Data processing system including a shared memory resource circuit

Abstract

A data processing system comprises a plurality of nodes and a serial data bus interconnecting the nodes in series in a closed loop, for passing address and data information. At least one processing node includes a processor, a printed circuit board and a memory which is partitioned into a plurality of sections, including a first section for directly sharable memory located on the printed circuit board, and a second section for block sharable memory. A local bus connects the processor, block sharable memory and printed circuit board, for transferring data in parallel from the processor to the directly sharable memory on the printed circuit board, and for transferring data from the block sharable memory to the printed circuit board. The printed circuit board includes a sensor for sensing when data is transferred into the directly sharable memory, a queuing device for queuing the sense data, a serializer for serializing queued data, a transmitter for transmitting serialized data onto the serial bus to a next successive processing node, a receiver for receiving serialized data from a preceding processing node, and a deserializer for transforming received serialized data into a parallel format.