains communicating with a main memory controller for participating in the control of coordinated reading and writing of data between the host cache memories and the main storage memory. The system maintains cache coherency by the exchange of commands between the main memory controller and the hosts cache controllers each of which define the state of the blocks of data stored in the host cache memories.

Abstract: A microprocessor architecture that includes an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a bit processing unit (BPU), a register file and an instruction register is disclosed. The BPU performs complex logical operations in a single clock cycle. The ALU continues to perform the slow arithmetic operations (e.g., multiply, divide). The BPU has two special purpose registers, a zero flag and a match flag, which are used for program execution control. The BPU performs bit manipulations on data stored in and received from the register file and/or individual fields in the instruction currently being executed by the BPU.

Abstract: A method is provided for collecting information located within a plurality of hardware elements of a computer system. The hardware elements of the plurality of hardware elements are simultaneously instructed to collect the information. The information within the instructed hardware elements is simultaneously collected. A maintenance system is provided for monitoring the computer system and determining a computer system error in accordance with the monitoring. The step of simultaneously instructing the hardware elements to collect the information is performed in accordance with a computer error determined in this manner. The hardware elements, which may be hardware processors, are provided with individual hardware modules which receive the simultaneous instructions to collect data and direct the simultaneous collection of information within the hardware elements. A transmission link is coupled to each hardware element in the computer system for transmitting the collected information.

Abstract: A low latency software and hardware interface between a microprocessor and Network Interface Unit is disclosed. The Network Interface Unit interfaces to the microprocessor's Level 2 cache interface, which provides burst transfers of cache lines between the microprocessor and Network Interface Unit. The Network Interface Unit is memory mapped into the microprocessor's address space. Two memory mapped cache lines are used to write commands to the Network Interface Unit's Write Window and another two cache lines are used to read results of the commands from the Network Interface Unit's Read Window. The Write Window is a three port register file. Data is written into one write port and read simultaneously from two read ports. One read port is used during read operations to the Write Window while the other is used during command execution to move data to the Internal Structures block. The Read Window is a 2-1 multiplexor that is 128 bits wide.