Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for processing a task in a clustered computing environment

US6625639B1 · kind B1 · utility

25Cited by
2References
31Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 12, 1999
Grant dateSep 23, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 12, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L69/12
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A clustered computer system includes multiple computer systems (or nodes) on a network that can become members of a group to work on a particular task. Each node includes group state data that represents the status of all members of the group. A group state data update mechanism in each node updates the group state data at acknowledge (ACK) rounds, so that all the group state data in all nodes are synchronized and identical if all members respond properly during the ACK round. Each node also includes a main thread and one or more work threads. The main thread receives messages from other computer systems in the group, and routes messages intended for the work thread to either a response queue or a work queue in the work thread, depending on the type of the message. If the message is a response to a currently-executing task, the message is placed in the response queue. Otherwise, the message is placed in the work queue for processing at a later time.

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