Efficient interprocessor communication in a tightly-coupled homogeneous multiprocessor system

The authors illustrate the importance of using a system-oriented approach in developing a multiprocessor architecture. The study concerns the implementation of interprocessor communication in the Eindhoven multiprocessor system (EMPS). In the EMPS a truly distributed interrupt mechanism is available to operating system primitives for message passing and remote procedure calls. The distributed interrupt mechanism for interprocessor communication that is implemented in the EMPS avoids the problem of bus contention by interrupts. By using an interactive approach between hardware and software design a modular, flexible, and yet high-performance system is realized. Performance measurements of message passing and remote procedure calls, which exploit the mechanism of distributed interrupts, are presented