MULTI-PROCESSOR SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING THE RELIABILITY OF SHARED DATA STRUCTURES

摘要

A system for maintaining the reliability of shared data structures, such as message queues, in a multi-processor data processing system is disclosed. The system includes a plurality of virtual memory- type processor units (10) in which the processors share virtual memory and can access each one of a plurality of virtual memory segments by the same virtual memory address. The system assures the reliability of system-wide shared data structures in the event of a failure of one of the processors by maintaining at least two copies of each data structure and by maintaining two copies of a table used in locating such data structures. The system updates copies of such shared data structures that are stored in at least two different processing units with the results of a specified data processing transaction, which may have affected the information in such data structures, in a manner to insure that either identical updates occur or no update occurs. The system further insures that any changes that might have occurred in the information stored in the data structure prior to the end of an aborted transaction is returned to the initial state to permit the transaction to be retried.