System and method for detecting errors using CPU signature

Information

  • Patent Grant
  • 6173416
  • Patent Number
    6,173,416
  • Date Filed
    Monday, March 22, 1999
    25 years ago
  • Date Issued
    Tuesday, January 9, 2001
    23 years ago
Abstract
A fault-tolerant computer architecture is described wherein the effect of hardware faults is diminished. The architecture employs a main data bus having a plurality of interface slots for interconnecting conventional computer sub-systems. The number and type of sub-systems may vary considerably, however, a central processor sub-system which encompasses the inventive elements of the invention is always included. The central processor sub-system employs a plurality of central processing modules operating in parallel in a substantially synchronized manner. One of the central processing modules operates as a master central processing module, and is the only module capable of reading data from and writing data to the main data bus. The master central processing module is initially chosen arbitrarily from among the central processing modules. Each central processing module contains a means by which the module can compare data on the main data bus with data on a secondary bus within each module in order to determine if there is an inconsistency indicating a hardware fault. If such an inconsistency is detected, each module generates state outputs which reflect the probability that a particular module is the source of the fault. A synchronization bus which is separate from the main data bus interconnects the central processing modules and transmits the state outputs from each module to every other central processing module.
Description




BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION




This invention relates to a fault-tolerant computer system.




The traditional approaches to system reliability attempt to prevent the occurrence of faults through improved design methodologies, strict quality control, and various other measures designed to shield system components from external environmental effects (e.g., hardening, radiation shielding). Fault tolerance methodologies assume that system faults will occur and attempt to design systems which will continue to operate in the presence of such faults. In other words, fault-tolerant systems are designed to tolerate undesired changes in their internal structure or their external environment without resulting in system failure. Fault-tolerant systems utilize a variety of schemes to achieve this goal. Once a fault is detected, various combinations of structural and informational redundancy, make it possible to mask it (e.g., through replication of system elements), or correct it (e.g., by dynamic system reconfiguration or some other recovery process). By combining such fault tolerance techniques with traditional fault prevention techniques, even greater increases in overall system reliability may be realized.




SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION




According to the invention, a fault-tolerant computer architecture is provided wherein the effect of hardware faults is diminished. The architecture employs a main data bus having a plurality of interface slots for interconnecting conventional computer sub-systems. Such sub-systems may include a magnetic disk sub-system and a serial communication sub-system. The number and type of sub-systems may vary considerably, however, a central processor sub-system which encompasses the inventive elements of the invention is always included.




The central processor sub-system employs a plurality of central processing modules operating in parallel in a substantially synchronized manner. One of the central processing modules operates as a master central processing module, and is the only module capable of reading data from and writing data to the main data bus. The master central processing module is initially chosen arbitrarily from among the central processing modules.




Each central processing module comprises a means by which the module can compare data on the main data bus with data on a secondary bus within each module in order to determine if there is an inconsistency indicating a hardware fault. If such an inconsistency is detected, each module generates state outputs which reflect the probability that a particular module is the source of the fault. A synchronization bus which is separate from the main data bus interconnects the central processing modules and transmits the state outputs from each module to every other central processing module.




More specifically, each central processing module comprises a shared data bus connected to the main data bus through a first bus interface. A number of hardware elements are connected to the shared data bus including a read/write memory, an asynchronous receiver/transmitter circuit, a timer circuit, a plurality of control and status registers, and a special purpose read/write memory, the purpose of which is to store data corresponding to main data bus interface slots having a defective or absent computer sub-system.




Each module further comprises a comparator circuit which is part of the first bus interface, the purpose of which is to compare data on the main data bus with data on the shared data bus and generate state outputs in response thereto. A parity checking circuit is also part of the first bus interface and monitors data lines in the main data bus, generating a parity output which is used as an input to the comparator circuit.




A private data bus is connected to the shared data bus through a second bus interface. The private data bus is also connected to a plurality of hardware elements which may include a read/write memory, a read-only memory, and a “dirty” memory. The purpose of the “dirty” memory is to store data corresponding to memory locations in the read/write memory to which information has been written. As will become clear, this facilitates the copying of data from one central processing module to another. Also connected to the private data bus and controlling the operation of each central processing module is a central processing unit which operates in a substantially synchronized manner with central processing units in other central processing modules.




Finally, each central processing module contains a control logic circuit which is connected to and controls the first and second bus interfaces. The control logic circuit receives as its inputs the state outputs generated by the comparator circuits in every central processing module. The circuit, using these and other control signals described more specifically below, generates, among other things, control logic signals which indicate to the central processing unit whether a fault has occurred. If a fault is detected, each module then executes a routine which identifies the location of the fault, disables the failed module or sub-system, and then returns to the instruction being executed at the time the fault was detected.




Embodiments of this invention will now be described by way of examples only and with reference to the accompanying drawings.











BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS





FIG. 1

is a block diagram of part of a computer system in accordance with this invention.





FIG. 2

is a more detailed block diagram, illustrating a central processor module which forms part of FIG.


1


.





FIGS. 3A & 3B

is a still more detailed block diagram, illustrating the operation of a bus interface which forms part of the processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 4

is a state-transition diagram, illustrating the operation of the bus interface shown in FIG.


3


.





FIGS. 5A & 5B

is a similar diagram to

FIG. 3

, but illustrates a different mode of operation of the bus interface.





FIG. 6

is a block diagram, illustrating a ‘slave’ mode of operation of the bus interface of

FIGS. 3 and 5

.





FIG. 7

is a block diagram, illustrating a time-out circuit and a special-purpose memory which form part of the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIGS. 8A & 8B

is a block diagram, illustrating a clock generation circuit of the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 9

shows a printed circuit layout which is used in a synchronization bus interconnecting the clock generation circuits of the central processor modules.





FIG. 10

is a block diagram, illustrating an error-detection circuit forming part of the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 11

is a block diagram, illustrating a master-arbitration circuit forming part of the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 12

is a block diagram, illustrating the power-distribution circuits embodied in the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 13

is an isometric view, showing the physical construction of the central processor module of

FIG. 2

, and in particular, showing two interlock switches.





FIG. 14

is a vertical section through the mechanism associated with one of the interlock switches shown in FIG.


13


.





FIG. 15

is a block diagram of a further special-purpose memory forming part of the central processor module of FIG.


2


.





FIG. 16

is a block diagram illustrating a circuit which allows resetting of the central processor module, under software control.





FIG. 17

is a state-transition diagram, illustrating the operation of the circuit of FIG.


16


.











DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS




The computer system illustrated in

FIG. 1

consists of three sub-systems, inter-connected by a data transfer bus


10


. The three sub-systems are: a central processor sub-system


12


; a magnetic disk sub-system


14


for the storage of data; and a serial communications sub-system


16


. It should be understood that this configuration is intended only as an example; the central processor sub-system


12


must be present in every case, but the number and type of the other sub-systems may vary considerably. The connection between each sub-system (except the processor sub-system


12


) and the data transfer bus


10


is provided via a “slot” on the data transfer bus; the bus


10


has a total of eight slots (


18


in FIG.


1


), so it can accommodate up to eight sub-systems, in addition to the processor sub-system


12


.




The sub-systems which are connected via the slots


18


may be entirely conventional, provided that they interface correctly to the data transfer bus


10


; for this reason, the disk sub-system


14


and the communications sub-systems


16


are not further described.




As

FIG. 1

shows, the central processor sub-system


12


comprises three identical central processor modules


20


,


22


,


24


; from now on these processor modules will be referred to as ‘cpusets’. The data transfer bus


10


provides the main interconnection between the cpusets


20


,


22


,


24


, but there is also a synchronization bus


26


which inter-connects the three cpusets. The synchronization bus


26


has no connection to any part of the computer outside the processor sub-system


12


.





FIG. 2

is a more detailed block diagram of one of the cpuset


20


,


22


or


24


(all three are identical). Within the cpuset, there are two data transfer busses: a private bus


28


, and a shared bus


30


. A bus interface


32


is connected to both of these busses, so that data transfer between the two busses is possible. A further bus interface


34


is connected both to the shared bus


30


and to the main data transfer bus


10


of the computer. A control logic circuit block


36


is connected to both the bus interfaces


32


and


34


, to control the operation of these interfaces. In general terms, the use of a private-bus/shared-bus architecture is conventional in the design of the central processor part of a computer; however, the details of the structure and operation of the bus interface


34


are novel. Explanation of these details requires a preliminary explanation of the way in which the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


cooperate during normal operation of the computer.




Each cpuset has a central processing unit


38


(from now on referred to as the CPU


38


), which is connected directly to the private bus


28


. In this example, the CPU is a single Motorola 68040 integrated circuit, but other types of CPU could equally well be used. Other hardware elements which are connected to the private bus


28


include a private read/write memory


40


, a private read-only memory (PROM)


42


, and a special-purpose read/write memory


44


; any data transfers between the CPU


38


and one of the memories


40


,


42


, and


44


will always be confined to the private bus


28


. The read/write memory


40


and the read-only memory


42


are conventional and will not be described in detail. A later part of this description provides details about the construction and use of the special-purpose memory


44


; for reasons which will become clear from that later description, the memory


44


is called the ‘dirty’ memory.




The use of the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


provides ‘Triple Modular Redundancy’ or TMR; in other words, a defect occurring in one of the cpusets can be detected by comparing the behavior of the three cpusets. During normal operation, all three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


will have exactly the same memory contents (in their memories


40


,


42


and


44


), and will execute the same instructions from their memory, inclose synchronism with one another. If the only data transfers required by these instructions are transfers between the CPUs


38


and the memories


40


,


42


and


44


(on the same cpuset as the CPU


38


executing the transfer), then there is no interaction between the cpusets via the main data transfer bus


10


.




This is also true if the instructions being executed by the CPUs


38


require a data transfer which passes through the bus interface


32


, but not through the bus interface


34


; in other words, a data transfer between the CPU


38


and any hardware element connected to the shared bus


30


. As

FIG. 2

shows, each cpuset


20


,


22


or


24


has the following five hardware elements connected to its shared bus


30


: a shared read/write memory


46


; an asynchronous receiver/transmitter circuit


48


(consisting of a 2692 integrated circuit), which provides an RS-232 interface, allowing a computer terminal to be connected directly to the cpuset; a timer circuit


50


(consisting of a 9513 integrated circuit); a group of control and status registers


52


(described later in more detail); and a special-purpose read/write memory


54


(also described later in more detail; for reasons which will become clear later, the memory


54


is called the ‘slot-response memory’). As with the memories


40


,


42


and


44


, all the hardware elements connected to the shared bus


30


will have exactly the same status on all three of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


, during normal operation of the computer.




All other instructions executed by the CPUs


38


will involve both the bus interfaces


32


and


34


in tandem; for example, such instructions might require the CPU


38


to attempt to transfer data to or from the disk sub-system


14


. The control logic circuit block


36


has two signal lines whose state is especially important in controlling the behavior of the bus interface


34


during the attempted data transfer; these are a ‘master’ line


56


, and an ‘e_state’ signal line


58


. At any given moment, each of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


will be in one of three states, which are defined by logic levels on the two signal lines


56


and


58


of that cpuset, as shown by the following table:




















‘master signal’




‘e_state’ signal




State of







(line 56)




(line 58)




the cpuset













Logic ‘1’




Logic ‘0’




‘Master’ state







Logic ‘0’




Logic ‘0’




‘Checker’ state







Any logic level




Logic ‘1’




‘Error’ state















During normal operation of the computer, one of the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


will be in the ‘master’ state, as defined by the levels on the lines


56


and


58


; the other two will be in the ‘checker’ state. None of the cpusets will be in the ‘error’ state, unless a fault has occurred.




If a cpuset is in the ‘master’ state, and its CPU


38


encounters an instruction requiring data transfer to or from the disk sub-system


14


(for example), the bus interface


34


of that cpuset will drive address and control signals on to the main data transfer bus


10


in a generally conventional manner, to perform the data transfer. While this transfer is taking place, the other two cpusets of the processor sub-system (assuming that both are in the ‘checker’ state) should have exactly the same signals on their private and shared busses


28


and


30


as on the corresponding busses of the ‘master’ cpuset; but the bus interfaces


34


of the ‘checker’ cpusets do not pass the address and control signals through to the main data transfer bus


10


. Instead, the bus interface


34


on each cpuset merely compares the signals on the shared bus


30


(of that cpuset) with the signals on the main data transfer bus. An exactly similar checking operation is also performed by the ‘master’ cpuset. If no difference is detected by any of these comparisons, the central processor sub-system


12


is assumed to be healthy, and operation of the computer continues normally. What happens in the event of a difference being detected is explained later; however, it may be mentioned here that one of the results of such a difference is that the ‘e_state’ signal lines


58


on the cpusets will change to a logic ‘1’ level, meaning that all three cpusets are (for the time being) in the ‘error’ state.




