Patent ID: 7844730

Claim:
A computer system that transfers data in packets mutually between a plurality of modules, comprising: a first module and a second module which are connected by at least two communication paths, said first and second modules transmitting and receiving packets via the communication paths, wherein the first module duplicates a packet to be transmitted into a plurality of duplicate packets and transmits each of said plurality of duplicate packets of the packet to be transmitted to the second module by a different one of the communication paths, wherein the second module comprises a packet loss detection circuit and error detection circuit, which respectively check each of said plurality of duplicate packets received at the second module by the different one of the communication paths for packet loss and error, wherein the second module further comprises a packet selector circuit that determines which of the plurality of duplicate packets arrives first in time at the second module and selects a first received packet among the plurality of duplicate packets, the first received packet being determined as the duplicate packet arriving first in time from the first module, said packet selector circuit discarding the duplicate packets not arriving first in time after the packet loss detection circuit and error detection circuit check each of the plurality of duplicate packets for packet loss and error, wherein the packet loss detection circuit and error detection circuit of the second module disconnect one of the communication paths if packet loss or transmission error are detected in the plurality of duplicate packets received via the one of the communication paths and checked by the packet loss detection circuit and error detection circuit prior to being discarded by the packet selector circuit such that the disconnected one of the communication paths is not used to transmit the packets from the first module to the second module.