Method of communication between processors in a distributed processing system having a host processor and at least one object oriented processor

• US 5,774,721 A
• Filed: 09/08/1995
• Issued: 06/30/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: IQ Net Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: I Q Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Robinson, Jeffrey I.
• Primary Examiner(s): Oberley, Alvin E.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Banankhah, Majid A.
• Application Number:
  US08/525,475
• Time in Patent Office: 1,026 Days
• Field of Search: 395/704, 395/705, 395/800, 395/200.05, 395/683, 395/684, 395/680, 395/681
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

Distributed processing systems having a host processor and at least one object oriented processor are disclosed. An object oriented processor according to the invention has a communications interface, an intelligent message handler, and a task-specific functionality. The communications interface is coupled to a host processor via a message based communications link. A high level command language is provided which is easily implemented in a host processor program. The command language includes subsets of commands which are understood by different object oriented processors having different functionality. According to one embodiment, the object oriented processor includes support for a broad array of input and output devices. The command language includes high level commands for initializing, reading from and/or writing to the peripherals supported by the object oriented processor. According to another embodiment, the object oriented processor of the invention is addressable and several object oriented processors having similar functionality can be coupled to a single host via the same comms link. According to yet another embodiment, an object oriented processor according to the invention further includes a linking table and a periodic message generator which allows one object oriented processor to communicate directly with another object oriented processor without supervision by the host processor.

Claims

1. A method for distributing processing tasks between a host processor and a first object oriented processor having a first task-specific functionality, said method comprising:

a) providing a high level command language, said high level command language including a first subset of commands for use by the host processor to call on the first task-specific functionality of the first object oriented processor;

b) programming the host processor to call on the first object oriented processor using messages composed from said first subset of commands to access the first task-specific functionality of the first object oriented processor; and

c) programming the first object oriented processor to return results of the first task-specific functionality to the host processor using messages composed from said high level command language.

2. A method according to claim 1, for distributing tasks among the host processor, the first object oriented processor, and a second object oriented processor having a second task-specific functionality, further comprising:

d) providing said high level command language with a second subset of commands for use by the host processor to call on the second task-specific functionality of the second object oriented processor;

e) programming the host processor to call on the second object oriented processor using messages composed from said second subset of commands to access the second task-specific functionality of the second object oriented processor; and

f) programming the second object oriented processor to return results of the second task-specific functionality to the host processor using messages composed from said high level command language.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

at least one of said messages from the host to the first object oriented processor includes at least one command from said first subset of commands and at least one parameter.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

at least one of said messages from the host to the first object oriented processor is followed by a checksum number.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein:

said checksum number is a modulo256 sum of the characters in said at least one of said messages.

6. A method according to claim 3, wherein:

said at least one command is delimited from said at least one parameter with at least one delimiter character.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein:

said at least one delimiter character includes a {prior to said at least one command and a } subsequent to said at least one command.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein:

at least one of said messages from the object oriented processor to the host is selected from the group consisting of data, an error message, and an acknowledgement.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein:

said data is delimited by a first pair of characters and said error message is delimited by a second pair of characters.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein:

said first pair of characters is and said second pair of characters is ().

11. A method according to claim 8, wherein:

said acknowledgment is a single character.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein:

said single character is .

13. A method of distributing processing tasks in a distributed processing system having a host processor, a first object oriented processor having a first task-specific functionality, and a second object oriented processor having a second task-specific functionality, a linking table, and a periodic message generator, said method comprising:

a) providing a high level command language including a first subset of commands to call on the first task-specific functionality, a second subset of commands to call on the second task-specific functionality, and a third subset of commands to call on the periodic message generator and the linking table;

b) programming the host processor to call on the second object oriented processor using messages composed from the second subset of commands to access the second task-specific functionality of the second object oriented processor;

c) programming the host processor to call on the linking table and the periodic message generator using the third subset of commands and the first subset of commands to direct the second object oriented processor to transmit a message to the first object oriented processor to call on the first task-specific functionality.