If a cpuset is in the ‘error’ state, its control logic


36


does not permit its CPU


28


to perform any data transfers via its bus interface


34


. However, the bus interface


34


of a cpuset in the ‘error state’ can operate as a ‘slave’ device on the main data transfer bus


10


; in other words, another cpuset which is in the ‘master’ state can transfer data to or from any of the hardware elements connected to the shared bus


30


of the cpuset in the ‘error’ state.




The foregoing description is no more than a summary of the co-operation between the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


. A number of important details remain to be explained, with reference to

FIGS. 3

to


6


. The control logic block


36


(one forming part of each cpuset) appears in all these figures except the state-transition diagram of FIG.


4


). This logic block has the task of coordinating the operation of many other parts of the cpuset; it consists mainly of a programmable Array of Logic (PAL), whose behavior is most easily described by a set of Boolean equations, defining the relationships between input and output signals. The following description of each part of the cpuset explicitly mention only those input and output signals that relate to the relevant part of the cpuset; at the end of this description, the full set of equations is listed, giving a complete definition of the behavior of the logic block


36


.





FIG. 3

illustrates the behavior of the bus interface


34


of a cpuset


20


,


22


or


24


, when the cpuset is in the ‘master’ state. As

FIG. 3

shows, the main data transfer bus includes a group of address lines


60


, a group of data lines


62


, and a group of control lines, namely a WRITE line


64


, a data-strobe (DS) line


66


, an address-strobe (AS) line


68


, an asynchronous transfer-acknowledge (ACK) line


70


, and a synchronous transfer-acknowledge (TA) line


72


. The bus interface


34


includes buffers


74


,


76


,


78


and


80


whose outputs are connected to the address, WRITE, DS and AS lines respectively; the inputs of the buffers


74


and


76


are connected to the corresponding signal lines in the shared bus


30


, while the inputs of the buffers


78


and


80


are connected to two output signal lines


82


and


84


from the logic block


36


. The signals on the lines


82


and


84


are ‘tb_ds’ and ‘tb_as’ respectively. The buffers


74


,


76


,


78


and


80


also all have ‘enable’ inputs, which are connected to a further output signal line


86


from the logic block


36


. In the logic equations, the signal on line


86


is ‘to_buse_a’; this signal will be asserted every time a cpuset in the ‘master’ state executes an instruction requiring use of the bus interface


34


. To recognize these instructions, the cpuset includes a private address decoder


88


, connected to the private bus


28


; whenever the address on the private bus falls within a predetermined range, allocated for accesses to the main data transfer bus


10


, the decoder activates an output signal on a line


90


, which is connected to an input of the logic block


36


. In the logic equations for the block


36


, this signal is ‘bus’.




The bus interface


34


also includes a set of bi-directional buffers


92


which interconnect the data lines


62


of the main data transfer bus, and the corresponding lines of the shared bus


30


. The buffers


92


have two ‘enable’ inputs, one for each direction of data transfer; these two inputs are connected to two further output signal lines


94


and


96


from the logic block


36


. In the logic equations, the signal on line


94


(enabling data transfer from the shared bus


30


to the main bus


10


) is ‘to_buse_d’, while the signal on line


96


(enabling data transfer in the opposite direction is ‘from_buse_d’. One (and only one) of the lines


94


,


96


will be asserted if the ‘bus’ signal on line


90


becomes active.




The controlling equations incorporated in the control logic


36


cause the enabling of data transfers towards the main bus


10


on ‘write’ instructions, and towards the shared bus


30


in ‘read’ instructions, except for one special case. This special case arises because the CPU


38


of a cpuset can access the hardware elements connected to its shared bus


30


in either of two ways, depending on the address used for the access:




(i) a purely internal access, which does not activate the signal ‘bus’ on line


90


, and therefore does not involve the bus interface


34


; or




(ii) a self-referential access via the bus interface


34


; this means that the address used for the access falls within the range which causes the ‘bus’ signal on line


90


to become active.




In case (ii), the line


94


(for ‘to_buse_d’) will always become active, irrespective of whether the data transfer direction is ‘read’ or ‘write’. This is because, for either transfer direction, the source of the data (either the CPU


38


, or one of the hardware elements connected to the shared bus


30


) will lie on the shared-bus side of the bus interface


34


.




This means that, by activating the line


94


, the control logic


36


will ensure that the data being transferred also appears on the data lines


62


of the main data transfer bus


10


. This in turn permits the ‘checker’ cpusets access to this data. In the case of a ‘write’ data transfer, all that a ‘checker’ cpuset has to do with this data is to compare it with the data on its own shared bus


30


. In the case of a ‘read’ data transfer, however, a ‘checker’ cpuset actually has to read in the data; in other words, all cpusets (except any in the ‘error’ state) will read in the same data, and so their internal states should remain exactly in step.




A data transfer over the main data bus


10


will be signalled by an active level on the DS and AS lines


66


and


68


. Assuming that the data transfer proceeds normally, one of the sub-systems connected to the slots


18


(or one of the cpusets


20


,


22


,


24


) will then signal completion of the data transfer, by activating the asynchronous transfer-acknowledge (ACK) line


70


. On each cpuset, the line


70


is connected to the D (data) input of a D-type flip-flop


98


, which has its clock input connected to a clock signal derived from a clock generator circuit


100


. The clock circuit


100


is responsible for all clock signals generated on the cpuset, and (during normal operation of the computer) the clock circuits


100


on all three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


run in close synchronism. The Q output of the flip-flop


98


is connected to the input of a buffer


102


, whose output is connected to the synchronous transfer-acknowledge (TA) line


72


; the buffer


102


also has an ‘enable’ input which is connected to the ‘master’ line


56


, so that only the ‘master’ cpuset will drive the TA line


72


. The TA line


72


is connected to an input of the control logic


36


, as well as to the buffer


102


and the main bus


10


; in the equations defining the control logic, the signal from the TA line is ‘rsb_ta’. Again assuming that the data transfer proceeds normally, the effect of the signal from the TA line is to cause the data transfer to terminate, by causing the control logic


36


to activate an output line


104


, which is connected to the CPU


38


. The line


104


corresponds to the ‘u_ta’ term in the logic equations, and is connected to the ‘transfer-acknowledge’ pin of the CPU


38


(this pin name on the CPU


38


assumes that the CPU is a Motorola 68040).




The reason for using the flip-flop


98


to synchronize the transfer-acknowledge signal is that the asynchronous signal on line


70


can change state at any arbitrary moment in relation to events on the cpusets, so that, if this signal were allowed directly to influence the behavior of more than one of the cpusets, it could not be guaranteed that operation of the cpusets would continue exactly in step. To illustrate this point, consider the case where the asynchronous signal is sampled simultaneously by all the cpusets; if the signal were to change state exactly at the moment when it is being sampled, it might be seen as a logic ‘1’ on one cpuset, but as a logic ‘0’ on the other cpusets, and this would lead to the cpusets getting out of step. The synchronous signal TA provided by the flip-flop


98


, on the other hand, can only change state at certain moments in relation to the clock signals on the ‘master’ cpuset. The clock signals on the ‘checker’ cpusets run in close synchronism with the signals on the ‘master’ cpuset, so it is impossible to guarantee that the activation of signal TA will occur at a moment when none of the cpusets is actually clocking in (sampling) the signal; the next clocking of the signal can then be guaranteed to occur while the signal is not actually changing, so that all cpusets clock in the same logic level, and continue their instruction execution in total synchronism.




The foregoing description of the events which occur during a data transfer involving the bus interface


34


assumes that no abnormal behavior occurs. However, during any such data transfer, the ‘master’ cpuset also monitors the validity of the information on the main data transfer bus


10


. The hardware required to perform this monitoring is shown in

FIG. 3

; it includes a comparator circuit


106


, and also a parity-checking circuit


108


.




The comparator circuit


106


performs two distinct stages of checking during an attempted data transfer. These stages can best be explained with reference to

FIG. 4

, which is a state-transition-diagram illustrating the behavior of part of the control logic block


36


. (In the logic equations defining the logic


36


, the corresponding equations are the definitions of seven states S0 through S6, and the Boolean equations defining the logic terms which enter into these state definitions.)




In the state diagram of

FIG. 4

, the state S0 is the ‘idle’ state, defining the state of the associated logic terms when no data transfer is taking place via the bus interface


34


. Any data transfer involving the bus interface


34


is initiated by the signal ‘bus’ from the address decoder


88


. In the state diagram of

FIG. 4

, this signal causes a transition from state S0 to state S1, and then to state S2. At the same time, the signal ‘bus’ also causes the address and data buffers


74


and


92


in the bus interface to be enabled, as already described. The first stage of checking by the comparator circuit


106


then takes place. Note that the control logic


36


has not yet activated the signals ‘tb_as’ and ‘tb_ds’.




The comparator circuit


106


has four groups of input lines: two of these groups


110


and


112


are connected to the address lines in the shared bus


30


and the main data transfer bus


10


respectively, while the remaining two groups of lines


114


and


116


are similarly connected to the data lines in the two busses. Within the comparator circuit


106


, there are two separate comparators (not explicitly shown in the figures); one comparator compares the signals on the lines


110


and


112


, while the other compares the signals on the lines


114


and


116


. The comparator also has two further input lines


118


and


120


, which are connected to the ‘write’ line in the shared bus


30


, and to the ‘tb_as’ address-strobe signal (output from the control logic


36


). Within the comparator circuit


106


, the lines


118


and


120


and the outputs from the two comparators are gated together by combinatorial logic (also not explicitly shown in FIG.


3


), to provide an output on three output lines


122


,


124


and


126


, which provide signals indicating whether the comparator


106


considers that the conditions on the main data transfer bus


10


agree with the conditions on the shared bus


30


. These three output signals are logically identical, and are distributed via the synchronization bus


26


to the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


;

FIG. 3

illustrates this distribution of signals. As this figure shows, each cpuset also has three input signal lines


128


,


130


and


132


connected to the synchronization bus; the interconnections in the synchronization bus ensure that these lines are each connected to the output of the comparator circuit


106


on a different one of the three cpusets. The signal lines


128


,


130


and


132


are connected to inputs of the control logic block


36


; in the logic equations, the signals on these lines are ‘bus_ok0’, ‘bus_ok1’ and ‘bus_ok2’.




The first stage of checking by the comparator circuit


106


takes place as follows. The comparator


106


identifies that this is the first stage of the check, by the fact that the ‘tb_as’ signal (received from the control logic


36


via the lines


84


and


120


) is not yet active. It compares signals received form the address lines of the two busses via its input lines


110


and


112


; also, if the ‘write’ line of the shared bus


30


indicates a ‘write’ cycle, the comparator compares the signals received from the data lines of the busses via its input lines


114


and


116


. If this comparison (or comparisons, in the case of a ‘write’ cycle) reveal no discrepancy, then the comparator will generate a ‘bus_ok’ signal on each of its three output signal lines


122


,


124


and


126


.




For the data transfer to proceed normally, the control logic block


36


on the ‘master’ cpuset must receive ‘bus_ok’ signals from its own comparator circuit


106


, and also from whichever of the other two cpusets it believes to be in the ‘checker’ state (the behavior of a cpuset in the ‘checker’ state will be described later); it ignores any ‘bus_ok’ signal from a cpuset that it believes to be in the ‘error’ state. Referring to the logic equation, this masking of signals from a cpuset in the ‘error’ state is shown by the equation defining the logic term ‘aok’; as well as the three ‘bus_ok’ signals, this logic term depends on three signals ‘signif0’, ‘signif1’ and ‘signif2’, which are received by the control logic


36


via three lines


134


,


136


and


138


from the control and status registers


52


(connected to the shared bus


30


). So long as the computer is operating normally, all three lines


134


,


136


and


138


will carry a logic ‘1’ level, indicating that this cpuset believes all three cpusets to be able to provide a significant ‘bus_ok’ signal; but if the ‘master’ cpuset should change its belief, it can (under software control) modify the signals on one or more of the lines


134


,


136


and


138


, by writing data to the control and status registers


52


.




