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. 08, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 23, 1999
James M. Reuter, Colorado Springs, CO (US);
Leslie Lamport, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Eliezer Gafni, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Compaq Computer Corporation, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A system and method for effectuating distributed consensus among members of a processor set in a multiprocessor computing system that is effective even when only a single surviving processor is operational and is achieved through joint implementation of a virtual state machine utilizing a sequence of numbered input commands. System synchronization is achieved by having all of the processors agree on the sequence of input commands so that they execute the same virtual state machine. Input commands are numbered consecutively and the processors use a set of shared stores (e.g. disk drives) to communicate amongst themselves requests (i.e. ballots) for new state machine inputs (or commands) and state machine inputs that have already been chosen (i.e. committed commands). A consensus process is used to decide upon (or commit) each command and this consensus is achieved using a majority of known system stores rather than a majority of known processors. Consequently, when consensus is achieved, it then exists on the system stores (e.g. the disk drives) and not in the processors.