Patent · US Expired

Methods and apparatus for efficient resource allocation

US5003464A · kind A · utility

36Cited by
22References
2Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMay 23, 1988
Grant dateMar 26, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 23, 2008

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F15/167
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A multiprocessor data processing system is described in which the function of coordinating the actions of all of the processors of the multiprocessor system can be assigned to any one of the processors of the system. In order to ensure assignment of the coordinator function to one, and only one, of the processors, particularly in the presence of failures, a standard multiprocessor resource assignment procedure is used. To this end, the right to the assignment of the coordinator function is treated as an exclusively used system resource. Each CPU requests the coordinator function and the already available resource assignment procedure assigns the coordinator function to the requester at the top of a requestor queue. Exclusive assignment of the coordinator function is thereby accomplished regardless of the number, order or timing of component failures, and without the necessity of providing a separate coordination assignment facility.

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