KERNEL FUNCTIONS FOR INTER-PROCESSOR COMMUNICATIONS IN HIGH PERFORMANCE MULTI-PROCESSOR SYSTEMS

摘要

In a multi-processor system with a high degree of inter processor communi cation, an operating system extension is described as a kernel function to p oll a receive buffer. This is an opportunistic poll that continues to run in the user context after an application process has invoked the kernel with a blocking receive function. It is also running whenever no higher priority t ask is running. New data packets may be received for the present user applic ation process while avoiding context switches, and for a different user proc ess while avoiding interrupts. A hardware implemented delay timer and a buff er fill monitor generate interrupts when the system is not polling, thus gua ranteeing a maximum latency and preventing buffer overflow, but these interr upts are largely avoided by polling when the system is handling a large amou nt of inter processor data traffic.