Interconnection process and system for the control of messages in an array of processors having a parallel structure

Claim 1

Process for the control of messages circulating in a ring network of elementary processors (Po, . . . , Pn) organized in accordance with a parallel structure and able to process, per cycle, messages of the same size, each of these processors being associated with a respective interconnection module and connected to the network by the interconnection module, wherein a question of priorities of interconnection modules for transmission and for reception of messages is established by circulation of tokens in the network and one size of messages (TMESS) to be transmitted on the network is specified prior to a first transmission, the process comprising the steps of: each elementary processor transmits a token if it verifies the equations: (NPE modulo TMESS)=0 and (N-NPE)>TMESS, with NPE between 0 and N-1 and in which TMESS is the size of the messages to be transmitted, NPE is an elementary processor number in the network and N is the total number of elementary processors connected to the network; when one of the interconnection modules receives a token, the interconnection module receives and acknowledges a first data item of a message to be received circulating in the network if the message is intended for the elementary processor associated with one of the interconnection modules; determining whether the interconnection module has sufficient memory space for storing the message: using the interconnection module to return the message to the network if the memory space is inadequate for storing the message, using the interconnection module to store the first data item of the message and then all successive data items of the message until the interconnection module detects an end of the message if the memory space is adequate for storing the message; and using the elementary processor to check that the interconnection module has an adequate memory space for completely storing a message to be sent: storing the message to be sent in the interconnection module if there is memory space for the message; using the interconnection module to supply a first data item of the stored message to the network when the token is received and then all successive data items of the stored message if at least one message has been stored; waiting until the interconnection module receives a following token if no message has been stored.