Assuming that the ‘master’ cpuset receives ‘bus_ok’ signals from all cpusets which are currently believed to be significant, the ‘aok’ term in the logic equations will now be active. It will be recalled that the control logic block


36


has so far reached the state S2 in the state-transition diagram of FIG.


4


. From this state, an active ‘aok’ signal allows the state to change to state S3, in which state the output lines


82


and


84


of the control logic block


36


(corresponding to the logic terms ‘tb_ds’ and ‘tb_as’) become active. These active signals propagate through the buffers


78


and


80


to reach the data-strobe and address-strobe lines


66


and


68


of the main data transfer bus


10


, thereby initiating a data transfer on this bus.




In an alternative case, where one (or more) of the expected ‘bus_ok’ signals fails to become active, the logic term ‘aok’ will remain inactive, and the control logic block


36


will instead change from state S2 to state S5. The definition of state S


5




7


s that the logic term ‘b_dtea’ will be true in this state, and this term in turn affects the logic term ‘u_tea’. The control logic block


36


has an output line


140


which depends directly on the ‘u_tea’ term; this line


140


is connected to the ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ pin of the CPU


38


(again, this pin name assumes that the CPU


38


is a Motorola 68040). The CPU


38


will respond to an active level on this pin aborting the current data transfer cycle, and entering an exception-handler routine in its controlling software.




The logic term ‘b_dtea’ also causes the ‘e_state’ output signal line


58


to become active, putting the cpuset into its ‘error’ state, so that the computer is temporarily without a ‘master’ cpuset. All cpusets in the computer (with the exception of those which were already in the ‘error’ state) should now be in the ‘error’ state, and executing their exception-handler routines. The actions performed by this exception-handler routine should be sufficient to identify which of the three ‘bus_ok’ signals failed to become active, and from this and other information, should cause one of the cpusets to change back to the ‘master’ state. The hardware which permits this change to be made under software control will be described later. Other parts of the software exception-handler may be concerned with actions which are needed to ensure that the data transfer which was being attempted when the ‘b_dtea’ signal became active can be successfully completed on a second attempt. For example, one action which is needed is to write to the control and status register


52


, to change the ‘signif’ signals.




When execution of the exception-handler has been completed, the ‘master’ cpuset (which is not necessarily the same cpuset as the one which previously was master) will return to executing the same instruction that it was executing when the ‘b_dtea’ signal became active. Because of the actions taken by the exception-handler software, it can be expected that this instruction can be successfully executed on the second attempt. In other words, apart from the slight delay caused by the exception-handling, the software (whether this is operating system software of application software) will appear to run without interruption, despite the fact that the hardware has suffered some kind of problem.




Returning to the description of the comparator circuit


106


and the state-transition diagram of

FIG. 4

, if the control logic


36


successfully reaches state S3, it will then wait for the TA signal on line


72


to become active. This signal indicates that the cpuset's request for a data transfer (indicated by the address-strobe and data-strobe signals) has been acknowledged; this acknowledgement may come from any of the sub-systems


14


or


16


(or cpusets


20


,


22


or


24


), depending on the address information on the address lines


60


of the main data transfer bus


10


. When this acknowledgement is received, the control logic


36


changes from state S3 to state S4, and the second stage of checking by the comparator circuit then takes place, as follows.




When the control logic


36


is in state S4, the logic term ‘b_dta’ becomes active. In the case of a ‘write’


5


cycle this unconditionally causes the logic term ‘u_ta’ to become active, and so the signal line


104


connected to the CPU


38


becomes active, causing a normal termination of the data transfer. In the case of a ‘read’ cycle, the logic term ‘b_dta’ will also cause ‘u_ta’ to become active, provided that the ‘bus_ok’ signals (received from the comparator circuits


106


on the input signal lines


128


,


130


and


132


) are all active (apart from cpusets believed to be in the ‘error’ state); if not, the logic term ‘u_tea’ will become active in preference to the term ‘u_ta’; so that the signal line


140


to the ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ pin of the CPU


38


becomes active, and initiates exception-handling, as already described in connection with the first stage of the checking performed by the comparator circuit


106


.




During the second stage of a ‘read’ data transfer cycle, no checking is performed by the comparators in the comparator circuit


106


, but a check on the consistency of the data is performed by the parity-checking circuit


108


, whose output is connected by a lines


142


to the comparator circuit


106


. The ‘bus_ok’ signals on the output lines


122


,


1




24


and


126


of the comparator circuit


106


will be activated only if no parity error is detected; so, if a parity error should occur on any of the ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets, exception-handling will be initiated, as described above.




It will be clear from this that all the sub-systems connected to the slots


18


must include parity-generating circuits, so that (in the absence of any hardware problems) there will be no parity-error on the data lines


62


of the bus


10


during a ‘read’ data transfer.




After the control logic block


36


has reached state S4 during a data transfer involving the main data transfer bus


10


, it will change automatically back to the ‘idle’ state S0, thereby bringing both the data-strobe and address-strobe lines


66


and


68


of the bus back to their inactive state.




There are two other ways in which a data transfer involving the bus


10


can terminate. These will be explained later.




The next part of this description deals with the behavior of any cpuset which is in the ‘checker’ state.

FIG. 5

is similar to

FIG. 3

, but shows only those parts of the bus interface


34


which are active on a ‘checker’ cpuset. The behavior of such a cpuset is in many ways similar to the behavior of the ‘master’ cpuset, and so the following description will concentrate first on the differences between ‘master’ and ‘checker’ behavior. It should be remembered that the CPU's


38


of ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets will be executing exactly the same instructions, in close synchronism.




The first difference in behavior between a ‘master’ and a ‘checker’ cpuset is that the signal on the line


86


(representing the term ‘to_buse_a’ in the logic equations) never becomes active on a ‘checker’ cpuset. This means that a ‘checker’ cpuset will never attempt to drive the address, WRITe, DS and AS lines


60


,


64


,


66


, and


68


of the main data transfer bus


10


. However, since the ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets should be operating in close synchronism, the conditions which are driven on to these lines by the ‘master’ cpuset should exactly match the conditions on the corresponding lines of the shared bus


30


of each ‘checker’ cpuset. This match is checked by the comparator circuit


106


. The operation of the comparator circuit is exactly the same on a ‘checker’ cpuset as on a ‘master’ cpuset; if a mismatch is detected by the comparator circuit


106


of a ‘checker’ cpuset, exactly the same sequence of events takes place as was described above for the ‘master’ cpuset.




The second difference in behavior between a ‘master’ and a ‘checker’ cpuset is that the signal on the line


94


(representing the term ‘to_buse_d’ in the logic equations) does not become active on a ‘checker’ cpuset when a ‘write’ cycle is being executed. In other words, the ‘checker’ cpuset does not drive the data lines


62


on the main data transfer bus


10


; but, as with the address lines


60


, the comparator circuit


106


will compare the conditions driven on to the data lines of the bus


10


with the conditions on the data lines of the shared bus


30


of the ‘checker’ cpuset. Again, the sequence of events resulting from a mismatch is exactly the same as already described for the ‘master’ cpuset.




When a ‘checker’ cpuset attempts a ‘read’ data transfer, the behavior of the two signal lines


94


and


96


(which correspond to the terms ‘to_buse_d’ and ‘from_buse_d’ in the logic equations) is unchanged from the behavior which was described above for the ‘master’ cpuset. This ensures that (in the absence of any hardware faults) the same data will be present on the data lines


62


of the main data transfer bus


10


and on the data lines of the shared busses


30


of all ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets. It is necessary for the same data to be made available to all these cpusets, in order that the content of their read/write memories


40


(and any other parts of the cpuset whose status depends on incoming data) remain exactly the same, to ensure that cpuset operation continues in synchronism.




For most ‘read’ data transfers, the signal line


96


(corresponding to the logic term ‘from_buse_d’) will be active on each ‘checker’ cpuset, so that the bi-directional data buffers


92


are enabled to transmit data from the main data transfer bus


10


to the shared bus


30


of the cpuset. However, if the address which is placed on the main data transfer bus by the ‘master’ cpuset indicates that the CPU


38


wants to read data from one of the ‘checker’ cpusets, the signal line


94


(corresponding to the logic term ‘to_buse_d’) will instead be activated (but only on that ‘checker’ cpuset which has to supply the data). This type of data transfer is analogous to the self-referential accesses mentioned above in respect of the ‘master’ cpuset operation, but with the difference that the source of the data is on the ‘checker’ cpuset rather than on the ‘master’ cpuset.




During any ‘read’ data transfer involving the main data transfer bus


10


, the comparator circuit


106


and the parity-checking circuit


108


on each ‘checker’ cpuset operate in exactly the same way as described above for the ‘master’ cpuset. In other words, all ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets in the computer must receive the data without any parity error; if not, the cpuset detecting a parity error will not activate its ‘bus_ok’ signals on lines


122


,


124


and


126


, and all ‘master’ and ‘checker’ cpusets will then simultaneously change to the ‘error’ state and begin exception handling.




As already mentioned, a cpuset in the ‘error’ state cannot execute any data transfers over the main data transfer bus


10


, but it can participate as a ‘slave’ in a data transfer being executed by the ‘master’ cpuset.

FIG. 6

shows the parts of the bus interface


34


which are active during such a data transfer, on the cpuset which is in the ‘error’ state. Some of the parts which are shown in

FIG. 6

are also involved in the self-referential data transfers which have already been described.




The bus interface


34


of each cpuset includes an address decoder


144


, connected to the address lines.


60


of the main data transfer bus


10


. The decoder has an output signal line


146


which is connected to an input of the control logic block


36


; the signal on this line appears in the logic equations as ‘address_match’, and indicates that the address placed on the bus


10


by the ‘master’ cpuset during a data transfer identifies this transfer as a transfer to or from the cpuset containing the decoder


144


. The signal generated on the line


146


by the decoder


144


has this meaning, whether the cpuset containing the decoder is in the ‘master’, ‘checker’ or ‘error’ state.




The bus interface


34


also includes a group of address buffers


148


, which have their inputs connected to the address lines


60


of the main data transfer bus, and their outputs connected to the shared bus


30


of the cpuset (in other words, these buffers operate in the opposite direction to the address buffers


74


which appear in

FIG. 3

, illustrating operation of the ‘master’ cpuset). The buffers


148


also have an ‘enable’ input, connected via a signal line


150


to an output of the control logic block


36


; this line corresponds to the term ‘from_buse_a’ in the logic equations. When a cpuset is in the ‘error’ state, and participates as a ‘slave’ in a data transfer, the control logic activates the signal line


150


to enable the buffers


148


, so that the address information on the main data transfer bus


10


is available on the shared bus


30


, to identify which of the various items connected to the shared bus


30


should participate in the data transfer.




Referring to the logic equations describing the operation of the control logic block


36


, the effect of the signal ‘address-match’ from the decoder


144


is to cause the terms ‘bus_access’ and ‘bus_reply’ to become true. In the case of a cpuset which is in the ‘error’ state, the term ‘bus_owner’ also becomes true; the logic equations defining this term and the term ‘u_owner’ effectively define an arbitration mechanism which allocates ownership of the shared bus


30


either to the CPU


38


(indicated by the ‘u_owner’ term being true) or to the bus interface


34


(indicated by the ‘bus_owner’ term being true).




