Patent · US Expired

Operating system having a mechanism for handling a group of related processes residing on separate machines

US6279028A · kind A · utility

33Cited by
4References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 8, 1995
Grant dateAug 21, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 8, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F8/45
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method of correlating a group of related processes residing on separate computers of a computer network so that they can be treated as a single entity. A single, large program is split up into separate processes and simultaneously run on several different computers. These related, but separate, processes are assigned a unique identifier. When a new process is created, it is assigned the same identifier as that of the process from which it was created, even though the child process might reside on a different computer. If a process determines that it should not belong to its current group, that process can create its own group by requesting that it be assigned a new identifier. Based on the identifiers, it is possible to implement programs that treat related processes as a single entity.

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