System and method for managing a plurality of processors as devices

• US 20050091473A1
• Filed: 09/25/2003
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Nutter, Mark Richard, Day, Michael Norman, Stafford, James Michael, Aguilar, Maximino Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 7,523,157 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

A method and a system for managing a computer system'"'"'s multiple processors as devices. The operating system accesses the multiple processors using processor device modules loaded into the operating system to facilitate a communication between an application requesting access to a processor and the processor. A device-like access is determined for accessing each one of the processors similar to device-like access for other devices in the system such as disk drives, printers, etc. An application seeking access to a processor issues device-oriented instructions for processing data, and in addition, the application provides the processor with the data to be processed. The processor processes the data according to the instructions provided by the application.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing processors as system devices, the method comprising:

executing an operating system by one or more first processors included in a group of heterogeneous processors;

loading a device module corresponding to one or more secondary processors included in the group of heterogeneous processors into the operating system;

loading an application using the operating system, the application including device-oriented instructions adapted to control the one or more of the secondary processors; and

performing the device-oriented instructions at the one or more of the secondary processors.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting up a device-like access for one or more of the secondary processors, the device-like access being used by the application to access one or more of the secondary processors.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising creating a configuration file, the configuration file containing a list of one or more of the secondary processors and the corresponding device-like access set up for the one or more secondary processors.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining for which of the one or more of the secondary processor the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions are intended.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining is performed using information from the configuration file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the loading the device module facilitates a communication between the application and one or more of the secondary processors by extending the operating system.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising translating the application'"'"'s instructions to secondary processor instructions using the operating system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing the device-oriented instructions comprises the one or more secondary processors processing application-provided data according to the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions.

9. An information handling system comprising:

a plurality of heterogeneous processors, wherein the plurality of heterogeneous processors includes one or more first processors and one or more secondary processors; and

a common memory accessible by the plurality of heterogeneous processors, wherein;

the one or more first processors are adapted to;

execute an operating system;

load a device module corresponding to the one or more secondary processors into the operating system; and

load an application using the operating system, the application including device-oriented instructions adapted to control the one or more secondary processors, and

the one or more secondary processors are adapted to perform the device-oriented instructions.

10. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the one or more first processors are further adapted to set up a device-like access for one or more of the secondary processors, wherein the application uses the device-like access to access one or more of the secondary processors.

11. The information handling system of claim 10, wherein the one or more first processors are further adapted to create a configuration file, the configuration file containing a list of one or more of the secondary processors and the corresponding device-like access set up for the one or more secondary processors.

12. The information handling system of claim 11, wherein the one or more first processors are further adapted to determine for which one of the secondary processors the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions are intended.

13. The information handling system of claim 12, wherein the one or more first processors are adapted to perform the determining by using information from the configuration file.

14. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the one or more first processors are adapted to load the device module to facilitate a communication between the application and one or more of the secondary processors by extending the operating system.

15. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the one or more first processors are adapted to facilitate a communication between the application and one or more of the secondary processors device-oriented instructions by translating the application'"'"'s instructions to secondary processor'"'"'s instructions.

16. The information handling system of claim 9, wherein the one or more secondary processors are adapted to perform the instructions by the one or more secondary processors processing application-provided data according to the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions.

17. A computer program product on computer operable media, the computer program product comprising:

means for executing an operating system by one or more first processors included in a group of heterogeneous processors;

means for loading a device module corresponding to one or more secondary processors into the operating system, wherein the secondary processors are included in the group of heterogeneous processors;

means for executing an application, the application including device-oriented instructions adapted to control the one or more of the secondary processors; and

means for performing the device-oriented instructions at the one or more of the secondary processors.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising means for setting up a device-like access for one or more of the secondary processors, the device-like access being used by the application to access one or more of the secondary processors.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising means for creating a configuration file, the configuration file containing a list of one or more of the secondary processors and the corresponding device-like access determined for the one or more secondary processors.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, further comprising means for determining for which of the one or more of the secondary processor the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions are intended.

21. The computer program product of claim 20, wherein the means for determining uses information from the configuration file.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the means for loading the device module facilitates a communication between the application and one or more of the secondary processors.

23. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising means for translating the application'"'"'s instructions to secondary processor instructions.

24. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the means for performing the instructions comprises means for processing application-provided data according to the application'"'"'s device-oriented instructions.