In the case of a cpuset which is in the ‘error’ state, the changes just described will influence the bus interface


34


via four output signal lines of the control logic


36


. Three of these are the lines


150


,


94


and


96


(representing the logic terms ‘from_buse_a’, ‘to_buse_d’ and ‘from_buse_d’). The first of these lines controls the address buffers


148


, as just described. The second and third lines


94


and


96


control the bi-directional data buffers


92


; which of these two lines is made active depends on a signal ‘rbus_write’, which is received by the control logic


36


from the WRITE line


64


in the main data transfer bus


10


. The remaining output signal line from the control logic


36


that is affected by a change in the ‘bus_owner’ and ‘bus_reply’ terms is a line


152


which is connected, via a buffer


154


, to the asynchronous transfer-acknowledge line


70


(ACK) of the main data transfer bus


10


. The signal output on the line


152


represents the term ‘tbus_ta’ in the logic equations; for any data transfer which was initiated by the output line


146


from the decoder


144


becoming active, activation of the term ‘tbus_ta’ will not occur until a control logic block


156


associated with the shared bus


30


and the hardware elements connected to that bus signals that the data transfer can be completed. More specifically, the logic block


156


has an output signal line


158


which is connected to an input of the logic block


36


; the control logic


156


will activate the signal on this line


158


as soon as the transfer can be completed, and this signal is received by the control logic


36


as the input term ‘p_ta’. Reference to the logic equation for the term ‘tbus_ta’ shows that activation of this term will not occur until the input ‘p_ta’ become true.




It should also be noted that the input ‘p_ta’ will cause activation of the term ‘tbus_ta’ only if the bus interface


34


has ownership of the shared bus


30


(which is the case when a cpuset in the ‘error’ state participates in a data transfer as ‘slave’). If instead the CPU


38


has ownership of the shared bus


30


, the input ‘p_ta’ will cause activation of the ‘u_ta’ output from the control logic


36


, so that in this case a transfer-acknowledge signal is sent to the CPU


38


on the signal line


104


.




As previously mentioned, there are two further ways in which a data transfer may be terminated, in addition to the sequences described above. The first of these alternative ways for a transfer to terminate is a time-out, which will occur if no transfer-acknowledge signal is received by the ‘master’ cpuset. To implement this time-out, and referring to

FIG. 7

, each cpuset


20


,


22


and


24


has a timer circuit


160


, which has a clock input line


162


, a reset input line


164


, and a time-out output line


166


. The clock input line


162


is connected to the clock circuit


100


, to receive a steady clock signal (typically, with a period of 1 microsecond). The reset input line


164


is connected to an output of the control logic block


36


; this output corresponds to the logic term ‘real_tip’, but with a logical inversion, so that the timer circuit


160


is brought back to a reset state whenever the CPU


38


is not in the middle of a data transfer. The time-out output line


166


of the timer


160


is connected to the control logic block


36


as the input logic term ‘timeout_tea’; reference to the logic equations will show that this input term, if it should become active, will cause activation of the ‘u_tea’ term.




The timer circuit


160


typically has a time-out period of 128 microseconds. All normal data transfers executed by the CPU


38


will be completed in much less time than this, so the timer


160


will never normally activate its output line


166


. However, if the CPU


38


tries to access a sub-system, such as the disk sub-system


14


, which happens to be either missing or defective, it will not receive any transfer-acknowledgement signal on the main data transfer bus


10


and the control logic block


36


will remain in the state S3. This condition will persist until the timer circuit


160


times out and activates its output signal line


166


. Because this signal is translated by the control logic into the ‘u_tea’ signal, which is applied to the ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ pin of the CPU


38


, the data transfer will be aborted, and control will pass to the same software exception-handler that was mentioned above, in connection with the operation of the comparator circuits


106


.




The timer circuit


160


is conventional in principle; however, it should be noted that it is implemented as a digital timer, clocked from the same clock circuit


100


as the rest of the hardware of the cpuset; this is necessary to ensure that the timers


160


on the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


stay strictly in step with one another.




The details of the software exception-handler obviously depend heavily on the type of CPU


38


that is used on the cpusets. In the present example, in which the CPU


38


is a Motorola 68040, it is virtually certain that the exception-handler will end with an RTE instruction (return from exception). The effect of this instruction is to restore the CPU's internal state to what it was before the data transfer was first attempted, and then to retry the data transfer. In the case where the attempted data transfer is to or from a sub-system that is missing or defective, this would lead to an infinite series of retries, if no other action were taken to cause the second transfer attempt to behave differently from the first. The ‘slot-response memory’


54


(accessible via the shared bus


30


of the cpuset) is part of a hardware circuit whose purpose is to allow the CPU


38


to escape from the infinite series of retries.




The hardware associated with the ‘slot-response memory’


54


includes eight address input lines


168


which are connected to the shared bus


30


, but these address lines are not connected directly to the ‘slot-response memory’ itself. Instead, they are connected to inputs of a 4-bit multiplexer


170


, whose outputs are connected to four address inputs of the memory


54


. The multiplexer


170


also has a ‘select’ input line


172


, which is connected to an output of the address decoder


144


; the effect of the lines


172


is that, during any ‘normal’ data transfers to or from the slot-response memory


54


, the 4-bit address applied to the memory


54


is derived from the four least-significant address liens of the shared bus


30


, so that the memory


54


effectively occupies sixteen consecutive addresses. At all other times, the address applied to the memory


54


is derived from four high-order address lines of the shared bus


30


, which are sufficient to uniquely identify which of the eight slots


18


and three cpusets


20


,


22




24


is being accessed during a transfer over the main data transfer bus


10


. The date input/output pin of the memory


54


(this memory has a data width of 1 bit only) is not directly connected to the shared bus


30


, but is instead connected via a bi-directional buffer


174


, which is only enabled when data is being read from the memory


54


. This arrangement is necessary because the input/output pin of the memory


54


is enabled for output at all times except when data is being written to the memory. This input/output pin is connected via a signal line


176


to the control logic block


36


; it appears in the logic equations as ‘give_ta’.




The effect of this signal on the control logic


36


is as follows. When the CPU


38


attempts a data transfer which involves the main data transfer bus


10


(to or from one of the slots


18


, or one of the other cpusets), the address applied to the slot-response memory


54


will identify which slot or cpuset is being accessed. If the data which appears on the line


176


in response to this address is ‘0’, the logic term ‘give_ta’ in the logic equations of the control logic


36


will be false, and the data transfer will proceed exactly ass already described above, terminating either with a transfer-acknowledge signal on the bus


10


or with a timeout signal from the timer circuit


160


. However, if the data which appears on the line


176


is ‘1’, the control logic


36


will exhibit different behavior; when it reaches state S2 in the state-transition diagram of

FIG. 4

, it will next pass to state S6, in which the ‘b_dta’ term is activated, even though the ‘tb_as’ and ‘tb_ds’ terms have never been activated to initiate a data transfer over the bus


10


. Activation of the ‘b_dta’ term causes the data transfer to be terminated in a manner which is normal in the sense that no exception-handling is initiated; however, the software can detect the absence of any valid data on a ‘read’ transfer.




Typical usage of the ‘slot-response memory’


54


would be as follows. During normal operation of the computer, any location of the memory


54


corresponding to a slot containing a correctly-functioning sub-system will contain ‘0’ data, and the memory


54


will not interfere with data transfers on the main data transfer bus


10


. However, if one of the sub-systems should become defective, or be removed from the computer, the next attempt to access that subsystem will result in the timer circuit


160


generating a timeout, followed by execution of the exception-handler. One of the actions taken by the exception-handler is to change the data in the corresponding location of the slot-response memory to ‘1’, so that all subsequent attempts to access the defective or absent sub-system will result in an artificial termination of the data transfer attempt, without any timeout, and without any exception handling.




It will be clear from this description that any attempted data transfer which is terminated by the timer circuit


160


will last very much longer than a normal data transfer. While the computer is operating normally, this is of no consequence, because all data transfers will terminate normally; but it one of the sub-systems of the computer is absent or defective, repeated attempts to transfer data to or from that subsystem could have a serious impact on the performance of the computer, because of the delays resulting from repeated timeouts. It would in principle be possible to minimize this delay by means of a software mechanism, in which the exception-handler sets a software flag to indicate that the sub-system is absent or defective, and all other parts of the software that access the sub-system (in particular, the device driver for that sub-system) have to check the status of this flag at fairly frequent intervals, in the course of any data transfers of appreciable size. (Small data transfers could perhaps be allowed to proceed without this check, since the resulting delay would not be disastrous; but it would still represent a degradation of performance.) This use of a software flag is not a particularly desirable scheme, because it makes it difficult to incorporate standard device drivers into the system software. The use of the ‘slot-response-memory’


54


, on the other hand, makes it possible for a device driver to attempt large data transfers to or from a sub-system, without incurring the danger of a possible long series of timeouts, and without any need to make special checks in the course of the transfer. After the transfer has been completed, a simple check of the ‘slot-response-memory’


54


will reveal whether the transfer was successful.




The clock circuits


100


(one on each of the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


) each supply all the timing signals required by the other parts of that cpuset. The three clock circuits


100


are inter-connected by the synchronization bus


26


, in order to keep the timing signals on the three cpusets closely in step. Some details on the construction and operation of the clock circuits


100


and the synchronization bus


26


will now be described, with reference to

FIGS. 8 and 9

.




In addition to the nine lines of the synchronization bus


26


which have already been mentioned (carrying the ‘bus_ok’ signals), the bus


26


has six lines concerned with the clock circuits


100


: three lines


178


,


180


and


182


which carry signals indicating whether or not each of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


is powered-on; and three lines


184


,


186


and


188


which (at least during normal operation) carry identical clock signals, one for use by each of the cpusets. The line


178


may be regarded as being paired with the line


184


, since they are both closely associated with the cpuset


20


(one indicating the powered-on status of the cpuset, while the other supplies a clock signal to that cpuset). Similarly, the line


180


is paired with the line


186


, and the line


182


is paired with the line


188


.




Taking the line


178


as an example, it is connected via a pull-up resistor


190


(which forms part of the synchronization bus


26


) to a +5 volt power supply line


192


; it is also connected via a transistor


194


(which forms part of the cpuset


20


) to a 0 volt (ground) line


196


. During normal operation of the cpuset


20


, the transistor


194


will provide a low resistance path to ground, so that the line


178


will be at a logic ‘0’ level. However, if the cpuset


20


were to be removed from the computer system, or if the cpuset were to suffer some kind of failure which meant that it no longer receives the power required for it to operate, the transistor


194


would no longer provide the low resistance path to ground, and the line


178


would now be pulled-up by the resistor


190


to a logic ‘1’ level. In a similar manner, the lines


180


and


182


are connected to resistors


198


and


200


in the synchronization bus


26


, and to transistors


202


and


204


in the cpusets


22


and


24


respectively, so that a logic ‘0’ level on each of these lines indicates that the corresponding cpuset


22


or


24


is still present and powered up in the system.




As already explained, during normal operation of the computer, the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


will run in close synchronism. This synchronism is maintained by the three lines


184


,


186


and


188


of the synchronization bus; these three lines will normally carry identical clock signals, for use by the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


respectively.




To drive the lines


184


,


186


and


188


, each cpuset has three clock buffers


206


, whose signal inputs are all connected to the output of a crystal-controlled oscillator


208


. Each of the clock buffers


206


also has an ‘enable’ input, which is connected to the output of one of three two-input AND gates


210


; one input of each of these AND gates is connected (with a logical inversion) to one of the lines


178


,


180


or


182


of the synchronization bus, while the other input is connected via a signal line


212


to the ‘master’ signal line


56


(one of the outputs of the control logic block


36


). This means that, for any given clock buffer


206


to be enabled, the following conditions must both be fulfilled:




(i) The clock buffer must be on the cpuset


20


,


22


or


24


which is currently the ‘master’ cpuset (this avoids any possibility that two clock buffers on different cpusets will simultaneously try to drive the same clock line


184


,


186


or


188


); and




(ii) Whichever of the lines


178


,


180


and


182


is paired with the clock line being driven by the clock buffer must be at a logic ‘0’ level, indicating that the cpuset which receives the clock signal from the clock line is present and powered-up. This arrangement avoids the situation where the clock lines is being driven, but the circuitry which receives the clock signal from this clock line is not powered-up; this would be an undesirable situation, because the receiving circuitry may present a low impedance in its unpowered state, and the resulting current that would be driven through the circuitry by the clock buffer


206


might be sufficient to cause damage.




The clock circuits illustrated by

FIG. 8

are designed to minimize the amount of skew that can arise between the clock signals received by the three cpusets; this is necessary because an excessive skew could result in the comparator circuits


106


signalling a mismatch between the operation of the cpusets. There are several design features associated with the clock circuits that help to minimize the skew. When reading the following description of these features, it should be remembered that the various cpuset modules


20


,


22


and


24


may come from different production batches. This is relevant because one of the possible design techniques for minimizing skew is to specify that similar components in different signal propagation paths should be from the same production batch, in order that their characteristics should be closely matched. In the present case, this technique can only be applied to cases where the components to be matched are all on the same cpuset module.




