International Business Machines Corporation

Daniel C Howe

Charles Francis Marino

Harrison M McCreary

William John Starke

Praveen S Reddy

David John Krolak

John Thomas Hollaway, Jr

Mark L Rudquist

A symmetric multiprocessor includes with a hierarchical ring-based interconnection network is disclosed. The symmetric processor includes a plurality of buses comprised on the symmetric multiprocessor, wherein each of the buses are configured in a circular topology. The symmetric multiprocessor also includes a plurality of multi-processing nodes interconnected by the buses to make a hierarchical ring-based interconnection network for conveying commands between the multi-processing nodes. The interconnection network includes a command network configured to transport commands based on command tokens, wherein the tokens dictate a destination of the command, a partial response network configured to transport partial responses generated by the multi-processing nodes, and a combined response network configured to combine the partial responses generated by the multi-processing nodes using combined response tokens.

Hierarchical ring-based interconnection network for symmetric multiprocessors

A method for processing a token at a local device in a distributed arbitration system includes: receiving a first signal from first device indicating a request for access to a shared resource; receiving an indicator from a processing component of the local device indicating whether the processing component requires access to the shared resource; receiving a second signal from the local device, where a component of second signal indicates whether the local device has greater priority than another device in the set of one or more devices to access the shared resource; receiving a token from the chain network, the token granting a device access to the shared resource; determining a disposition of the token using the first signal and the second signal; disposing the token to allocate the shared resource to a device in response to the determined disposition; and updating the second signal in response to the determining.

Data token management in distributed arbitration systems

Managing starvation in a distributed arbitration scheme including sending, by a starved local arbiter, a starvation message toward a head arbiter, wherein the starvation message comprises an identifier of the starved local arbiter and a request for resources to transfer data to a destination, wherein the requested resources comprise a destination token and a bus slot; receiving, by a neighboring local arbiter, the starvation message, wherein the neighboring local arbiter is between the starved local arbiter and the head arbiter; if the neighboring local arbiter currently has the resources requested in the starvation message: marking, by the neighboring local arbiter, the requested resources with the identifier of the starved local arbiter.

Managing starvation in a distributed arbitration scheme

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Pflugerville, TX, United States of America

Daniel C Howe