Thread to thread communication

• US 7,861,249 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2009
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Jiang, Hong, Dwyer, Michael K.
• Primary Examiner(s): WU, QING YUAN
• Application Number:
  US12/539,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20090300651A1
• Time in Patent Office: 503 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/313, 719/318, 709/201, 709/238, 709/245, 726/2, 726 4- 5, 713/182, 713/189
• US Class Current: 719/313
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Thread to thread communication is provided. A first thread registers with a gateway for receiving communication. Registration includes identifying a location for receiving messages. The gateway maps message payloads received from second threads to the location of the first thread. The first thread detects a payload in the location and consumes it for processing.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

registering at least one of a first and second threads to a gateway for communications by sending an open gateway request;

identifying a first location for the first thread to receive communications from the second thread if the first thread is registered;

identifying a second location for the second thread to receive communications from the first thread if the second thread is registered;

receiving a message having a destination identifier identifying a destination thread and a payload identifying a thread not known to the destination thread from one of the first and second threads; and

forwarding the message to a location corresponding to the destination thread using the destination identifier included within the message to communicate the payload to the destination thread;

establishing communication by the destination thread with the thread not known to the destination thread using the payload.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a close communication request from a requesting thread, which is identified as the first or the second thread; and

removing a location of the requesting thread from use during the communications.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an event indicating one of the threads is to have its communications closed; and

removing a location of the detected thread from use during communications.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising validating key information included with the message before forwarding the message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying further includes at least one of:

receiving a first register location as the first location in the open gateway request from the first thread; and

receiving a second register location as the second location in the open gateway request from the second thread.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying further includes at least one of:

maintaining a first mapping between a first generic identifier to the first register location for the first thread; and

maintaining a second mapping between a second generic identifier to the second register location for the second thread.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein forwarding further includes extracting from fields of the message the destination identifier which is identified as the first or second generic identifier in order to determine which of the mappings provides an appropriate register location for the message.

8. A system, comprising:

a first register to store messages for a first thread;

a second register to store messages for a second thread; and

a device separate from said first and second registers to register at least one of the first and second threads and returning one of a first identifier and second identifier to one of the first and second registered threads;

the device further to receive a message from one of the first and second threads, the message having a destination identifier identifying a destination thread and a payload identifying a thread not known to the destination thread, identifying a corresponding register for storing the message based on the identified destination thread, and forwarding the message to the corresponding register to communicate the payload to the destination thread.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the device further issues status information to the first or second threads upon request.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the first thread is a parent thread associated with a plurality of child threads and the second thread is one of the plurality of child threads.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second threads are children of a common parent thread.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second threads are child threads on different hierarchical levels.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the device extracts key information from the message, and wherein the key information validates the identities of the first and second threads to one another during communications.