Importance

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Abstract

There is disclosed in a communications system having an origination storage device and a destination storage device, a data transfer pipeline apparatus for transferring data in a sequence of N stages, where N is a positive integer grater than 1, from the origination to the destination device. The data transfer apparatus comprises dedicated memory means having a predetermined number of buffers dedicated for carrying data associated with the transfer of data from the origination storage device to the destination device; and master control means for registering and controlling processes associated with the data transfer apparatus for participation in the N stage data transfer sequence. The processes include at least a first stage process for initiating the data transfer and a last Nth stage process for completing data transfer. The first stage process is operative to allocate a buffer from the predetermined number of buffers available within the dedicated memory means for collection, processing, and sending of the data from the origination device to a next stage process. The Nth stage process is operative to receive a buffer allocated to the first stage process from the (N-1)th stage process in the data transfer sequence and to free the buffer upon processing completion and storage in the destination device to permit reallocation of the buffer. The master control means further includes monitor means for monitoring the number of buffers from the pool of buffers allocated or assigned to particular processes in the pipeline, in order to prevent allocation of further buffers to a particular process when the number of buffers currently allocated exceeds a predetermined threshold.

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First Claim