MULTI SUBCHANNEL ADAPTER WITH A SINGLE STATUS/ADDRESS REGISTER

摘要

Multi subchannel adapter for a programmed control unit arranged to be operated in facilitating I/O operations between one or more I/O devices and a CPU through a channel, including a local store (17) which comprises a hardware register dedicated to store device status (RNB) and the associated address (RNA) in connection with test I/O commands. Thus, on receiving a status request the adapter responds immediately with a response indicating that the information is not immediately available, for example, a busy response. The adapter initiates an interrupt to the programmed control unit to obtain the requested status information, which is then stored in dedicated hardware register (RNA, RNB) of the local store (17). On the next subsequent test I/O command to the same address, the adapter responds with the status as read from the dedicated hardware register (RNB).