Patent · US Expired

Method of dynamically allocating processors in a massively parallel processing system

US5103393A · kind A · utility

80Cited by
4References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 29, 1990
Grant dateApr 7, 1992
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 29, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F15/17343
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An "n" dimensional mesh-connected massively parallel processing system uses pointers to connect requesting processors to allocated processors, and also, to access the allocated processors. The requesting and allocated processors are connected by (i) storing in the requesting processor or in a system controller a pointer which points to the allocated processors as a group and (ii) storing in each of the allocated processors, in a designated memory location, an assigned-marker, or an identifier which identifies the processor as a member of the identified group. When one or more requesting processors require connection to free processors, a request is sent to each processor in the system asking each of them to determine if it is free. Each of the processors which is free then assigns itself indices relating to its position in the mesh and its position relative to other free processors. Each free processor sends its indices to a rendezvous processor associated with the requesting processors, and the rendezvous processor allocates the free processors to a requesting processor based on the connection requirements of that requesting processor and the indices. If several requesting process…

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