Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus for accessing global registers in a multiprocessor system

US5524255A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
25References
7Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 27, 1995
Grant dateJun 4, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 27, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F15/8092
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A global register system provides communication and coordination among a plurality of processors sharing a common memory in a multiprocessor system which access one or more registers within a shared resource circuit that is separate from the common memory and is symmetrically accessible by the plurality of processors in the multiprocessor system. The global register system is accessed by direct addresses determined by the processor from a previously assigned indirect address and an instruction accessing the data stored in global registers. Arithmetic or logic operation on a data value stored in a selected one of the registers are performed by the global register system independent from the processors or the common memory in order to modify the data value in the selected global register as part of an atomic operation performed in response to a single read-and-modify instruction received from one of the processors.

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