High speed interprocess communication

Abstract

A method for high speed interprocess communications comprises four steps. Initially, first and second processes can be attached to a message buffer in a shared region of user memory. In addition, each process can have a corresponding message queue. In a preferred embodiment, the attaching step comprises the step of attaching first and second processes to a message buffer in a shared region of user memory exclusive of operating system kernel space. Second, message data from the first process can be accumulated in a location in the message buffer. Third, a memory offset corresponding to the location in the message buffer can be placed in the message queue of the second process. Finally, the accumulated data at the location corresponding to the offset can be used in the second process. Consequently, the accumulated message data is transferred from the first process to the second process with minimal data transfer overhead.