Secondary storage subsystems exchange messages and data with host data processing systems and also forward messages between host systems. Host systems thereby communicate with each other in addition to having access to data in subsystem storage. Access to subsystem storage is initiated by a "request" sent from a host to the subsystem. Each request is a message containing an array of one or more commands, each command specifying a transfer of data or a control function to be performed by the subs...

A data communication system which includes a data distributor, a communication station and a plurality of front-end-processors. These front-end-processors are connected with a computer through a common bus. The distributor distributes the data received by the station to one available front-end-processor, which preprocesses the received data, and transfers the pre-processed data to the computer through the bus. By operating the front-end-processors in parallel with respect to successively receive...

A message processing system has a common transmission medium and a plurality of processors or processing equipments connected to the common transmission medium. The processors process messages independenty from each other. Each processor adds information relating to an order of messages to a message resulting from processing by the processor and sends to resulting message to the common transmission medium. In accordance with the invention, a plurality of messages are readily identified.

Methods and apparatus are described, in the context of an information handling system, that permit data chaining in a data streaming mode to be performed through a channel extender. The information handling system includes a processor channel and a peripheral device controller which communicate with one another over the channel extender. The invention allows the separation between the processor channel and peripheral device controller to be extended up to several (e.g. 1, 2 or 3) kilometers vers...

A method of transferring data from a computer to a remote entity. A predetermined block count is stored in the computer. One or more data blocks are moved from the computer to one or more buffers, respectively, in an interfacing device. The block count is decremented for each of the data blocks so moved. One or more of the data blocks are then transmitted from the interfacing device to the remote entity. An acknowledge signal is received from the remote entity for each data block received by the...

A method for high speed data transfer between a user operated PC and a remote PC. First, a link is established between the user operated PC and remote PC. A data file is transferred from the user operated PC to an interfacing device connected to the user operated PC. The file is then formatted in the interfacing device, and transmitted therefrom to the remote PC over an ISDN line. A second data file may be transferred from the remote PC to the user operated PC contemporaneously with the transfer...

A self-timed data streaming receiver for a routing chip. Incoming flits are received by a distributor that distributes the flits between two self-timing FIFOs. A collector coupled to both FIFOs at their opposite ends takes the two streams of flits and recreates the original stream of flits prior to coupling the flits to routing control circuitry. A self-timed data streaming transmitter is also described.

A real-time write function is provided for a multimedia server system by reserving appropriate disk bandwidth for real-time needs at system configuration time. Blocks of a real-time record are avoided irrespective of the duration of the record which otherwise would occur while awaiting availability of system resources. A preseleted number of disk blocks are pre-allocated so as to keep ahead of the writing real-time application by a designated amount. A system administrative interface is provided...

Multiple media push engines communicate with the multimedia client through a multi casting network that may incorporate multiple delivery paths. The streaming data representing media selections for delivery are distributed across multiple media push engines using a non-hierarchial coding technique in which the data are represented as a set of substream components, capable of being reconstituted from fewer than all of the components of the original data stream. The higher the number of components...

A system and method for exchanging data between two or more applications includes a data exchange engine and a number of adapters associated with a corresponding number of applications. Each of the adapters is customized to interface with a corresponding application and transforms data being transferred between the application and the data exchange engine. Data produced by a particular application is converted from a technology dependent form to a technology independent form by the corresponding...