Operating a coupling channel in a plurality of medes

摘要

A method and system for an I/O coupling channel to operate in a plurality of modes. The first mode is the new mode providing peer operation with many times more message passing facilities as the old mode. The second mode is used to connect the new channels through a converter to multiple old channels. In this mode, the new channel distributes its message passing resources among the multiple sink ports of the converter that are attached to old channels. The converter keeps no state information and only adjusts line speeds, routs outbound packets, and adds source information to inbound packets. The new channel operating in old compatibility mode gives the illusion to the software of multiple separate channels, one for each converter sink port.