Multiprocessor communication system and method
AssigneePortalPlayer, Inc.
InventorJason Seung-Min Kim
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To facilitate inter-processor communication between multiple processors in a computer system and to enable the accessing of a dual port memory, or other system resources, without requiring the memory or the data/address bus to be locked, the present invention provides a semaphore unit that preferably incorporates a shared mailbox architecture that, in combination with a set of hardware semaphore registers, enables inter-process communication among the multi-processors. Cooperative multitasking may be accomplished through the use of shared mailbox communication protocols while a preemptive multitasking may be accomplished through the use of hardware semaphore registers.
Claims20
A system for facilitating inter-processor communication in a multiple processor computer system having one or more shared resources, comprising:
- a first mailbox associated with a first processor for indicating the status of the shared resources in the system and for sharing one or more tasks among the multiple processors;
- a second mailbox associated with a second processor for indicating the status of the shared resources in the system and for sharing one or more tasks among the multiple processors;
- and
- a semaphore unit for indicating the status of the shared resources in the system and for notifying the first and second processors of a particular task to be executed by the respective processors.
A system for facilitating inter-processor communication in a multiple processor computer system having one or more shared resources, comprising:
- means for cooperatively multitasking and preemptively multitasking among the multiple processors;
- means for notifying a respective processor of a particular task to be executed;
- means for indicating the status of the shared resources in the system;
- and
- means for communicating the status of a particular shared resource to the processor for execution of the task.
A method for facilitating inter-processor communication in a multiple processor computer system having one or more shared resources, comprising the steps of:
- sending a message to a first mailbox indicating a task to be executed by a first processor;
- notifying the first processor of the message;
- reading the message from the first mailbox;
- configuring a first semaphore register to indicate the data contained at a desired address location of a particular one of the shared resources;
- and
- accessing the first semaphore register and reading the data from the first semaphore register to execute the task.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.