Multi-Processor Controller Backup Sequencing for Data Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
In controllers with multi-processors or multi-core processors, ensuring data integrity during backup processes is challenging due to simultaneous access from multiple processors, leading to potential data inconsistency and performance overhead from complex access management mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
A controller design where a first processor performs backup and shutdown processing, and a second processor ensures sequence processing integrity by receiving request messages, sending ready and end messages to manage standby states, allowing safe sharing of resources among multiple processors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If exclusive control mechanisms (such as semaphores) are implemented to manage simultaneous access from multiple processors to resources, then data integrity during backup operations is improved, but device complexity and code quantity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the exclusive control logic from individual processor access routines and consolidates it into a centralized access management unit. This unit maintains an access status register that tracks which processor is currently accessing which resource, eliminating the need for complex semaphore mechanisms in each processor's code and reducing overall system complexity while maintaining data integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary access management unit that mediates between multiple processors and shared resources. This unit acts as a broker that grants and revokes access permissions based on current resource usage status, simplifying the access control mechanism compared to implementing complex exclusive control logic in each processor independently.
2Reliability
If complex exclusive control programs are implemented for each processor to manage resource access, then data consistency is improved, but productivity and performance decrease due to overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the exclusive control functionality from multiple processor-specific access routines into a single unified access management unit. This consolidation eliminates redundant control logic across processors and reduces the overall overhead associated with resource access management, thereby improving processing performance while maintaining data consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The access management unit automatically tracks and manages resource access status without requiring explicit exclusive control commands from each processor. The system self-manages access permissions based on the access status register, reducing the computational overhead and improving productivity compared to implementing complex exclusive control programs in each processor.
3Loss of time
If snapshot functions are used to back up on-memory data at arbitrary moments, then quick restart capability is improved, but data integrity cannot be guaranteed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary actions by checking the access status register before performing backup operations. The system verifies that no processor is currently accessing the target resource before capturing a snapshot, ensuring data integrity. This preliminary check mechanism allows quick restart capability while guaranteeing that backed-up data is consistent, unlike arbitrary snapshot functions that capture data without verification.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a controller in which resources can be safely shared by a plurality of processors, such as multi-processors or multi-core processors.The controller is provided with the plurality of processors which each manage the resources or share the resources and include a first processor configured to perform processing with an influence on the integrity of the resources and a second processor. The second processor performs sequence processing for maintaining the integrity of the resources in accordance with the contents of the processing by the first processor, upon receiving a request message requesting the processing to be started.