US005367693A
[ii] Patent Number: 5,367,693 [45] Date of Patent: Nov. 22,1994
[54] SYSTEM FOR DIALOG AMONG PROCESSORS AND DISPATCHING PROCESSES TO PROCESSORS WHICH MONITORS THE NUMBER OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO PROCESSING REQUESTS
[75] Inventors: Jean-Claude Cassonnet,
Saint-Honorine; Jean-Louis
Fressineau, Millemont; Georges
Lecourtier, Versailles, all of France
[73] Assignee: Bull, S.A., Paris, France
[21] Appl. No.: 710,340
[22] Filed: Jun. 5,1991
[30] Foreign Application Priority Data
Jun. 5, 1990 [FR] France 90 06948
[51] Int. CI.5 G06F 13/14
[52] U.S. CI 395/800; 364/240.9;
364/284; 364/270.6; 364/260; 364/DIG. 1;
395/325
[58] Field of Search 395/325, 800
[56] References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,181,974 1/1980 Lemay 395/200
4,412,303 10/1983 Barnes 395/800
4,453,211 6/1984 Askinazi 395/500
4,719,622 1/1988 Whipple 370/85
5,068,785 11/1991 Sugiyama 395/325
Primary Examiner—Eric Coleman
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Kerkam, Stowell, Kondracki
& Clarke
[57] ABSTRACT
For certain operations executed in a multiprocessor system, the processors communicate with one another by exchanging requests and acknowledgements. To improve performance, the invention proposes a method by which the operations which require sending of multiple requests proceed without taking into account the reception of the acknowledgements. The total number of requests required is calculated and the number of acknowledgements received is counted. The end of the operation is conditioned by the equality of these two numbers. The invention also relates to a system for employing the method, and to the application of the method to dispatching.
26 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets