SAFE AND SECURE MULTICORE SYSTEM

• US 20110055518A1
• Filed: 08/27/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Hotra, Jonathan N., Luecke, Kenn R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,458,718 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 712/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources

Abstract

The different advantageous embodiments provide a system for partitioning a data processing system comprising a number of cores and a partitioning process. The partitioning process is configured to assign a number of partitions to the number of cores. Each partition in the number of partitions is assigned to a separate number of cores from the number of cores.

Claims

1. A method for partitioning a data processing system, the method comprising:

responsive to detecting a start-up of the data processing system, identifying a configuration profile for the data processing system;

partitioning the data processing system based on the configuration profile to form a number of partitions within the data processing system;

allocating a number of resources to the number of partitions based on the configuration profile; and

releasing control of the data processing system until a next system start up.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the number of partitions is assigned to at least one core in a plurality of cores.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of resources allocated to a first partition are different than the number of resources allocated to a second partition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of resources include at least one of memory, applications, operating systems, supervisors, hypervisors, kernels, internal communication channels, external communication channels, and drivers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein partitioning the system further comprises:

assigning a number of input/output devices to the number of partitions, wherein each partition in the number of partitions is assigned a different input/output device in the number of input/output devices.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a number of interrupt requests from an input/output device are routed to a partition in the number of partitions based on the input/output device assignment.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reserving a partition in the number of partitions for a communications unit.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the communications unit is configured to route communications between the number of partitions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein releasing control of the data processing system until the next system start up further comprises:

releasing control of the data processing system to a communications unit process, wherein the communications unit process is configured to manage inter-partition communication between the number of partitions.

10. A system for partitioning a data processing system, the system comprising:

a number of cores; and

a partitioning process configured to assign a number of partitions to the number of cores, each partition in the number of partitions assigned to a separate number of cores from the number of cores.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the partitioning process further comprises:

a configuration profile having instructions for partitioning the data processing system into the number of partitions and allocating a number of resources to the number of partitions.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a memory management unit configured to route memory access for each core in the number of cores to a specific portion of memory.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a communications unit configured to provide inter-partition communication; and

a communications unit process configured to manage the inter-partition communication between the number of partitions using the communications unit.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the partitioning process reserves a partition in the number of partitions for the communications unit.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the partitioning process releases control of the data processing system to the communications unit process after partitioning the data processing system at startup.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the partitioning process further allocates a number of resources to the number of partitions, each partition in the number of partitions having a separate number of resources from the number of resources.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the number of resources include at least one of memory, applications, operating systems, supervisors, hypervisors, kernels, internal communication channels, external communication channels, and drivers.

18. A method for partitioning a data processing system having a plurality of cores, the method comprising:

detecting a start-up of the data processing system;

partitioning the data processing system to form a number of partitions assigned to a number of cores from the plurality of cores within the data processing system;

allocating a number of resources to the number of partitions; and

releasing control of the data processing system until a next system start up.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein each partition in the number of partitions formed is assigned to a different number of cores from the plurality of cores within the data processing system.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein releasing control of the data processing system until the next system start up further comprises:

releasing control of the data processing system to a communications unit process, wherein the communications unit process is configured to manage inter-partition communication between the number of partitions.