Abstract: A method and arrangement for shutting off a receive channel in a data communications system to prevent accidental or intentional overwhelming of the memory of the system such as that caused by a continuous burst of short frame data. The data frames received are monitored by a shutoff counter as they are received on one of the channels of a serial input/output (I/O) device. When the shutoff count is reached, the receive channel will be shut off. The current value of the shutoff counter is compared to a value stored in a warning register. Before reaching the shutoff count, a warning is generated when the current shutoff counter value reaches the warning register value.

Abstract: A method and arrangement for performing direct memory access in a computer system having multi-channel direct memory access (DMA) is provided with a host computer having a main memory and a processor that runs software, a system interface bus coupling the host computer and the main memory, and multiple DMA controllers, on separate chips, coupled to the system interface bus. These multiple DMA controllers provide the system with multiple input/output (I/O) channels. A common buffer pool having a plurality of buffers is accessible to each of the multiple channels for buffering data transferred to or from the host computer. A status queue is also provided, with each entry in the status queue indicating whether a corresponding buffer from the common pool of buffers is a free buffer available for use by one of the DMA channels in a DMA transaction.

Abstract: A method and arrangement for performing direct memory access in a computer system having multi-channel direct memory access (DMA) is provided with a host computer having a main memory and a processor that runs software, a system interface bus coupling the host computer and the main memory, and a multi-channel DMA controller arrangement coupled to the system interface bus and having multiple input/output (I/O) channels. A common buffer pool having a plurality of buffers is accessible to each of the multiple channels for buffering data transferred to or from the host computer. A status queue is also provided, with each entry in the status queue indicating whether a corresponding buffer from the common pool of buffers is a free buffer available for use by one of the DMA channels in a DMA transaction. The status queue is searched for an entry in the status queue which indicates whether its corresponding buffer is a free buffer, when a DMA transaction is to occur over one of the DMA channels.

Abstract: A combined BAUD rate generator and digital phase locked loop (DPLL) circuit operates in either an asynchronous BAUD rate generating mode or a synchronous phase-locked mode. The combination circuit requires less circuitry than a functionally equivalent circuit with a separate BAUD rate generator and DPLL. The combination circuit comprises a count register, a period register, a decrementing/incrementing circuit, a phase adjusting circuit, and a clock option register. In a first operating mode, the combination circuit functions as a programmable BAUD rate generator which may be used for asynchronous communication applications. In a second operating mode, the combination circuit functions as both a programmable BAUD rate generator and a digital phase locked loop that may be used for synchronous communication applications and that includes an improved method for phase locking a sampling signal to an input signal.