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:
Jul. 24, 1996
James Thomas Brady, San Jose, CA (US);
Damon W Finney, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael Howard Hartung, Tucson, AZ (US);
Paul Wayne Hunter, San Jose, CA (US);
Michael Anthony Ko, San Jose, CA (US);
Donald J Lang, Cupertino, CA (US);
Noah R Mendelsohn, Lexington, MA (US);
Jaishankar Moothedath Menon, San Jose, CA (US);
David Ronald Nowlen, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A distributed data processing system includes a plurality of nodes interconnected by bidirectional communication links. Each node includes a control message line for handling of control messages and a control memory for storing the control messages. Each node further includes data message line for handling of data messages and a data memory for storing the data messages. A processor in the node causes the data message line to queue and dispatch data messages from the data memory and the control message line to queue and dispatch control messages from the control memory. Each node includes N bidirectional communication links enabling the node to have at least twice as much input/output bandwidth as the control message line and data message line, combined. An input/output switch includes a routing processor and is coupled between the N bidirectional communication links, the data message line and control message line. The input/output switch dispatches either a control message or a data message over at least one of the bidirectional communication links in accordance with an output from the routing control processor, thereby enabling each communication link to carry either data or control messages. If a communication link is busy with either a control or a data message, the routing control processor increments to another communication link to enable dispatch of a queued message.