Inter-process communication mechanism

摘要

A data processing apparatus comprises at least one source processor core ( 110 ), at least two destination processor cores ( 120 ), a message handler ( 130 ) and a bus arrangement ( 150 ) providing a data communication path between the source core, the destination cores and the message handler. The message handler ( 130 ) has plurality of message-handling modules ( 132 - 1 to 132 - 3 ). At least one of the message-handling modules has a message receipt indicator that is modifiable by each of the destination processor cores to indicate that a message has been received at its destination. This message-handling module also has a transmission completion detector operable to detect, in dependence upon a message receipt indicator value that a message has been received by all of the at least two destination processor cores and to initiate transmission of an acknowledgement signal to the source processor core.