The design features which help to minimize skew between the clock signals are:




First, the number of stages through which the three clock signals are separately buffered before reaching the synchronization bus


25


is kept to a minimum (namely, the single stage of buffering provided by the buffers


206


).




Second, the signal inputs to the clock buffers


206


are connected to their common signal source (the oscillator


208


) by a branched line


214


, whose three branches have substantially equal lengths, measured from the oscillator to the clock buffers.




Third, the clock buffers


206


are all of the same type, and all three buffers


206


on any given cpuset are taken from the same production batch.




Fourth, the outputs of the clock buffers


206


are connected to the lines


184


,


186


and


188


of the synchronization bus


26


by three lines


216


whose lengths (measured from the buffer outputs to the interface between the cpuset and the synchronization bus) are substantially equal.




Fifth, the lines


184


,


186


and


188


in the synchronization bus


26


are also made as nearly as possible equal in length, measured from the points where the lines


216


inject the clock signals pass from the synchronization bus back into the cpusets. This equality in length is diagrammatically illustrated in

FIG. 8

; it is also illustrated by

FIG. 9

, which shows how the synchronization bus is implemented on a printed-circuit board.




As

FIGS. 8 and 9

show, each of the clock lines


184


,


186


and


188


in the synchronization bus actually has three points where clock signals may be injected by the clock buffers


206


, but the circuitry already described ensures that, at any given moment, only the ‘master’ cpuset will in fact be injecting clock signals into these lines. The three points where the clock signals are injected are all at the same point along the length of the lines. The clock signals where are injected will then propagate in both directions along the synchronization bus.




The left-hand ends (as seen in

FIGS. 8 and 9

) of the clock lines


184


,


186


and


188


are each connected to a termination network forming part of the synchronization bus, and consisting of a resistor


218


and a capacitor


220


in series, connected between the clock line and a 0 volt (ground) line


221


in the bus


26


. The value of the resistors


218


is chosen to match the characteristic impedance of the clock lines


184


,


185


and


188


, so that the clock signals propagating leftwards from the injection points are not reflected back towards the injection points. (Note that this is true, irrespective of which of the three cpusets is injecting the clock signals, and irrespective of the presence or absence of the other two cpusets in the computer).




The branch lines


216


may disturb the reflectionless propagation of the clock signals in lines


184


,


186


and


188


; therefore the lines


216


are kept short, to minimize this disturbance.




At the right-hand side of

FIGS. 8 and 9

, it can be seen that the three clock liens


184


,


186


and


188


of the synchronization bus are looped around, and each connected to a clock input line


222


of its associated cpuset. These looped parts of the clock lines do not follow the shortest possible path to reach the clock input liens


222


; instead, they are so designed that equal lengths of line have to be traversed by the clock signals, from the injection points to the points where the signals pass to the clock input lines


222


of the three cpusets. For the line


184


, carrying the clock signal for the leftmost cpuset


20


, the line loops back more or less directly to that cpuset, from the injection point where it can be driven by the rightmost cpuset


24


. The line


186


, carrying the clock signal for the middle cpuset


22


, includes a hairpin loop


224


as an artificial means of increasing the length of line from the rightmost injection points to the middle cpuset; and the line


188


includes an even longer loop


226


between the rightmost injection points and the clock input line


222


of the rightmost cpuset


24


.




The effect of making these line lengths equal is that the clock signals which propagate rightwards from the injection points will have exactly the same propagation time to reach the clock input lines


222


of their respective cpusets


200


,


22


and


24


.




On each cpuset, the clock input line


222


is connected to a terminating network, consisting of a resistor


228


and a capacitor


230


in series, connected between the line


222


and the 0 volt (ground) line


196


. As with the resistor


218


, the value of the resistor


228


is matched to the characteristic impedance of the line, to prevent reflections from occurring.




The line


222


is also connected, without any buffering, to a reference-signal input of a phase-locked-loop (PLL) implemented using a Motorola MC88915 integrated circuit). The PLL circuit also has a second reference-signal input, and a ‘select’ input which indicates which of the two reference-signals it should listen to. The second reference-signal input is connected to the line


214


carrying the output of the crystal-controlled oscillator


208


, while the ‘select’ input of the PLL


234


is connected by a line


236


to an output of the control, logic block


36


; this output corresponds to the term ‘use_backplane_clock’ in the logic equations.




The reason for not providing any buffering between the synchronization bus


26


and the reference-signal input of the PLL


234


is that, if such buffering were provided, the buffer components would almost certainly come from different production batches, and would therefore exhibit variations in propagation delay (unless components with exceptionally tightly specified characteristics were used). The PLLs


234


also introduce a potential source of clock skews, but the skew due to these components is inherently small.




The absence of any buffering between the synchronization bus


26


and the PLLs


234


explains why it is necessary to disable any clock buffer


206


that is driving a line leading to a powered-down cpuset; the MC88915 PLL cannot tolerate being driven when it is not powered-up. (If it had been permissible to provide buffering, it might then have been possible to choose buffering components which could tolerate being driven when powered-down; and it would then have been possible to leave all three of the clock buffers on the ‘master’ cpuset permanently enabled).




During normal operation of the computer, the term ‘use_backplane_clock’ in the logic equations will be true on each of the three cpusets, causing the PLLs


234


to use the clock signals received from the synchronization bus


26


as their reference signals. Each PLL


234


supplies (either directly or indirectly) all the clock signals required by the rest of its cpuset. Typically, the combination of the various features which have been described allows the PLLs of the three cpusets to maintain a synchronism of considerably better than 1 nanosecond.




It should be noted that the propagation delay from the oscillator


208


of the ‘master’ cpuset to the PLLs


234


will very according to which of the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


is the ‘master’ cpuset, but this is not important, since the phase of the oscillator


208


is not directly related to the operation of any other parts of the cpuset.




Each PLL


234


provides an output signal which indicates whether the internal oscillator of the PLL is in phase-lock with the reference-signal input to the PLL (during normal operation, this will be the reference signal on the clock input line


222


from the synchronization bus


26


, since the signal ‘use_backplane_clock’ on the ‘select’ line


236


is true). This output signal is connected by a line


238


to the control logic block


36


; it appears in the logic equations as the input term ‘unlocked’. It will remain ‘false’ during normal operation of the computer; however, if the synchronization bus


25


should be affected by some kind of hardware failure, so that the PLL


234


cannot remain in phase-lock (for example, because the reference-signal on line


222


completely disappears), the ‘unlocked’ signal on line


238


will become true. Referring to the logic equations, it can be seen that the effects of this change are (i) to make false the signal ‘use_backplane_clock’ on line


236


, so that form now on the PLL


234


takes its reference signal directly from the oscillator


208


on the cpuset, and (ii) to make true the ‘e_state’ signal on the line


58


, so that the cpuset is now in the ‘error’ state. The change to the ‘error’ state does not immediately cause any interruption in the sequence of instruction execution by the CPU


38


, but the first attempt to execute a data transfer over the main data transfer bus


10


after the change to ‘error’ state will fail, because the logic term ‘aok’ will remain false, so that the CPU


38


receives a transfer-error-acknowledge signal, exactly as if the comparator circuit


106


had detected a mismatch. More specifically, the events which occur in the control logic block


36


at this moment are as follows: because the ‘e_state’ signal is now true, the logic term ‘goodcycle’ can never become true; and this directly prevent the ‘aok’ term from becoming true.




There is yet another mechanism which can detect a problem within the processor subsystem


12


; the hardware details which implement this mechanism are illustrated by FIG.


10


. As this figure shows, the synchronization bus


26


has three further lines


240


,


242


and


244


, which carry ‘signature’ signals, one generated by each of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


. More specifically, each cpuset includes a D-type flip-flop


246


whose D (data) input is connected by a line


248


to the TS (transfer start) pin of the CPU


38


; the clock input of the flip-flop


246


is connected by a line


250


to the clock circuit


100


, so that the flip-flop is clocked synchronously with the rest of the circuitry on the cpuset. The Q outputs of the three flip-flops


246


(on the three different cpusets) are connected via lines


252


to the three ‘signature’ lines


240


,


242


and


244


in the synchronization bus.




The transfer-start pin of each CPU


38


will generate one pulse for each data transfer executed by that CPU. Therefore, since the three CPUs


38


will be executing identical code (during normal operation), in exact synchronism, the pulses on the three signature lines


240


,


242


and


244


should all occur at exactly the same moments.




On each cpuset, the three signature lines


240


,


242


and


244


are connected via buffers


254


to three inputs of the control logic block


36


; the signals on these three lines appear in the logic equations as ‘br_sign0’, ‘br_sign1’ and ‘br_sign2’, respectively. As the equations show, the control logic


36


generates synchronized versions of these three signals (‘dbr_sign0’, ‘dbr_sign1’, and ‘dbr_sign2’, respectively), and-these three signals are logically AND'ed with the ‘signif0’, ‘signif1’ and ‘signif2’ signals (already described in connection with the masking out of ‘bus_ok’ signals coming from a cpuset which is believed to have developed a problem). Those ‘dbr_sign’ signals which are not masked out by the ‘signif’ signals are compared in the equation-defining the ‘e_state’ output line


58


, so that any difference between these signals will cause the cpuset to change to the ‘error’ state. The effect of this change will be similar to the case already described, where a cpuset changes to the ‘error’ state as a result of a clock failure affecting the PLL


234


; instruction execution may continue for a short time, but any attempt to execute a data transfer over the main transfer bus


10


will result in a ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ signal being returned to the CPU


38


, so that execution then passes to the software exception-handler.




Most of the foregoing description has been concerned with ‘normal’ operation of the computer (in other words, operation with one cpuset in the ‘master’ state and the other two in the ‘checker’ state), and with the monitoring mechanisms which check that no abnormal conditions have arisen. The description has not explained any details about the events which occur after an abnormal condition has been detected, and has caused the CPUs


38


to enter the software exception-handler (as a result of a ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ signal).




A number of actions occur within the exception-handler; not all of these are relevant to the hardware features which have already been described, since (as shown by the logic equation for ‘u_tea’), it is also possible for a ‘transfer-error-acknowledge’ signal to originate from other parts of the cpuset hardware. One of the actions taken by the exception-handler is to read the state of the ‘e_state’ line


58


, via the control and status registers


52


; if this line is not active, then the exception has not been caused by any of the special hardware features described above, and can be handled in a conventional manner.




If the ‘e_state’ line


58


is active, this indicates that the hardware has detected one of the types of problem described above, namely (i) a mismatch detected by the comparators in one of the comparator circuits


106


, or (ii) a parity error detected by one of the parity checkers


108


, or (iii) a clock failure causing the ‘unlocked’ signal from the clock circuit


100


to become active, or (iv) a mismatch between the ‘signature’ lines


240


,


242


and


244


. In all these cases, it is possible that instruction execution on the three cpusets may already be out of step, so that the cpusets enter the exception-handler at different moments. Therefore, in all these cases, the first action taken by the exception-handler is a ‘software synchronization’. To perform this synchronization, the ‘master’ cpuset first waits for a delay period that is long enough to ensure that all three cpusets have entered the exception-handler, and then activates a signal line


364


in the synchronization bus


26


. (The line


364


and its associated hardware are described later in connection with

FIG. 16

; as will become clear from that description, the line


364


has another function, distinct from the ‘software synchronization’.) Each ‘checker’ cpuset, after entering the exception-handler, and determining that its ‘e_state’ line


58


is active, waits until it detects an active level on the line


364


.




After activating the line


364


(in the case of the ‘master’ cpuset), or detecting the active level on line


364


(in the case of a ‘checker’ cpuset), the cpuset continues with the next stage of the exception-handler. In this stage, each cpuset calculates a number, representing the cpuset's own assessment of the probability that it has suffered a hardware fault and so caused the exception. This assessment is based largely on information which is available by reading from the read/write memory


40


, from the control and status registers


52


, and from performing self-test routines. Note that, although all three cpusets will be executing the same exception-handler code, they are no longer expected to run in exact synchronism; it is possible that each cpuset will take a different path through the code, since the self-test results and the status information on the faulty cpuset will be different from the corresponding information on the other two cpusets.




