Posted disk read operations performed by signalling a disk read complete to the system prior to completion of data transfer

摘要

An apparatus and method for performing queued or posted disk read operations. The present invention determines the range of memory addresses to which data is to be transferred from a disk to memory and sets protection for this range of addresses. The present invention will issue a read complete signal upon issuing the read command and will prevent access to the range of memory addresses until the transfer of information from disk to memory is actually complete. Upon actual completion of the data transfer, the present invention will issue a read complete confirmation which will clear address range protection. The present invention may be implemented using special circuitry and a modified device drive to store the range protection addresses. Alternately, the method of the present invention may utilize paged memory techniques present within the microprocessor.