The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 07, 1997
Filed:
Jun. 07, 1995
William Joel Watson, Austin, TX (US);
William Edward Baker, Austin, TX (US);
William F Bruckert, Austin, TX (US);
William Patterson Bunton, Austin, TX (US);
David J Garcia, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Robert W Horst, Saratoga, CA (US);
Geoffrey I Iswandhi, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
David Joseph Kinkade, Menlo Park, CA (US);
David Paul Sonnier, Austin, TX (US);
Tandem Computers Incorporated, Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A processing system includes a number of communicatively interconnected system elements structured to send and receive data in the form of message packets. Message packets sent to a destination with expectation of response are timed, and if no response is received within an allotted time, a barrier transaction message packet is sent to the destination. The destination is required to provide a barrier transaction response to the barrier transaction packet only after it has responded to, or discarded, all prior received message packets requiring response by the destination. When the source of the barrier transaction message packet receives the barrier transaction response it can be assured that the communication path to the destination is in order, and no prior (late) responses will be forthcoming.