Abstract: An apparatus includes a device adapted to detect one of receiving an incoming call or initiating an outgoing call. A transmitter is adapted to send a request signal in response to receiving the incoming call or initiating the outgoing call. The request signal may be used to adjust a volume setting or pause operation of an appliance.

Abstract: Provided are a method, system and article of manufacture for adjusting interrupt levels. A current system interrupt rate at a computational device is determined, wherein the current system interrupt rate is a sum of interrupt rates from a plurality of interrupt generating agents. The current system interrupt rate is compared with at least one threshold interrupt rate associated with the computational device. Based on the comparison, an interrupt moderation level is adjusted at an interrupt generating agent of the plurality of interrupt generating agents.

Abstract: A method of reducing a transmission rate includes determining whether a pause has been received. Whether a maximum of an inter-frame spacing (IFS) has been reached is determined if the pause has been received. The inter-frame spacing is increased by a value if the maximum of the inter-frame spacing has not been reached.

Abstract: A network driver provides additional transmit commands to a network interface when the number of transmit commands at the network interface falls below a specified threshold.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for retaining packet order in multiprocessor systems utilizing multiple transmit queues are disclosed herein. Embodiments of the present invention define multiple transmit queues for a given priority level of packets to enable the multiprocessor system to process and queue packets of equal priority in different transmit queues. Queuing packets of equal priority in different transmit queues minimizes processor time spent attempting to acquire queue-specific resources associated with one particular transmit queue. In addition, embodiments of the present invention provide an assignment mechanism to ensure that packets corresponding to a common flow are queued in the same transmit queue in order to eliminate, to the extent possible, out-or-order packets, which many times results in lost packets and a reduction in realized network throughput.

Abstract: Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture, wherein in certain embodiments, an indicator is searched for in a computational platform, and wherein the indicator indicates an operational state of a device coupled to the computational platform. A determination is made that the indicator has been modified to disable the device. The indicator is modified to allow enablement of the disabled device. The device is tested to determine whether the device is capable of operating correctly.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for reducing frame overhead in communications on local area networks are disclosed herein. The frame overhead is reduced in communications on local area networks by removing unnecessary addressing information from frames prior to transmission on the network. Logical addressing information, such as an Internet protocol address, is utilized to determine the corresponding physical addressing information, such as an Ethernet media access control address, via an address resolution protocol. The physical addressing information is then incorporated into the frames, and the logical addressing information is removed (or not incorporated into the frame) to provide additional space to carry data, thereby increasing the data throughput of the network connection and potentially reducing the number of frames needed to transmit a given communication from a source to a destination within the network.

Abstract: Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for efficiently handling incoming network traffic by preventing protocol stack overruns and minimizing packet latency are disclosed herein. Embodiments of the present invention monitor the level of a protocol stack's packet queue, and, in response to an increase in the level of the packet queue above an initial threshold value, disable the generation of receive interrupts from the communications interface, disable automatic packet indication of packets by the device driver to the protocol stack, and identify and indicate new incoming packets to the protocol stack at a rate equal to or less than the rate at which packets are being processed by the protocol stack. In addition, in response to a decrease in the level of the packet queue below an exit threshold value, the generation of receive interrupts and the automatic indication of packets to the protocol stack may be re-enabled.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for moderating packet ingress interrupts. A network interface includes a packet timer and an absolute timer or absolute counter. The packet timer functions to minimize packet latency during periods of low packet ingress at the network interface. Each of the absolute timer and absolute counter functions to minimize CPU load and packet latency during periods of high packet ingress at the network interface.

Abstract: An interrupt processing apparatus, system, and article including a machine-accessible medium, along with a method of processing interrupts, implement interrupt processing in an efficient, parallel manner that reduces average interrupt latency. In one embodiment, the apparatus may include an interrupt receiver coupled to a plurality of interrupt handlers which respond to uniquely identified interrupting events. Responses may occur in an overlapping fashion in a multi-threaded environment. The system may include a processor coupled to a local memory and an interrupt receiver. Interrupt handlers, which may be coupled to the interrupt receiver, process uniquely identified interrupts. The method may include receiving multiple interrupts and executing corresponding interrupt handlers scheduled in response to receipt of the interrupts, with each handler being uniquely adapted to service a particular interrupting event.

Abstract: An arrangement is provided for ingress processing optimization via traffic classification and grouping. A plurality of packets are classified according to a classification criterion. The classified packets are used to generate a packet bundle containing packets that are uniform with respect to the classification criterion. The packet bundle and its corresponding packet bundle descriptor are transferred to a host which then processes the packet bundle as a whole according to the information contained in the packet bundle descrptor.

Abstract: Two timers are used to improve ingress throughput. Decisions to transfer the ingress packets are made based on when the two timers expire. A first timer is used to time how long a first ingress packet waits before it is transferred. When this first timer expires, the all received ingress packets including the first ingress packet are transferred. A second timer is used to time how long to wait for a new ingress packet to be received. The second timer is reset if a new ingress packet is received before expiration of the second timer. When the second timer expires and no new ingress packet is received during the wait, all received ingress packets including the first ingress packet are transferred.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for moderating packet ingress interrupts. A network interface includes a packet timer and an absolute timer or absolute counter. The packet timer functions to minimize packet latency during periods of low packet ingress at the network interface. Each of the absolute timer and absolute counter functions to minimize CPU load and packet latency during periods of high packet ingress at the network interface.

Abstract: A network driver for transmitting packets. For a particular embodiment the driver receives an indication that a packet is available for transmission and monitors a packet pending transmission status of a network controller. The driver then indicates to the network controller that the packet is available for transmission only when the pending transmission status in one particular embodiment reaches a threshold value. Thus the driver determines how many packets to provide a network controller based on the amount of packets still waiting to be transmitted by the controller.

Abstract: A command-response bus protocol reduces the number of response transactions generated on a bus. According to an embodiment, an array of data is divided into a number of packets and transmitted over the bus in respective transactions. The transactions each include a writeback flag, which is enabled for the last packet but otherwise disabled. When a receiver of the packets observes the enabled writeback flag, it generates a response transaction. The response transaction indicates either that all packets of the array were received properly or that the commanded operation has been completed for the entire array. Overall, the number of bus transactions are reduced with respect to alternative schemes that require a response transaction for each transmitted packet.

Abstract: In general, in one aspect, the disclosure describes a method that includes automatically applying different sets of parameter values to a network interface component, storing performance data for the network interface component for the different sets of parameter values, and selecting a one of the different sets of parameters values based on the performance data.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for moderating packet ingress interrupts. A network interface includes a packet timer and an absolute timer or absolute counter. The packet timer functions to minimize packet latency during periods of low packet ingress at the network interface. Each of the absolute timer and absolute counter functions to minimize CPU load and packet latency during periods of high packet ingress at the network interface.

Abstract: A method of updating a device driver is disclosed.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a device adapted to detect one of receiving an incoming call or initiating an outgoing call. A transmitter is adapted to send a request signal in response to receiving the incoming call or initiating the outgoing call. The request signal may be used to adjust a volume setting or pause operation of an appliance.

Abstract: Inform writes to inform a controller of availability of a plurality of replacement data buffers are optimally batched as a single message. Batching the inform writes lets the controller maintain control of a bus, thereby letting the controller continue with input operations with less interruption, while still allowing for timely replenishment of data buffers that can be made available to the controller. The number of available data buffers to indicate in the single message can be chosen so that the controller need not be starved of data buffers while waiting for a threshold number of available data buffers to be reached.