Patent ID: 7752378

Claim:
A partition priority controlling apparatus for controlling priorities of a plurality of partitions using buses in a computer system, the computer system including a plurality of system board modules each of which can be grouped into any of the plurality of partitions, a plurality of crossbar units, and each bus interconnecting two of the plurality of crossbar units, each of the crossbar unit is connected to at least one of the plurality of system board modules, and the apparatus comprising: a partition match detecting unit for detecting whether or not a partition to which one of the plurality of system board modules belongs matches partitions to which the other system board modules respectively belong; and an inter-crossbar-unit conflict partition detecting unit for detecting a combination of partitions, which make a conflict between the plurality of crossbar units, on the basis of a detection result of said partition match detecting unit; wherein said inter-crossbar-unit conflict partition detecting unit includes an inter-two-crossbar-unit conflict partition detecting unit for determining that a combination of two system board modules, which do not belong to a same partition, makes a conflict between each bus interconnecting two of the plurality of crossbar units; said inter-crossbar-unit conflict partition detecting unit includes an inter-multi-crossbar-unit conflict partition detecting unit for determining whether first and third partitions make a conflict if the first partition and a second partition make a conflict between first and second crossbar units, and if the second and the third partitions make a conflict between first and third crossbar units, when three or more crossbar units exist in the computer system; and when a primary indirect conflict exists, that is an indirect conflict via only one system board module of the plurality of system board modules; or when a secondary indirect conflict exists, that is an indirect conflict via two system board modules of the plurality of system board modules; indirect conflicts detected and determined by the partition priority controlling apparatus include indirect conflicts associated with the plurality of crossbar units or the plurality of system board modules in addition to the primary indirect conflicts and the secondary indirect conflicts.