Patent ID: 7603428

Claim:
A method of forming a distributed computing platform, the method comprising: providing a network fabric of interconnected networking switches, where each switch, comprises a memory element and a multi-core processor; allocating a first and a second processing core from different networking switches, for use by a software application; allocating a system memory from at least some of the switches' memory elements where the system memory is addressable by the first processing core and the second processing cores over the fabric; storing the software application in the system memory; striping a plurality of executable portions of the software application across the first and the second processing cores by assigning one or more of the portions to each core according to a secret function secured via a secret key; and allowing the first and the second cores to each execute their respective portions by accessing the portions from the system memory over the fabric while, concurrently, allowing the networking switches, having the cores to forward packets from a first device through the fabric to a second device.