Daniel W Peters

US Patent:

51796694, Jan 12, 1993

Filed:

Aug 22, 1988

Appl. No.:

7/235069

Inventors:

Daniel V. Peters - Warrenville IL

Assignee:

AT&T Bell Laboratories - Murray Hill NJ

International Classification:

G06F 13364

US Classification:

395325

Abstract:

In a multiprocessor system (FIG. 1), the processors (10-12) are interconnected by a non-blocking communication medium such as a crossbar switch (19). Each processor is connected to a dedicated port circuit (18) at the switch by an optical link (16). Each port circuit is connected to the crossbar switch by an electrical link (20). The port circuits are interconnected by a contention medium (14). A port circuit sends an access request by its connected processor to the destination processor over the contention medium. Circuitry (205) at each port circuit receives requests, for access to the connected processor, prioritizes conflicting requests, and grants them sequentially. The circuitry interleaves grants of access to the connected processor with grants of outgoing access requests made by the connected processor. The circuitry grants an access request by causing the crossbar switch to establish the corresponding connection.