Patent · US Expired

Apparatus of fault-handling in a multiprocessing system

US4438494A · kind A · utility

122Cited by
6References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 25, 1981
Grant dateMar 20, 1984
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 25, 2001

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/0793
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A number of intelligent crossbar switches (100) are provided in a matrix of orthogonal lines interconnecting processor (110) and memory control unit (MCU) modules (112). The matrix is composed of processor buses (105) and corresponding error-reporting lines (106); and memory buses (107) with corresponding error-reporting lines (108). At the intersection of these lines is a crossbar switch node (100). The crossbar switches function to pass memory requests from a processor to a memory module attached to an MCU node and to pass any data associated with the requests. The system is organized into confinement areas at the boundaries of which are positioned error-detection mechanisms to deal with information flow occurring across area boundaries. Each crossbar switch and MCU node has means for the logging and signaling of errors to other nodes. Means are provided to reconfigure the system to reroute traffic around the confinement area at fault and for restarting system operation in a possibly degraded mode.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.