MULTIPLE ASYNCHRONOUS REQUEST HANDLING

摘要

PO9-90-010 Plural requests for storage accessing are processed in plural stages of a storage-request pipeline. Pipeline processing is not interrupted when one or more requests must wait for a resource to start its processing, or when a pipeline stage must process for a long period in relation to the time allocated for a processing operation in the pipeline. Waiting is done in a wait path connected to a particular processing stage in the pipeline. A request is shunted from the pipeline into a wait path when processing the request in the pipeline would delay pipeline processing. When the wait has ended, a request re-enters the pipeline from its wait path. The pipeline is provided in a multiprocessor (MP) in which storage requests are provided asynchronously to a tightly coupled system storage and usually may be handled and processed asynchronously by the pipeline. The pipeline output may direct the processed requests to a shared intermediate cache or to the system main storage.