Dynamic function exchanging mechanism in Poly-Processor system
M. Sato, Seishi Nishikawa, K. Murakami, S. Takahira · 1979
Microprogramming is a basic technique that realizes functionally specialized processors in a functionally distributed multiprocessor system which consists of many small processors. In such a multiprocessor system, it is necessary to change processor functions dynamically in order to back up a heavily loaded processor or a failed processor by a lightly loaded processor. This paper proposes a mechanism for exchanging processor functions in firmware level and shows a hardware organization which realizes the mechanism in an experimental system. In order to clarify the design conditions of an operating system and microprograms, the performance of the mechanism is analyzed from the load balancing point of view. Moreover, the conditions which the mechanism must satisfy are derived.