Ncube Corporation

Stanley P Kenoyer

Robert C Duzett

Doran K Wilde

Stephen R Colley

A parallel processor network comprised of a plurality of nodes, each node including a processor containing a number of I/O ports, and a local memory. A communication path is established through a node by comparing a target node address in a first address packet with a processor ID of the node. If node address is equal to the target node address a receive channel is allocated to the input port and a route ready command is sent over an output port paired with the input port. If the node address is not equal to the target node address, then a first unallocated output port is selected from a port vector and the address packet is forwarded to a next node over the selected output port.

Parallel processor that routes messages around blocked or faulty nodes

A parallel processor network comprised of a plurality of nodes, each node including a processor containing a number of I/O ports, and a local memory. Each processor in the network is assigned a unique processor ID (202) such that the processor IDs of two processors connected to each other through port number n, vary only in the nth bit. Input message decoding means (200) and compare logic and message routing logic (204) create a message path through the processor in response to the decoding of an address message packet and remove the message path in response to the decoding of an end of transmission (EOT) Packet. Each address message packet includes a Forward bit used to send a message to a remote destination either within the network or to a foreign network. Each address packet includes Node Address bits that contain the processor ID of the destination node, it the destination node is in the local network. If the destination node is in a foreign network space, the destination node must be directly connected to a node in the local network space. In this case, the Node Address bits contain the processor ID of the local node connected to the destination node. Path creation means in said processor node compares the masked node address with its own processor ID and sends the address packet out the port number corresponding to the bit position of the first difference between the masked node address and its own processor ID, starting at bit n+1, where n is the number of the port on which the message was received.

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Forest Grove, OR, United States of America

Stanley P Kenoyer