Network adaptation a direction with the main computer under refraction and indication management

摘要

Indication and interrupt signals generated by a network adapter (3) representing asynchronous events are managed by a host system (1). The network adapter (3) comprises a first mask logic (10) for selectively disabling the indication signals from being stored in a first memory location (10a-c) by the host writing to a first mask register (10). A second mask logic which is coupled to the first memory location (10a-c) also selectively disables the indication signals from being stored in a second memory location (10a-c) creating two levels of status information. The indication signals may also be disabled from being stored in the second memory location (10a-c) responsive to the host writing to a second mask register. The first memory location (10a-c) may be read from the host (1) in order to determine whether a network event occurred during an interrupt service routine, while interrupt means (10) generates an interrupt signal to the host (1) responsive to the value in the second memory location (10a-c). A third level of control is provided by an internal counter which allows for automatic enabling and/or disabling of a plurality of indications and interrupts with and without explicit commands in the host driver subroutines.