Communications: electrical – Continuously variable indicating – With meter reading
Patent
1993-04-06
1995-01-17
Yusko, Donald J.
Communications: electrical
Continuously variable indicating
With meter reading
371 36, 364183, H04Q 100
Patent
active
053829506
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device for distributing interrupts for updating messages and commands to individual computers of a secure multi-computer system. A publication by the firm Standard Elektrik Lorenz SELMIS, 1974.12822 discloses a three-channel computer system having a so-called interrupt controller, by means of which interrupts are entered into the three individual computers at the same time to interrupt the programs running at that time. Certain interrupts are only accepted when they fulfill the two-out-of-three condition, (i.e., when at least two of the three computers have supplied the proper control signals to interrupt the program). In dependence upon the significance of the bit position of the pending interrupt at the time, the interrupt output is delayed by specified delay times when only two of the three computers have actually emitted the appropriate control signals. The interrupt controller is a central module shared by all of the computers. Disturbances in the functioning performance of the interrupt module have an effect on the entire computer system and adversely affect both the integrity as well as the reliability of the computer system.
German Published Patent Application No. 34 31 169 discloses a method for synchronizing several parallel-working computers, wherein the computers synchronize their program runs by way of interrupts. To this end, each computer makes interrupt demands of itself and of its partner computers when certain programming points are reached. These interrupt demands only lead to an interrupt and, thus, to a synchronization of the program runs in the computers when they satisfy the two-out-of-three condition. It cannot be inferred from the afore-mentioned German Published Patent Application how process-initiated interrupts, i.e., messages and commands, are distributed to the computers and phased into the data processing of the computers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a device having decentralized functioning in which interrupts are distributed for updating messages and commands to individual computers of a secure multi-computer system. In case of a disturbance, the device limits the effect of this disturbance to only the computer channel actually affected by the disturbance. After one computer channel malfunctions, the occurrence of a another disturbance within the device is supposed to cause the computer system to be reliably shut down. Processing the interrupt represents only a smallest possible base load for the computer system. The present invention solves this task by using decentralized modules for the interrupt distribution. In this manner, any possible disturbance remains restricted to that computer channel to which this module is allocated. Because hardware-majority elements are used, no costly synchronization operations are required among the computers to handle the interrupts. If after a first module or a first computer channel fails, still a further module malfunctions, then this means that no further interrupt demands can be output via the majority elements, i.e., that the computer system has become altogether inoperative, because it no longer reacts to the process requirements. However, this is not recognized by the data-comparison operation being carried out among the computers. To nevertheless uncover the errors that have occurred, separate hardware measures are implemented to recognize the additional malfunction and to shut down the computer system.
Thus, an embodiment of the present invention will advantageously allow the control signals coming from the computers to be read into the data flow of the computers to make the interrupt request and to be fed in a timely fashion to the majority elements of the individual modules. This is achieved by specific control signals from the computer in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.
To avoid undesirable reactions on the system among the individual modules, the interconnected inputs and outputs of these modules must
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IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 15, No. 4, Sep. 1972, New York, US, pp. 1172-1173, E. J. Franklin: Software Synchronization of Multiple Computers.
Miller Gregg V.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Yusko Donald J.
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