Method for exchanging information between operating systems coexisting on the same computer

• US 20040064521A1
• Filed: 05/27/2003
• Published: 04/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Original Assignee: Bull Sas (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Tuilliere, Michel, LeCampion, Michel, Baudry, Robert
• Granted Patent: US 7,299,476 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/213
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

The present invention concerns a method for exchanging information between processes, tasks or computer applications executed by different operating systems coexisting on the same computer or the same hardware platform.

This method allows communication between at least two client processes (13, 23) executed at the same time in a hardware platform (10) comprising one or more processors and storage means, at least part of which constitutes an addressable memory area that can be used as a working memory. These client processes are executed in two different operating systems (11, 21, respectively) that are not directly compatible with one another. The method is characterized in that these client processes write or read or modify information called exchange data (15) in at least one common part, called an exchange memory (101), of the addressable memory of the hardware platform.

Claims

1. Method for communication between at least two computer processes, called client processes (13, 23), executed at the same time in a computer system called a hardware platform (10) comprising one or more processors and storage means, at least part of which constitutes an addressable memory area that can be used as a working memory, these client processes being executed in different operating systems (11, 21, respectively) that manage the utilization of the system'"'"'s resources by their client processes and are not directly compatible with one another, characterized in that these client processes write or read or modify information called exchange data (15), in at least one common part, called an exchange memory (101), of the addressable memory of the hardware platform.

2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one of the client processes (13, 23) writes or reads or modifies exchange data (15) in the exchange memory (10) by accessing one or more locations in this exchange memory through data or addresses that represent, in a constant and unambiguous way, the position of these locations in at least part of the addressable memory of the hardware platform.

3. Method according to either of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that at least one of these client processes (13, 23) performs at least one exchange operation, by writing or reading or modifying exchange data (15) in the exchange memory (101) without taking into account the state or the availability of the other client process (23, 13, respectively), or of the operating system of this other client process.

4. Method according to any of claims 1 through 3, characterized in that the management, performed by at least one operating system (21), of the utilization of the resources by a client process (23) includes the sending of control data, called primitives, from this same operating system to a proprietary software environment (20) that manages the resources of the hardware platform for this operating system (21), the communication method comprising the execution, handled by this proprietary software (20), of at least one process called an exchange engine (201), which receives the requests for exchange operations from at least one client process (13, 23) and manages the performance of these exchange operations by a process executed in this same proprietary software (20).

5. Method according to claim 4, characterized in that the exchange engine process (201) receives requests for exchange operations from the client processes (13, 23) and handles them using a method comprising a continuous recursive repetition of the following steps:

a wait, by the exchange engine (201), for an event (e41;

FIG.

     4) signaled by a client process (13), called the requesting process, and representing a request for an exchange operation;

the reception, by the exchange engine (201) from the requesting process (13), of data (HslOpCell) representing the exchange operation requested;

an exchange, between the exchange engine (201) and at least one process of this proprietary software (20), of information representing the exchange operation requested;

a wait, by the exchange engine (201), for an event (e42) representing the end of the processing, by the proprietary software (20), of the exchange operation.

6. Method according to any of claims 1 through 5, characterized in that the exchange data (15) are structured into one or more software objects called exchange objects, stored in the exchange memory (101), these exchange objects comprising one or more semaphores whose structure includes at least one datum (COUNT) representing the current value of the semaphore, the state of these semaphores being able to be read or tested by the client processes (13, 23) and being able to be modified through one or more exchange operations.

7. Method according to claim 6, characterized in that the modification of an exchange object by a client process (13, 23), called a requesting process, is done through one or more exchange operations comprising the following steps:

the sending, by the requesting process (13, 23), of at least one instruction requesting the reservation of an exchange object for the sole use of said requesting process;

the sending, by the requesting process, of one or more instructions requesting the modification of said exchange object;

the sending, by the requesting process, of at least one instruction requesting that said exchange object again be made available to all of the other client processes.

8. Method according to any of claims 1 through 7, characterized in that it includes at least one interapplication manager process (25), handled by the proprietary software, (20) that manages the validity of the requests for exchange operations using a process comprising the following steps:

the detection by the interapplication manager process (25) of an event (e31) indicating that the components implementing the communication method are available;

the sending, by the interapplication manager process (25) to at least one client process (13, 23) capable of using exchange data (15), of information indicating that the components that implement the communication method are available;

the detection by the interapplication manager process (25) of an event (e32) representing the end of availability of the components that implement the communication method;

the sending, by the interapplication manager process (25) to at least one client process (13, 23) capable of using exchange data (15), of information indicating that the components that implement the communication method must not be used.

9. Method according to any of claims 1 through 8, characterized in that at least one operating system (21) is a software environment compatible with the “

GCOS7”

operating system by “

BULL,”

the system comprising at least one “

DIANE”

or “

V7000”

proprietary environment by BULL, this proprietary environment functioning either as a virtual machine (20) executed by one or more computer systems or directly on a hardware platform adapted to one of these operating systems (21).

10. Method according to any of claims 1 through 9, characterized in that the virtual machine (20) is executed by an operating system (11) compatible with “

Windows NT”

by Microsoft.

11. Method according to any of claims 1 through 10, characterized in that at least one client process (13, 23) is executed by one of the operating systems “

GCOS,”

, GCOS7,”

“

Windows,”

“

Windows NT,”

“

Unix,”

or “

Linux”

(registered trademarks), in one of their versions or variants.