AMIGA

5. AMIGA registers patent for new multiprocessing technology

On August 10, AMIGA registered a patent for a new type of multiprocessing technology. It bears the name 'US5935230: Multiprocessor arrangement including bus arbitration' and is desribed as follows:

'At least two clusters of CPUs are present in a multiprocessor computer system. Each CPU cluster has a given number of CPUs, each CPU having an associated ID such as an ID number. An additional ID number, not associated with a CPU in the same cluster, is associated with the opposite CPU cluster that appears to the original cluster as a "phantom" processor. A round-robin bus arbitration scheme allows ordered ownership of a common bus within a first cluster until the ID reaches the "phantom" processor, at which time bus ownership passes to a CPU in the second cluster. This arrangement is preferably symmetric, so that when a CPU from the first cluster requests ownership of the bus, it is granted bus ownership by virtue of the first cluster's appearance to the second cluster as a "phantom" CPU.'

An extensive description with sketches can be found as 16 GIF files on http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn=US05935230__.

Some days later it was found out, that AMIGA has registered 17 other patents this year.