After performing this calculation, the CPU


38


of each cpuset waits for a period proportional to its calculated number. It then checks whether either of the other two cpusets appears to be in the ‘master’ state (by determining if a logic condition other than “no master” exists on lines


266


,


268


); if not, this suggests that the cpuset is the first of the three to come to the end of its calculated waiting period, and therefore the least likely to have suffered a hardware fault. In this case, the cpuset write to its control and status registers


52


, to change the ‘signif’ signals, so that the ‘bus_ok’ and ‘br_sign’ signals coming from the other two cpusets are no longer regarded as significant in the logic equations-of the control logic block


36


; it then changes itself to the ‘master’ state. Finally, it writes a ‘magic number’ to the read/write memory


46


of the other two cpusets, to indicate that it is successfully operating as the ‘master’ cpuset, and then returns from the exception-handler to the code (either operating system software, or application program) that was being executed when the exception occurred.




If, on the other hand, the CPU


38


finds, on coming to the end of its calculated waiting period, that another cpuset already appears to be in the ‘master’ state, it assumes initially that this other cpuset has already progressed to a later stage of the exception-handler, presumably because its calculated waiting period was shorter. In this case, the cpusets with longer waiting periods (which are still in the ‘error’ state) expect the ‘master’ cpuset already to have written the ‘magic number’ into their read/write memories


46


. Each ‘error’ cpuset checks for the present of this ‘magic number’, after finding that there is already a ‘master’ cpuset; if the magic number is present, then the ‘master’ cpuset is assumed to be functioning correctly, and the other cpusets simply wait until the ‘master’ cpuset takes some further action (outside the exception-handler), to try to bring at least one of the cpusets back into the ‘checker’ state.




If, on the other hand, one of the cpusets in the ‘error’ state fails to find the magic number in its read/write memory


46


, even though there appears to be a ‘master’ cpuset, it assumes that the ‘master’ cpuset may not be functioning correctly. It then waits for about 100 milliseconds, and if it still finds no magic number in its memory


46


, and nothing else has interrupted this waiting period, this cpuset (the one which has failed to find any magic number) will try to change to the ‘master’ state; but since the hardware design ensures that only one cpuset can be ‘master’ at any given moment, it first has to stop the incorrectly-functioning cpuset from behaving as ‘master’. It does this by powering-down both the other cpusets in the computer, so that then there is no hardware obstacle to becoming the ‘master’ cpuset. After this, it changes to the ‘master’ state, and its subsequent behavior is exactly the same as if it had been the first cpuset to come to the end of its calculated waiting period.




The hardware features which are needed on the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


to allow this implementation of the exception-handler will be described below, with reference to

FIGS. 11 and 12

.




An alternative reason for the cpusets to enter the exception-handler is that one of the other sub-systems connected to the slots


18


of the main data transfer bus


10


has either become defective, or has been removed. This will result in any attempted data transfer to or from that sub-system being terminated by a timeout signal from the timer circuit


160


, as described above; the cpusets do not change to the ‘error’ state. In this situation, the main action taken by the exception-handler is to write data ‘1’ to the slot-response memory


54


, in the location corresponding to the sub-system that the cpusets were trying to access. Control then returns from the exception handler to the code which was trying to access the defective or absent sub-system; there is no interaction with the parts of the exception-handler which are invoked when the cpusets change to the ‘error’ state.




In the case where the cpusets change to the ‘error’ state (presumably because of the hardware problem), the exception-handler will leave the processor sub-system


12


in a state where one of the cpusets is in the ‘master’ state, and the others are either in the ‘error’ state or powered-down. Since it can be assumed that the hardware problem affects only one of the cpusets, the software of the system should then attempt to bring the non-defective, non-master cpuset back to the ‘checker’ state; this process is called ‘cpuset re-integration. Since the cpusets are not longer running in synchronism, their memory contents (and also the status of the other parts of the hardware) will be different on different cpusets. This means that the memory contents must be copies from the ‘master’ cpuset to the cpuset which is being re-integrated. Most of this copying can be done by an application program which runs under the control of the operating system of the computer. When this application program has copied most of the memory contents, the operating system is temporarily suspended, and the remaining memory contents are copied. The clock circuits


100


of the cpusets are then brought into synchronism (previously, the cpuset which is being re-integrated has been running independently of the clock signals on the synchronization bus


26


). Also, the status of all other parts of the hardware on the ‘master’ cpuset is translated into a memory image of this status, and this memory image is placed in memory, on both the ‘master’ cpuset and on the cpuset which is being re-integrated. Finally, the ‘master’ cpuset causes a ‘reset’ signal to be applied, synchronously, to the CPUs


38


(and other hardware) of all three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


. The reset signal causes the CPUs


38


to change to executing code from their PROM memories


42


; this code uses the memory image of the hardware status to bring the hardware (on all cpusets which have such a memory image) back to the status which previously existed on the ‘master’ cpuset, and then control is returned to the operating system, at the point where its operation was suspended.




The same process of cpuset re-integration will also be used, after a replacement cpuset has been substituted for a faulty cpuset, to bring the new cpuset into synchronism with the other two cpusets.




As with the actions which take place within the exception-handler code, a number of hardware features are required in order to support this cpuset re-integration; these features are described below, with reference to

FIGS. 15

,


16


and


17


.





FIG. 11

illustrates those parts of the hardware whose purpose is to ensure that only one cpuset can be in the ‘master’ state at any given moment, and to allow a cpuset to become ‘master’, under software control.




As

FIG. 11

shows, each cpuset has a D-type flip-flop


256


, whose Q output is connected via a buffer


258


to the ‘master’ line


56


of the cpuset. In other words, the output from the flip-flop indicates whether the cpuset is in the ‘master’ state. This-output is also connected (via a line


260


) to an input of the control logic block


36


(it appears in the logic equations as ‘i_am_master’), to the control and status registers


52


(allowing the CPU


38


to read whether the ‘master’ line is active), and to the ‘enable’ inputs of two three-state buffers


262


and


264


. The data inputs of these buffers are connected respectively to a logic ‘1’ level (a +5 volt supply line


232


), and to a logic ‘0’ level (the 0 volt (ground) line


196


), so that these are the logic levels which appear at the buffer outputs when the cpuset is in the ‘master’ state (buffers enabled). If the cpuset is not in the ‘master’ state, the buffers are in their high-impedance state.




The outputs of the two buffers


262


and


264


of every cpuset are respectively connected to two lines


266


and


268


in the synchronization bus


26


. To define the logic levels which appear on these lines when there is no cpuset in the ‘master’ state, the synchronization bus


26


also includes a pull-up resistor


270


connected between the line


268


and the +5 volt line


192


, and a pull-down resistor


272


connected between the line


266


and 0 volt (ground) line


221


. In other words, the logic levels on these lines will be the opposite of those appearing when one of the cpusets has its buffers


262


and


264


enabled.




The use of the two lines


266


and


268


, each carrying a binary signal, provides four possible signal combination. Only two of these combinations are valid: logic level ‘0’/‘1’ indicate ‘there is a master cpuset’. If either of the signal combinations ‘0’‘0’ and ‘1’/‘1’ appears, this indicates that some kind of hardware failure has occurred; for example, a short-circuit between the lines


266


and


268


.




The two lines


266


and


268


of the synchronization bus are also connected to two inputs of the control logic block


36


, on each of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


; the signals on these lines appear in the logic equations as ‘rb_tiam_h’ and ‘rb_tiam_


1


’, respectively. The control logic


36


generates an output signal on a line


274


, which is connected to the D (data) input of the flip-flop


256


; in the logic equation, this signal corresponds to the logic term ‘ok_tbm’, which becomes true if the conditions on at least one of the liens


266


and


268


indicate that there is at present no ‘master’ cpuset driving these lines. The term ‘ok_tbm’ also depends on the signal ‘i_am_master’ (received directly from the flip-flop


256


) being false, and on an input signal (‘iwtbm’) received via a lines


276


from the control and status registers


52


. A further output from the control and status register


52


is connected via a line


278


to the clock input of the flip-flop


256


, so the actions which the CPU


38


of a cpuset must execute to become master are: first, write to the control and status register


52


, to make the ‘iwtbm’ signal active, on line


276


; and then write again to this register, to generate a transition on the clock input of the flip-flop. If at least one of the lines


266


and


268


indicates that there is no ‘master’ cpuset at the moment of this transition, the D-input of the flip-flop (signal ‘ok_tbm’) will be active, and the flip-flop will change state, putting the cpuset into the ‘master’ state. This immediately has the effect of enabling the buffers


262


and


264


, so that the lines


266


and


268


of the synchronization bus


26


change state, and no other cpuset can then become master.




It will be noticed that the foregoing description does not mention negation of the “e_state’ signal, although this is a necessary step in changing a cpuset from the ‘error’ state to the ‘master’ (or ‘checker’) state. The only hardware that is needed to accomplish this negation is a line


280


, which connects an input of the control logic block


36


to the control and status registers


52


; in the logic equations, this line corresponds to the logic term ‘sync’. Reference to the logic equation for ‘e_state’ will show that ‘e_state’ will remain active, once asserted, until ‘sync’ is asserted; at this time, assuming that there are not other error conditions, ‘e_state’ will become false. During the process of cpuset re-integration, the action of writing to the control and status register


52


, to activate ‘sync’, will take place after the CPUs


38


(on both the ‘master’ and the new ‘checker’) have been reset; in other words, the action takes place, simultaneously on both cpusets, under the control of code in the read-only memories


42


of the cpusets.





FIG. 12

is a block diagram, illustrating some aspects of the power supply circuits within the processor sub-system. These circuits are so designed that a cpuset can be removed from or inserted into its place in the computer, without powering-down the rest of the computer. They also allow any given cpuset to be powered-up or powered-down, as a result of software commands executed by one of the other cpusets; to allow this interaction, the three cpusets are inter-connected by a two-wire ‘maintenance bus’


282


. The bus


282


is implemented as an I


2


C bus, for which interface devices are commercially available, so its details will not be described here.




Power is distributed to the three cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


(and to the other sub-systems of the computer) via two 28 volt power supply lines


284


,


286


; two lines are used to provide redundancy. On each cpuset, the power received from the two lines


284


and


286


is commoned together by two diodes


288


, and then distributed over a single power line


290


within the cpuset. There are no switching devices between the power lines


284


,


286


and the power line


290


, so, when a cpuset is inserted into a computer whose-power lines


284


,


285


are already energized, the power line


290


will immediately become similarly energized.




The line


290


is connected to three items on the cpuset: a reset control circuit


292


, a three-terminal regulator


294


which steps the 28 volt supply down to provide a +5 volt output, and a DC-DC converter circuit


296


which also provides a +5 volt output, but only when enabled by active ‘enable’ signals on both of two control signal lines


298


and


300


. For reasons which will be explained, there will be no active signal on the line


298


when the cpuset is first inserted into the computer, and so the Dc-DC converter


296


remains disabled, and does not place any load on the power supply line


290


. The +5 volt output of the regulator


294


is connected, via two switches


302


and


304


in series, to a +5 volt distribution line


306


; the switches


302


and


304


form part of a mechanical interlocking system (described later with reference to FIGS.


13


and


14


), which ensures that both the switches


302


and


304


must be open-circuit as the cpuset is inserted into the system. This means that, immediately after insertion, the only load placed on the power lien


290


by the regulator


294


is its quiescent current (typically 5 milliamps). The reset control circuit


292


comprises a TL7705 integrated circuit, which represents a load of less than 1 milliamp. The total load on the power supply line


290


during insertion of the cpuset is therefore extremely small, so that no problems arise from inserting the cpuset while the power supply lines


284


,


286


are energized.




After the cpuset has been inserted into the computer, the two interlock switches


302


and


304


can be closed. This action energizes the +5 volt power supply line


306


, which is connected to a ‘sense’ input of the reset control circuit


292


. The output of this circuit is connected to the control signal line


298


, which enables or disables the DC-DC converter


296


. So long as no voltage is present at the ‘sense’ input of the reset control circuit


292


, this circuit will maintain the line


298


at its inactive level, so that (as mentioned above), the DC-DC converter


296


is disabled immediately after insertion of the cpuset. When the two switches


302


and


304


are closed, the reset control circuit


292


maintains the inactive level on the line


298


for a delay period, and then changes it to an active level, so that (subject to the other control line


300


being to an active level, the DC-DC converter


296


will be enabled.




