Computer architecture and method of operation for multi-computer distributed processing with initialization of objects

• US 20060253844A1
• Filed: 10/25/2005
• Published: 11/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Waratek Pty Limited
• Original Assignee: Waratek Pty Limited
• Inventors: Holt, John Matthew
• Application Number:
  US11/259,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20060253844A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/148
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/456 Parallelism detection

Abstract

The present invention discloses a modified computer architecture which (50, 71, 72) enables an applications program (50) to be run simultaneously on a plurality of computers (M1, . . . Mn). Shared memory at each computer is updated with amendments and/or overwrites so that all memory read requests are satisfied locally. During initial program loading (75), or similar, instructions which result in memory being re-written or manipulated are identified (92). Additional instructions are inserted (103) to cause the equivalent memory locations at all computers to be updated. In particular, the initialisation of JAVA language classes and objects is disclosed (162, 163) so all memory locations for all computers are initialized in the same manner.

Claims

1. A multiple computer system having at least one application program each written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously on a plurality of computers interconnected by a communications network, wherein different portions of said application program(s) execute substantially simultaneously on different ones of said computers and for each said portion a like plurality of substantially identical objects are created, each in the corresponding computer and each having a substantially identical name, and wherein the initial contents of each of said identically named objects is substantially the same.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein each said computer includes a distributed run time means with the distributed run time means of each said computer able to communicate with all other computers whereby if a portion of said application program(s) running on one of said computers creates an object in that computer then the created object is propagated by the distributed run time means of said one computer to all the other computers.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2 wherein each said application program is modified before, during, or after loading by inserting an initialization routine to modify each instance at which said application program creates an object, said initialization routine propagating every object newly created by one computer to all said other computers.

4. The system as claimed in claim 3 wherein said inserted initialization routine modifies a pre-existing initialization routine to enable the pre-existing initialization routine to execute on creation of the first of said like plurality of objects, and to disable the pre-existing initialization routine on creation of all subsequent ones of said like plurality of objects.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the application program is modified in accordance with a procedure selected from the group of procedures consisting of re-compilation at loading, pre-compilation prior to loading, compilation prior to loading, just-in-time compilation, and re-compilation after loading and before execution of the relevant portion of application program.

6. The system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said modified application program is transferred to all said computers in accordance with a procedure selected from the group consisting of master/slave transfer, branched transfer and cascaded transfer.

23. The method claimed in claim 2 wherein step (ii) comprises the steps of:

(iii) loading and executing said initialization routine on one of said computers,

(iv) modifying said initialization routine by said one computer, and

(v) transferring said modified initialization routine to each of the remaining computers.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23 wherein said modified initialization routine is supplied by said one computer direct to each of said remaining computers.

25. The method as claimed in claim 23 wherein said modified initialization routine is supplied in cascade fashion from said one computer sequentially to each of said remaining computers.

7. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communications link and simultaneously operating at least one application program each written to operation on only a single computer wherein each said computer substantially simultaneously executes a different portion of said application program(s), each said computer in operating its application program portion creates objects only in local memory physically located in each said computer, the contents of the local memory utilized by each said computer are fundamentally similar but not, at each instant, identical, and every one of said computers has distribution update means to distribute to all other said computers objects created by said one computer.

8. The plurality of computers as claimed in claim 7 wherein the local memory capacity allocated to the or each said application program is substantially identical and the total memory capacity available to the or each said application program is said allocated memory capacity.

9. The plurality of computers as claimed in claim 7 wherein all said distribution update means communicate via said communications link at a data transfer rate which is substantially less than the local memory read rate.

10. The plurality of computers as claimed in claim 7 wherein at least some of said computers are manufactured by different manufacturers and/or have different operating systems.

11. A method of running simultaneously on a plurality of computers at least one application program each written to operate on only a single computer, said computers being interconnected by means of a communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

(i) executing different portions of said application program(s) on different ones of said computers and for each said portion creating a like plurality of substantially identical objects each in the corresponding computer and each having a substantially identical name, and

(ii) creating the initial contents of each of said identically named objects substantially the same.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11 comprising the further step of:

(iii) if a portion of said application program running on one of said computers creates an object in that computer, then the created object is propagated to all of the other computers via said communications network.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 including the further step of:

(iv) modifying said application program before, during or after loading by inserting an initialization routine to modify each instance at which said application program creates an object, said initialization routine propagating every object created by one computer to all said other computers.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the further step of:

(v) modifying said application program utilizing a procedure selected from the group of procedures consisting of re-compilation at loading, pre-compilation prior to loading, compilation prior to loading, just-in-time compilation, and re-compilation after loading and before execution of the relevant portion of application program.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 including the further step of:

(vi) transferring the modified application program to all said computers utilizing a procedure selected from the group consisting of master/slave transfer, branched transfer and cascaded transfer.

