Importance

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Abstract

The present invention provides a hardware implemented connection monitoring system. A timer array establishes an input timer and an output timer for each connection between the processor and each I/O connection. A state machine periodically steps through the timer array to update the accumulated values of the timers and to monitor if any of the timers has reached a preset, timer done value. If a timer reaches the timer done value, the state machine loads the timer status into an event buffer and generates an interrupt for the processor. The processor reads the event buffer, identifies whether the expired timer was an input timer or an output timer, and takes action accordingly.

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First Claim