Joseph Braun

US Patent:

59700521, Oct 19, 1999

Filed:

Sep 19, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/933574

Inventors:

Tin-Chee Lo - Fishkill NY
George A. Katopis - Poughkeepsie NY
Timothy Gerard McNamara - Fishkill NY
David Allan Webber - Poughkeepsie NY
Joseph L. Braun - Millbrook NY
Paul R. Turgeon - Woodstock NY

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 11267

US Classification:

370241

Abstract:

A method for dynamic bandwidth testing of a link between two computer subsystems useful for determining the amount of data which can be buffered in a transmission line by delay, in which at each end of the line circuit modules are provided to couple the subsystem by a bi-directional multi-bit (BiDi) link, and providing within each said circuit module a built-in circuit and logic for dynamic transmission characterization and test of a said BiDi link between computer subsystems using built-in characterization logic macros, and during a test mode, switching said said built-in circuit and logic to test mode and using the test mode to characterize the link performance, and after the completion of characterization, the switching built-in characterization logic macros back to a normal system mode after programmatically setting timing parameters for the BiDi link to ensure safe operation of data transfer before the BiDi link is switched to system mode.