FAIL-FAST, FAIL-FUNCTIONAL, FAULT-TOLERANT MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM

• Main Authors: KLECKA, JAMES STEVENS, WATSON, WILLIAM JOEL, SONNIER, DAVID P, CUTTS, RICHARD W., JR, BUNTON, WILLIAM PATTERSON, ZALZALA, LINDA ELLEN, KRAUSE, JOHN C
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French
• Published: 08.12.1996
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; PHYSICS; TESTING; TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHICCOMMUNICATION

A multiprocessor system includes a number of subprocessor systems, each substantially identically constructed, and each comprising a central processing unit (CPU), and at least one I/O device, interconnected by routing apparatus that also interconnects the sub-processor systems. A CPU of any one of the sub-processor systems may communicate, through the routing elements, with any I/O device of the system, or with any CPU of the system. Communications between I/O devices and CPUs is by packetized messages. Interrupts from I/O devices are communicated from the I/O devices to the CPUs (or from one CPU to another CPU) as message packets. CPUs and I/O devices may write to, or read from, memory of a CPU of the system. Memory protection is provided by an access validation method maintained by each CPU in which CPUs and/or I/O devices are provided with a validation to read/write memory of that CPU, without which memory access is denied.