초록 ▼

A Fault-Tolerant Multi-Computer System for control applications is disclosed. The system has a plurality of Computers (10a-10n), each having an assigned set of tasks which it is capable of executing. No one Computer in the system acts as a master and no one Computer executes all of the tasks. Commun

A Fault-Tolerant Multi-Computer System for control applications is disclosed. The system has a plurality of Computers (10a-10n), each having an assigned set of tasks which it is capable of executing. No one Computer in the system acts as a master and no one Computer executes all of the tasks. Communication between the Computers is by individual communication links (16, 18, 20) over which each Computer sends information directly to all other Computers in the system. Each Computer comprises an Applications Computer (100) and an Operations Controller (200). The Operations Controller receives messages over the communication links and selects, from the assigned tasks, the tasks to be performed by the associated Applications Computer. Each Operations Controller includes a fault handler which checks the messages received from the other Computers. The fault handlers send and receive error messages, over the communication links, to assist in the identification of a faulty Computer. Subsequent messages from the Computers deemed to be faulty are ignored, and the tasks assigned to the faulty Computer are executed by alternate Computers in the system.

대표청구항 ▼

A fault-tolerant multi-computer system architecture, responsive to intercomputer messages and to inputs from external sources for executing a predetermined set of tasks to produce an output to at least one external device, comprising: a plurality of computers for collectively executing the predeterm

A fault-tolerant multi-computer system architecture, responsive to intercomputer messages and to inputs from external sources for executing a predetermined set of tasks to produce an output to at least one external device, comprising: a plurality of computers for collectively executing the predetermined set of tasks in a coordinated manner to produce outputs to the at least one external device in response to the inputs from the external sources and the intercomputer messages, each of said computers having an assigned subset of the tasks which it is capable of selecting and executing in a predetermined order of priority, each task in said predetermined set of tasks being included in more than one of said assigned subset so that each task is capable of being selected and executed by more than one computer; and a like plurality of communication links, one associated with each computer, each communication link transmitting only the intercomputer messages sent by the associated computer to all of the computers which require any message generated by the associated computer; and wherein each of said plurality of computers comprises: operations controller means for controlling the operation of its own computer in coordination with like operations controllers in the other computers, each operations controller including: receiver means for receiving intercomputer messages, fault handler means for checking said intercomputer messages to detect the faulty operation of any computer in the system, and to exclude from further processing the messages received from faulty computers, scheduler means responsive to the receipt of all the data variables for the execution of at least one of its assigned tasks for selecting from its assigned subset the tasks to be executed, task communicator means responsive to the task selected by the scheduler means for assembling the data variables required for the execution of the selected task and transmitter means responsive to said fault handler means, said scheduler means and said task communicator means for sending intercomputer messages to all of the computers in the system, said messages containing an identification of the faulty computers, identification of the tasks it has selected, and the values of the data variables resulting from the execution of the selected tasks required for the execution of a subsequent task; and applications computer means for executing the tasks selected by said scheduler means using the data assembled by said task communicator means.