Thomas A Howe

US Patent:

54487307, Sep 5, 1995

Filed:

Dec 14, 1993

Appl. No.:

8/166754

Inventors:

Thomas R. Bakita - Raleigh NC
Steven M. Crimmins - Durham NC
Thomas L. Howe - Oxford NC
Frederick J. Reznak - Cary NC

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G06F 938

US Classification:

395650

Abstract:

Method and apparatus for tagging a service request and the responses to a service request in a pipeline program running on a task in a multitasking computer system. Each service request made to a service supplier from a pipeline stage is tagged with a unique identifier string that is automatically returned to the pipeline with the response to the service request. A time manager stage monitors the unique identifiers appended to responses directed into the pipeline and uses the identifiers to correlate each response to a specific, previously sent request. The time manager then directs the responses to the appropriate destination stage. The time manager also discards responses that are no longer needed either because the appropriate destination stage or pipeline is no longer active, or because a user specified time-out interval has elapsed.