Methods and apparatus for implementing server functions in a distributed heterogeneous environment
AssigneeDigital Equipment Corporation
InventorsNeal F. Jacobson, Michael J. Renzullo, Paul A. Reilly
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In distributed heterogeneous data processing networks, dispatcher and control server software components execute the code of a single application or of many portions of the code of one or more applications in response to a method object received from a client application. The method object includes a reference to the code to be executed.
Claims6
In a network containing a memory and processors connected to each other by a network bus, the memory storing a context database and a global database, the global database including methods and applications, the context dam base including preferences, the preferences for identifying the methods, the applications, and the processors according to a predetermined order, the processors having shared access to the context database and the global database, a process to execute the applications comprising the steps of:
- referencing in the global database, by a client application executing on a client processor, a method and an application to perform the method;
- identifying, in response to the referencing and using the preferences, a server application to perform the method;
- determining if the server application is available in the network;
- if the server application is not available, identifying, using the preferences, a server processor, starting the server application on the server processor, and signalling the client processor that the server application is available;
- and
- if the server application is available in the network, executing the server application to perform the method.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.