The +5 volt supply line


306


also provides power to some of the interface circuits which are connected to the maintenance bus


282


; in particular, it provides power to a maintenance bus ‘slave’ interface


308


, which consists of a PCF8574 integrated circuit. One output of this interface


308


is connected to the control line


300


of the DC-DC converter


296


; it is a feature of the PCF8574 device that its output lines will go to an ‘active’ state on power-up, so the DC-DC converter


296


will be enabled as soon as the delay period imposed by the reset control circuit


292


has expired. The +5 volt output of the converter


296


is connected to supply all other logic on the cpuset, so the cpuset is now fully powered-up.




If a cpuset is removed from the computer, this will result in the DC-DC converter


296


being disabled again. The sequence of events which occurs in this case is that the switches


302


and


304


will first be opened (removal of the cpuset is physically impossible if these switches are closed). This removes the +5 volt supply from the ‘sense’ input of the reset control circuit


292


; as soon as the voltage at this input has fallen below 4.7 volts, the circuit


292


will de-activate the signal on the line


298


, so that the converter


296


is disabled. It is then safe to remove the cpuset, since the load on the power supply line


290


has then been reduced to the same low value as during insertion of the cpuset.




The cpuset also includes a maintenance bus ‘master’ interface


310


, connected both to the maintenance bus


282


and to the private bus


28


of the cpuset. This master interface, which is implemented using a PCC 8584 integrated circuit, provides the channel via which the CPU


38


of the cpuset can place signals on the maintenance bus


282


, to cause other cpusets (or even itself) to be powered-up or powered-down.





FIGS. 13 and 14

show the mechanical construction of one of the cpusets


20


,


22


or


24


; in particular, these figures illustrate the mechanical details of one of the interlock switches


302


,


304


.




The cpuset comprises a printed-circuit board


312


, on which all the electronics of the cpuset are mounted, with the exception of the two interlock switches. A connector


314


is mounted at the rear edge of the board


312


, to establish the connections between the cpuset and the various busses (main data transfer bus


10


, synchronization bus


26


, and maintenance bus


282


), while a front bar


316


is mounted at the front edge of the cpuset. One of the purposes of the front bar


316


is to retain the cpuset in place in the computer; for this purpose, two injector/ejector levers


318


and


320


are pivoted to the front bar, near its top and bottom ends respectively. The pivot connection between each of these levers and the front bar


316


is provided by a screw


322


, which is visible in FIG.


14


.

FIG. 14

also shows part of the fixed structure of the computer, consisting of a bar


324


, which supports the front end of a channel-shaped guide


328


for the top edge of the printed-circuit board


312


; a similar bar and guide (not shown in

FIG. 14

) support the bottom edge of the board


312


.




When the cpuset is in its place in the computer, each of the levers


318


and


320


lies in the position illustrated by FIG.


14


. As this figure shows, each of the injector/ejector levers has an end portion


332


which has an injector jaw


334


, an ejector jaw


336


, and a throat


338


between the jaws


334


and


336


. A part of the profile of the fixed bar


324


lies in the throat


338


, so that removal of the cpuset from the computer is prevented by the injector jaws


334


abutting against the rear surfaces of the bars


324


. Each of the levers also has a handle portion


339


, at its end remote from the jaws


334


and


336


, so that it can be pivoted by hand, forwards and away from the front bar


316


. This pivoting will bring the ejector jaws


336


into contact with the front surfaces of the bars


324


, thereby moving the cpuset forwards in the guides


328


, so that the connector


314


disengages, and the cpuset can be removed.




Insertion of a cpuset into a computer involves pivoting the levers


318


and


320


in the opposite direction, so that the injector jaws of the levers abut against the rear surfaces of the bars


324


, and thereby push the cpuset into position, causing the connector


314


to engage correctly as this movement takes place.




To ensure that the levers


318


and


320


do not inadvertently move away from the position shown in

FIG. 14

, in which they keep the cpuset positively in its place, each level has a captive thumbscrew


340


, and the front bar


316


has two threaded holes


342


, positioned to line up with the thumbscrews


340


when the levers are in the position of FIG.


14


. After the levers have been pivoted to this position, the threaded ends of the thumbscrews tightened, so that the levers


318


and


320


are locked in position.




As

FIG. 14

also shows, the two interlock switches


302


and


304


, each of which is a plunger-action normally-open micro-switch, are mounted on the rear of the front bar


316


, behind the threaded holes


342


. The length of the thumbscrews


340


is so chosen that, when these thumbscrews are fully tightened up, their threaded ends will contact the plungers of the two interlock switches


302


and


304


, thereby moving them to their closed positions, and causing the cpuset to power-up, as already described with reference to FIG.


12


.





FIG. 15

shows some details of the ‘dirty’ memory


44


, whose special purpose is to assist with the copying of memory contents that takes place during cpuset re-integration. As explained above, most of this copying process will take place with the operating system of the computer still running. This implies that it is possible that the contents of a location in the read/write memory


40


(the source of the data being copied) will be modified by the operating system, or by some other program running under the control of the operating system, after it has already been copied to the cpuset that is being re-integrated. Such a memory location is said to have been ‘dirtied’ by the operating system, meaning that its contents no longer match the corresponding memory location on the cpuset to which it was previously copied. To make the memory location ‘clean’ again, its new contents must be copied to the cpuset that is being re-integrated.




The purpose of the dirty memory


44


is to record which areas of the memory


40


are ‘dirty’, and which are ‘clean’. The dirty memory


44


is a 1-bit wide memory, and each bit location in this memory records the state (‘dirty’ or ‘clean’) of a consecutive group of locations in the read/write memory


40


. This requires that any ‘write’ data transfer to the read/write memory


40


should automatically result in the corresponding bit in the dirty memory


44


being set to the ‘dirty’ state. The dirty memory


44


records write-accesses to the memory


40


on the basis of the translated addresses provided by the usual address translator


39


which is operative between the processor


38


and the memory


40


(and may form part of the processor).




The dirty memory


44


has a group of 16 address lines


344


, which are connected to the most-significant 16 of the address lines that are connected to the read/write memory


40


(these are address lines in the private bus


28


). In other words, the read/write memory


40


can be regarded as being divided into


65


,


536


‘pages’, and any access to a given one of these pages will result in a distinctive address appearing on the address lines


344


of the dirty memory


44


. The dirty memory also has a data line


346


, a ‘select’ line


348


, and a ‘write-enable’ line


350


. The data line


346


is connected via a bi-directional buffer


352


to the private bus


28


; this buffer has ‘enable’ inputs


354


and


356


, for its two directions of transmission. There is also a pull-up resistor


358


connected between the data line


346


and the +5 volt line


232


, so that, if neither the buffer


352


nor the dirty memory


44


is driving the line


346


, this line will be at a logic ‘1’ level. This is the situation which occurs during a data transfer to the read/write memory


40


.




The ‘select’, ‘write-enable’ and ‘buffer-enable’ lines


348


,


350


,


354


, and


356


are all connected to outputs from the control logic block


36


; the corresponding terms in the logic equations are ‘dirty_cs’, ‘dirty_we’, ‘dirty_bwe’, and ‘dirty_oe’. Each of these terms depends on the ‘p_dirty’ input to the control logic


36


, which comes via a line


360


from the address decoder


88


, to signal a ‘normal’ access to the dirty memory


44


; but, in addition, the ‘dirty_cs’ and ‘dirty_we’ terms will become active during a write data transfer to the read/write memory


40


(indicated by the signal ‘dram’, on a line


362


from the address decoder


88


, and the signals ‘u_ts’ and ‘u_write’ from the CPU


38


). Because the ‘dirty_bwe’ term is not active during such a write data transfer, the data line


346


will be a logic ‘1’, and this level will be written into the dirty memory


44


, at the location corresponding to whatever address of the read/write memory


40


was being accessed.




The information which is provided by the dirty memory


44


allows an iterative method to be used for copying the memory contents, during cpuset re-integration. The method involves the following steps: first set all bits of the dirty memory to ‘1’; then make a scan through this memory, and, for every bit that is ‘1’, set the bit to ‘0’ instead, and copy the corresponding page of read/write memory


40


to the cpuset that is being re-integrated. Then repeat this scan, so that the new contents of any newly dirtied pages are copied. (The possibility of a page being dirtied again, after being copied, arises because the computer has a multi-tasking operating system, and-this iterative copying method may be simply one of a number of tasks that are being executed by the computer, sharing the processing capacity of the computer in an interleaved manner.) After several repetitions of this scan through the dirty memory


44


, the number of dirty pages should have become fairly small, and the operating system can then be temporarily suspended, to perform the remaining stages of the cpuset re-integration.




These remaining stages of re-integration can be summarized as follows:1




Create a memory image (in the read/write memory


40


) of the status of some or all of the hardware of the cpuset; for example, it would typically be necessary to record the contents of the registers of the receiver/transmitter


48


, the timer


50


, the control registers


52


, and the control logic


36


;




Copy to the new cpuset any pages of the memory


40


that are indicated as dirty by the ‘dirty’ memory


44


; this copying will always include the page or pages in which the memory image has just been created, by the previous step;




The master cpuset now causes all the cpusets (including itself) to be reset, in exact synchronism. This brings all the hardware of the cpusets to a known state, which is identical on all the cpusets (with the possible exception of any parts of the hardware that can be initialized by software, after the reset);




Among the software that is executed (in synchronism, by all cpusets) after the reset, there is a routine which reads the part of the memory


40


containing the memory image of the hardware status of the cpuset, and uses this memory image to bring the hardware back to the status that it had when the operating system was suspended;




Finally, the operating system is allowed to resume operation, with the master cpuset in exactly the same condition as when the system was suspended, and with the newly re-integrated cpuset running in exact synchronism with the master.




Among the steps listed above, the third step (the synchronous resetting of the cpusets) requires the cpusets to have special hardware features; these features are illustrated in FIG.


16


. This hardware includes a line


364


in the synchronization bus


26


; on each cpuset, the line


364


is connected both to the input of a buffer


366


, and to the output of a three-state buffer


368


whose ‘enable’ input is connected to the ‘master’ line


56


, so that only the ‘master’ cpuset can drive the line


364


. Activation of the line


364


by the ‘master’ cpuset is the event which actually triggers the resetting of the cpusets; but the resetting hardware of a cpuset also has to be ‘armed’ by a software command, in order that it shall respond to the signal on the line


364


by resetting itself.




The part of the hardware which is concerned with driving the line


364


in the synchronization bus


26


is a line


370


which is connected from an output of the control and status registers


52


to the D (data) input of a D-type flip-flop


372


; this flip-flop has its clock signal input connected to a line


274


which carries a clock signal from the clock circuit


100


, so that the flip-flop changes state synchronously with other events on the cpuset. The Q output of the flip-flop feeds the data input of the buffer


368


, via a line


376


, so that a write to the control and status registers


52


is all that is needed to activate the line


364


.




The hardware which responds to the line


364


includes the buffer


366


, whose output is connected to the D input of another D-type flip-flop


378


; this flip-flop also receives its clock signal from the line


374


. The Q output from this flip-flop is connected by a line


380


to the control logic block


36


; the corresponding term in the logic equations is ‘sb_sr’. This term, together with the logic term ‘sync_arm’ (which corresponds to a signal received by the control logic


36


from the control and status registers via a line


384


), controls the output logic term ‘syncreset’; the corresponding output from the control logic


36


appears on a line


382


, which is connected to all parts of the cpuset that require resetting to achieve cpuset re-integration. The relationship between the logic terms ‘sb_sr’, ‘sync_arm’ and ‘syncreset’ is illustrated by the_state-transition diagram of FIG.


17


. During normal operation of the cpuset, the control logic


36


will be in the state S65. If both logic terms ‘sb_sr’ and ‘sync_arm’ then become active, the logic will change to state S0, in which state the ‘syncreset’ signal becomes active. The logic will then stop sequentially through states S1 to S64, one step for each clock pulse received by the control logic


36


. The ‘syncreset’ term remains active up to and including state S63, sub when the logic reaches state S64, the ‘syncreset’ term is de-activated, and the rest of the hardware of the cpuset now comes out of reset, so that the CPU


38


begins executing code from the read-only memory


42


. The control logic


36


remains in state S64 until the ‘sync_arm’ term is negated, which will be one of the first actions performed by the CPU


38


. After this, the control logic


36


returns to state S65.




