Multiprocessor computer having configurable hardware system domains

摘要

Global address and data routers interconnect individual system units each having its own processors, memory, and I/O. A domain filter coupled to the routers dynamically defines groups of system units as domains and clusters of domains which have both software and hardware isolation from each other. Clusters can share dynamically definable ranges of memory with each other. The domain filter has software-loadable registers on the system units and in the global routers to set the parameters of the domains and clusters. The registers label individual inter-system transactions on the routers as invalid for system units not in the same domain or cluster as the originating unit. <IMAGE>