Patent ID: 9632934
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A method of managing memory in a partition of a shared-memory computer system, the partition having a plurality of removable nodes that cooperate to perform a computation, each node in the partition comprising at least one computing processor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in data communication with the at least one computing processor of the node and at least one other ASIC in another node in the partition, and a memory, the collective memory of the nodes of the partition being divided into cache lines that are accessible for reading or writing by the computing processors of the partition, the method comprising: by a directory controller portion of the ASIC in a first node, the directory controller portion of the ASIC controlling access to a given cache line in the memory of the first node, providing a second node exclusive access to the given cache line; receiving, in a data table remote from the first node, data indicating that the second node was administratively removed from the partition; in response to receiving from a third node a request for access to the given cache line, transmitting, by the directory controller portion of the ASIC toward an ASIC of the second node, a cache coherence request to relinquish the exclusive access; determining, by an electronic circuit interposed between the directory controller portion of the ASIC and the ASIC of the second node, whether the second node was deallocated from the partition by accessing the data, in the data table remote from the first node, indicating that the second node was administratively removed from the partition; and when the second node was deallocated from the partition, transmitting, by the electronic circuit to the directory controller portion of the ASIC, a cache coherence response that simulates relinquishing the exclusive access by the deallocated second node.