A conventional communication system may include one device capable of bidirectional communication with another device. One device may include a computer node having a host bus adapter (HBA). The other device may be a mass storage device. A variety of intermediate devices such as expanders, bridges, routers, and switches may also be utilized in the system to facilitate coupling and communication between a plurality of HBAs and mass storage devices. The HBA and mass storage device may each function as a transmitting and receiving device in order to exchange data and/or commands with each other using one or more of a variety of communication protocols.
A protocol engine may be utilized to facilitate such communication. The protocol engine of frame based communication protocols may also facilitate parsing of the data and/or commands into frames of varying sizes for efficient routing and reassembling of such frames at the receiving device. Such frames may include relatively smaller sized frames that may include command, control, or status information and, in comparison, larger sized frames for exchanging data payload. In some instance, smaller sized frames may also include relatively smaller amounts of data payload. The protocol engine may utilize a transceiver buffer to assist with transmission and receipt of such frames. In a conventional embodiment, one buffer may be sized to accommodate at least the maximum frame size for a particular communication protocol. However, this buffer size is inefficient for smaller sized frames as it can result in significant wasted space in the buffer. In addition, this may also contribute to increased input/output (IO) latency as the protocol engine needs to complete frame processing before making the wasted buffer space of the buffer available for other uses such as for the receipt of additional frames.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.