Patent · US Expired

Fast remote file access facility for distributing file access requests in a closely coupled computer system

US5287453A · kind A · utility

109Cited by
8References
23Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateSep 18, 1990
Grant dateFeb 15, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 18, 2010

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L41/00
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A cluster computer system includes a plurality of independently operated computer systems located in close proximity to each other. Each system includes a system bus, a memory, and a set of local peripheral devices which connect in common to the system bus. The computer systems are interconnected for transferring messages to each other through the channels of a high speed cluster controller which connect to the system buses. Each system further includes a cluster driver which transfers the messages between the memory of the computer system and the corresponding cluster controller channel when the system is configured to operate in a cluster mode of operation. User application programs issue monitor calls to access files contained on a peripheral device(s). The fast remote file access (FRFA) facility included in each system upon detecting that the peripheral device is not locally attached, packages the monitor call and information identifying the user application into a message. The message is transferred through the cluster driver and cluster controller to the FRFA of the computer system to which the peripheral device attaches. The monitor call is executed and the response is sent …

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