The purpose of the ‘sync_arm’ signal is to ensure that a fault on the line


364


in the synchronization bus


26


cannot cause inadvertent resetting of the cpusets


20


,


22


and


24


; if such inadvertent resetting were possible, the line


364


would represent a single point of failure, which is undesirable.




The following are the logic equations which describe the operation of the control logic circuit


36


:

















State definitions






:define S0 (!tb_as & !tb_ds & !b_dta & !id1 & !id0 & !b_dtea)






:define S1 (!tb_as & !tb_ds & !b_dta & id1 & !id0 & !b_dtea)






:define S2 (!tb_as & !tb_ds & !b_dta & !id1 & id0 & !b_dtea)






:define S3 ( tb_as & tb_ds & !b_dta & !id1 & !id0 & !b_dtea)






:define S4 ( tb_as & !tb_ds & b_dta & !id1 & !id0 & !b_dtea)






:define S5 (!tb_as & !tb_ds & !b_dta & !id1 & !id0 & b_dtea)






:define S6 (!tb_as & !tb_ds & b_dta & !id1 & !id0 & !b_dtea)












:define S65




(q6 & !q5 & !q4 & !q3 & !q2 & !q1 & q0)






:define S64




(q6 & !q5 & !q4 & !q3 & !q2 & !q1 & !q0)






:define S0_63




(!q6)






:define S63




(q5 & q4 & q3 & q2 & q1 & q0)






:define S31_mod_32




(q4 & q3 & q2 & q1 & q0)






:define S15_mod_16




(q3 & q2 & q1 & q0)






:define S7_mod_8




(q2 & q1 & q0)






:define S3_mod_4




(q1 & q0)






:define S1_mod_2




(q0)






:define S0_mod_1




(1)











Combinatorial terms












to_buse_a




= u_owner & master & real_tip & bus &







!d_real_tip + u_owner & master & real_tip &







bus & to_buse_a + to_buse_a & d_real_tip &







master;






from_buse_a




= bus_owner & bus_access;






to_buse_d




= u_owner & master & bus & u_write & real_tip







& !d_real_tip + u_owner & master & bus &







u_write & real_tip & to_buse_d + u_owner &







master & to_buse_d & d_real_tip + bus_reply &







!rbus_write & rbus_as;






from_buse_d




= u_owner & bus & !u_write & real_tip &







!bus_reply + bus_owner & bus_access &







rbus_write & rbus_as;






u_ta




= b_dta & aok & !u_write + b_dta & u_write +







p_ta & u_owner + (any other transfer-







acknowledge from on-board devices);






u_tea




= b_dta & !aok & !u_write + b_dtea +







timeout_tea + (any transfer-error-acknowledge







from on-board devices);






b_rpe




= b_dta & !aok & !u_write;






b_mce




= b_dtea;






ok_tbm




= iwtbm & !i_am_master & (!rb_tiam_h +







rb_tiam_1 );






tiam_error




= !rb_tiam_h& !rb_tiam_1 + rb_tiam_h &







rb_tiam_1 + i_am_master & (rb_tiam_1 +







!rb_tiam_h);






aok




= goodcycle & !bus + goodcycle & (!signif0 +







bus_ok0) & (!signif1 + bus_ok1) & (!signif2 +







bus_ok2);






goodcycle




= real_tip & !e_state;











Registered (clocked) terms












d_real_tip




= real_tip;






id0




= real_tip & u_owner & ( S1 );






id1




= real_tip & u_owner & ( S0 & bus );






tb_as




= real_tip & u_owner & ( S2 & aok & !give_ta







+ S3 & !u_tea );






tb_ds




= real_tip & u_owner & ( S2 & aok & !give_ta







+ S3 & !rsb_ta & !u_tea );






b_dta




= real_tip & u_owner & ( S2 & aok & give_ta +







S3 & rsb_ta & !u_tea );






b_dtea




= real_tip & u_owner & S2 & !aok;






srbus_as




= bus_as;






bus_reply




= srbus_as & (bus_owner + !e_state) &







address_match;






bus_access




= srbus_as & address_match;






tbus_ta




= srbus_as & (bus_owner + !e_state) & ( p_ta







& bus_reply + tbus_ta






u_owner




= u_owner & !e_state + u_owner & real_tip +







real_tip & !bus_access & !bus owner + u_owner







& !bus_access;






bus_owner




= e_state & ( bus_owner & bus_access +







bus_access & !u_owner + bus_owner &







!real_tip);






mc_silly




= !master & ( !signif0 & !signif1 + !signif1







& !signif2 + !signif2 & !signif0 );






e_state




= b_dta & !aok & !u_write + b_dtea







+ s_unlocked







+ signif0 & signif1 & !dbr_sign0 & dbr_sign1







+ signif0 & signif1 & dbr_sign0 & !dbr_sign1







+ signif1 & signif2 & !dbr_sign1 & dbr_sign2







+ signif1 & signif2 & dbr_sign1 & !dbr_sign2







+ signif0 & signif2 & !dbr_sign0 & dbr_sign2







+ signif0 & signif2 & dbr_sign0 & !dbr_sign2







+ e_state & !sync + mc_silly;






s_unlocked




= unlocked;






dbr_sign0




= br_sign0;






dbr_sign1




= br_sign1;






dbr_sign2




= br_sign2;






real_tip




= u_tip & ( u_ts & io + real_tip & !u_tea &







!u_ta );






syncreset




= S0_63;






q6




= S63 + S64 + S65 & !sync_arm + S65 & !sb_sr;






q5




= S0_63 & (!q5 & S31_mod_32 + q5 &







!S31_mod_32);






q4




= S0_63 & (!q4 & S15_mod_16 + q4 &







!S15_mod_16);






q3




= S0_63 & (!q3 & S7_mod_0 + q3 & !S7_mod_0);






q2




= S0_63 & (!q2 & S3_mod_4 + q2 & !S3_mod_4);






q1




= S0_63 & (!q1 & S1_mod_2 + q1 & !S1_mod_2);






q0




= S0_63 & (!q0 & S0_mod_1 + q0 & !S0_mod_1)







+ S64 & !sync_arm + S65 & !sync arm + S65 &







!sb_sr;











Required inputs






master (from FF)






u_ts, u_tip (timing signals, from CPU)






bus, io (from decoder)






u_write (from private bus)






rbus_write, rbus_as (buffered in from B-bus ; we drive these






B-bus lines






if






to_buse_a, using the tb_as and f_write signals)






bus_as (directly from B-bus, for slave circuits)






rsb_ta (synchronized and buffered in from B-bus sb_ta ; this






is the






synchro version of b_ack, distributed by the master cpuset






for the other






cupsets) ,






give_ta (from SRR)






timeout_tea (from teacake)






address_match (from B-bus signal decoder)






p_ta (acknowledge from on-board devices, for slave accesses)






signif0/1/2, sync, iwtbm (from register)






br_sign0/1/2 (from B-bus)






unlocked (from clock generator)






rb_tiam_h/1 (from bus ; drivers enabled against pull-up/down






if master)






bus_ok0/1/2 (from B-bus)














While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in the form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Consequently, the scope of the invention should be determined solely with respect to the following claims.



Claims
  • 1. A fault tolerant computer comprising:two or more cpusets, wherein each said cpuset has a microprocessor configured to perform one or more operations, wherein in normal operation, said microprocessors are configured to perform said one or more operations identically and synchronously, and wherein each said microprocessor is configured to generate a signature signal which corresponds to said one or more operations; wherein each said signature signal is representative of a start of said one or more operations; and one or more logic circuits coupled to said cpusets, wherein said one or more logic circuits are configured to receive said signature signals of said microprocessors and to determine when said signature signals differ, and wherein when said one or more logic circuits determine that said signature signals differ, said one or more logic circuits assert one or more error signals that cause one or more of said cpusets to enter an error state.
  • 2. The fault tolerant computer of claim 1 wherein said one or more logic circuits are configured to determine when said signature signals differ by masking one or more of said signature signals and comparing only those of said signature signals that are not masked.
  • 3. The fault tolerant computer of claim 1 wherein each of said cpusets contains a corresponding one of said one or more logic circuits and wherein if one of said one or more logic circuits determines that said signature signals differ, said one of said one or more logic circuits causes each of said cpusets to enter said error state.
  • 4. The fault tolerant computer of claim 3 wherein each of said cpusets is coupled to a synchronization bus which is configured to convey said signature signals from each of said microprocessors to each of said logic circuits.
  • 5. The fault tolerant computer of claim 4 wherein each said microprocessor is configured to generate said corresponding signature signal by producing a pulse for each data transfer executed by said microprocessor.
  • 6. The fault tolerant computer of claim 1 wherein said cpusets are configured to enter said error state by storing an indication of said error state.
  • 7. The fault tolerant computer of claim 1 wherein said cpusets are configured to suspend normal operation upon entry into said error state and to resume normal operation when said cpusets are brought into synchronism.
  • 8. A method for determining whether two or more components in a computer system are operating synchronously, the method comprising:generating a signal in each of said two or more components, said signal being representative of a start of an operation of said component; comparing said signals generated by each of said components; determining whether said signals generated by each of said components are identical; and generating a response if said signals generated by each of said components are not identical.
  • 9. The method of claim 8 wherein each of said components has internal state which is updated in accordance with the operation of said component and wherein said signal is indicative of at least a portion of said state.
  • 10. The method of claim 8 wherein said generating said response comprises generating an error signal.
  • 11. The method of claim 10 wherein said response further comprises executing an error-handling routine.
  • 12. The method of claim 8 wherein said components comprise microprocessors.
  • 13. The method of claim 12 wherein generating said signal in each said microprocessor comprises generating a pulse each time said microprocessor starts a data transfer.
  • 14. The method of claim 8 wherein said comparing said signals comprises masking one or more of said signals so that said masked signals are not considered in said comparing.
  • 15. A system comprising:a first component configured to perform a function in said system and configured to generate a first signature signal representative of a start of said function by said first component; a second component configured to perform said function and configured to generate a second signature signal representative of a start of said function by said second component; and one or more logic circuits, wherein said one or more logic circuits are coupled to said first component and said second component, wherein said one or more logic circuits are configured to determine whether said first signature signal and said second signature signal are identical, and wherein said one or more logic circuits are configured to generate an error signal if said first signature signal and said second signature signal are not identical.
  • 16. The system of claim 15 wherein said first component comprises a first microprocessor and said second component comprises a second microprocessor.
  • 17. The system of claim 16 wherein said system comprises a first cpuset and a second cpuset and wherein said first cpuset contains said first component and said second cpuset contains said second component.
  • 18. The system of claim 17 wherein said system comprises a fault tolerant computer and wherein said first cpuset is configured substantially identically to said second cpuset.
  • 19. The system of claim 18 wherein each said cpuset contains one of said one or more logic circuits, wherein said signature signal corresponding to each of said cpusets is conveyed to each said logic circuit.
  • 20. The system of claim 16 wherein each said microprocessor is configured to generate said signature signal by generating a pulse corresponding to each data transfer executed by said microprocessor.
  • 21. The system of claim 20 wherein said microprocessor comprises a transfer start pin and wherein said signature signal is generated at said transfer start pin.
  • 22. The system of claim 15 wherein said one or more logic circuits are configured to determine when said signature signals differ by masking one or more of said signature signals and comparing only those of said signature signals that are not masked.
Priority Claims (1)
Number Date Country Kind
9215212 Jul 1992 GB
Parent Case Info

This application is a Continuation of Ser. No. 08/784,164 filed on Jan. 25, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,940; which is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/330,238 filed Oct. 27, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,965; which is a File-Wrapper Continuation of Ser. No. 07/990,844 filed Dec. 17, 1992, now abandoned.

US Referenced Citations (20)
Number Name Date Kind
4634110 Julich et al. Jan 1987
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Continuations (3)
Number Date Country
Parent 08/784164 Jan 1997 US
Child 09/273781 US
Parent 08/330238 Oct 1994 US
Child 08/784164 US
Parent 07/990844 Dec 1992 US
Child 08/330238 US