Virtual heterogeneous channel for message passing

• US 8,281,060 B2
• Filed: 04/08/2011
• Issued: 10/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Supalov, Alexander V., Truschin, Vladimir D., Ryzhykh, Alexey V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Zaman, Faisal M
• Application Number:
  US13/082,649
• Publication Number:
  US 20110185100A1
• Time in Patent Office: 543 Days
• Field of Search: 710/200, 710/305, 709213-216
• US Class Current: 710/305
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

A technique includes using a virtual channel between a first process and a second process to communicate messages between the processes. Each message contains protocol data and user data. All of the protocol data is communicated over a first channel associated with the virtual channel, and the user data is selectively communicated over at least one other channel associated with the virtual channel.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first processor to send a message from a first process executing on the first processor to a second process executing on a second processor, wherein the first process is to send the message while the second process is in a wait state;

the second processor to receive the message from the first process while the second process is in the wait state, wherein the first process is to send a wake up message to the second process based on a state of a synchronization block for the second process if the second process is in the wait state when the message is sent; and

a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) coupled to the first and second processors and including instructions to create a shared memory segment having a location distributed using an out-of-band communication, the shared memory segment to store a synchronization block for the first process and store the synchronization block for the second process, wherein each synchronization block includes a wait flag to indicate that the associated process is in the wait state and a wake up counter to indicate a number of messages sent by the associated process to another process that have not been received.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first process is to check the wait flag of the corresponding synchronization block for the second process and send the wake up message if the wait flag indicates that the second process is in the wait state and the wake up counter is equal to zero.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first process is to send the message via a shared memory buffer and to send the wake up message via a secondary connection.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the first process is to lock the synchronization block for the second process before accessing the synchronization block and to unlock the synchronization block after accessing the synchronization block.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first process is to first send the message and to thereafter determine if the second process is in the wait state.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second process is to unlock the synchronization block for the second process before entering the wait state.

7. A method comprising:

creating a shared memory segment having a location distributed using an out-of-band communication and to store a synchronization block for each of a plurality of processes that execute in a message passing interface (MPI) library, wherein each synchronization block includes a wait flag to indicate that the associated process is in a wait state, a first counter to indicate a number of messages sent by the associated process to another process that have not been received, and a pointer to a mutex for synchronization of processes during access to the synchronization block;

transferring a message from a first process to a shared memory buffer of a second process via a shared memory connection; and

sending a wake up message from the first process to the second process via a secondary connection if the second process is in the wait state.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising moving the message from the shared memory buffer to a user buffer of the second process.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending a wake up message from the second process to the first process if the first process is in the wait state when the second process moves the message.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising de-allocating the shared memory buffer via the first process after the first process is activated from the wait state.