35. A computer program product comprising a set of program instructions stored in a storage medium and operable to permit a plurality of computers to carry out the method as claimed in claim 11.

40. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being programmed to carry out the method as claimed in claim 11.

44. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being loaded with the computer program product as claimed in claim 35.

16. A method of compiling or modifying an application program written to operate on only a single computer to have different portions thereof to execute substantially simultaneously on different ones of a plurality of computers interconnected via a communications link, said method comprising the steps of:

(i) detecting instructions which create objects utilizing one of said computers,

(ii) activating an initialization routine following each said detected object creation instruction, said initialization routine forwarding each created object to the remainder of said computers.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 and carried out prior to loading the application program onto each said computer, or during loading of the application program onto each said computer, or after loading of the application program onto each said computer and before execution of the relevant portion of the application program.

36. A computer program product comprising a set of program instructions stored in a storage medium and operable to permit a plurality of computers to carry out the method as claimed in claim 16.

41. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being programmed to carry out the method as claimed in claim 16.

45. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being loaded with the computer program product as claimed in claim 36.

18. In a multiple thread processing computer operation in which individual threads of a single application program written to operate on only a single computer are simultaneously being processed each on a different corresponding one of a plurality of computers interconnected via a communications link, the improvement comprising communicating objects created in local memory physically associated with the computer processing each thread to the local memory of each other said computer via said communications link.

19. The improvement as claimed in claim 18 wherein objects created in the memory associated with one said thread are communicated by the computer of said one thread to all other said computers.

20. The improvement as claimed in claim 18 wherein objects created the memory associated with one said thread are transmitted to the computer associated with another said thread and are transmitted thereby to all said other computers.

37. A computer program product comprising a set of program instructions stored in a storage medium and operable to permit a plurality of computers to carry out the method as claimed in claim 18.

42. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being programmed to carry out the method as claimed in claim 18.

46. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being loaded with the computer program product as claimed in claim 37.

21. A method of ensuring consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but different portions of which are to be executed simultaneously each on a different one of a plurality of computers interconnected via a communications network, said method comprising the steps of:

(i) scrutinizing said application program at, or prior to, or after loading to detect each program step defining an initialization routine, and

(ii) modifying said initialization routine to ensure consistent operation of all said computers.

22. The method as claimed in claim 21 wherein said initialization routine is modified to execute once only on the creation of a first object by any one of said computers and is modified to be disabled on the creation of each subsequent peer copy of said object by the remainder of said computers.

26. The method claimed in claim 21 wherein step (ii) comprises the steps of:

(vi) loading and modifying said initialization routine on one of said computers,

(vii) said one computer sending said unmodified initialization routine to each of the remaining computers, and

(viii) each of said remaining computers modifying said initialization routine after receipt of same.

27. The method claimed in claim 26 wherein said unmodified initialization routine is supplied by said one computer directly to each of said remaining computers.

28. The method claimed in claim 26 wherein said unmodified initialization routine is supplied in cascade fashion from said one computer sequentially to each of said remaining computers.

29. The method claimed in claim 22 wherein step (ii) comprises the steps of:

(iii) loading and executing said initialization routine on one of said computers,

(iv) modifying said initialization routine by said one computer, and

(v) transferring said modified initialization routine to each of the remaining computers.

30. The method as claimed in claim 29 wherein said modified initialization routine is supplied by said one computer direct to each of said remaining computers.

31. The method as claimed in claim 29 wherein said modified initialization routine is supplied in cascade fashion from said one computer sequentially to each of said remaining computers.

32. The method claimed in claim 22 wherein step (ii) comprises the steps of:

(vi) loading and modifying said initialization routine on one of said computers,

(vii) said one computer sending said unmodified initialization routine to each of the remaining computers, and

(viii) each of said remaining computers modifying said initialization routine after receipt of same.

33. The method claimed in claim 32 wherein said unmodified initialization routine is supplied by said one computer directly to each of said remaining computers.

34. The method claimed in claim 32 wherein said unmodified initialization routine is supplied in cascade fashion from said one computer sequentially to each of said remaining computers.

38. A computer program product comprising a set of program instructions stored in a storage medium and operable to permit a plurality of computers to carry out the method as claimed in claim 21.

43. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being programmed to carry out the method as claimed in claim 21.

47. A plurality of computers interconnected via a communication network and operable to ensure consistent initialization of an application program written to operate on only a single computer but running simultaneously of said computers, said computers being loaded with the computer program product as claimed in claim 38.