Patent ID: 8578130

Claim:
A method for physically partitioning an entity of a multiple-entity system into more than one partition, each entity of the multiple-entity system including a plurality of processors, a plurality of memory, and one or more controllers interconnecting the processors to the memory, the entities interconnected to one another via an interconnection network, such that the memory of each entity is accessible within the entity via the controllers without having to traverse the interconnection network and is accessible to other of the entities by traversing the interconnection network, the method comprising: physically partitioning a plurality of first resources among the more than one partition, in that the plurality of first resources physically partitioned to each partition are directly inaccessible by other partitions of the entity, and in that each first resource is accessible over the multiple-entity system through the partition to which the resource has been physically partitioned; and, internally logically partitioning a plurality of second resources among the more than one partition, in that each of the plurality of second resources internally separates transactions of one partition from transactions of other partitions, in that each second resource of all the second resources has a direct connection to at least one other second resource of the plurality of second resources, and in that the second resources are not physically partitioned among the more than one partition, where physical partitioning of a given resource to a first given partition requires that the given resource not be directly connected to any resource physically partitioned to a second given partition, and each second resource is accessible over the multiple-entity system through the partition to which the resource has been logically partitioned, wherein each second resource is a shared resource insofar as each second resource is not physically partitioned among the more than one partition, wherein each second resource of all the second resources is a resource of an entity of the multiple-entity system and is not a whole entity of the multiple-entity system, and wherein the plurality of second resources comprises a plurality of primary controllers, each primary controller logically partitioned to all of the more than one partition and to manage a cache, each primary controller to receive transactions from each of the more than one partition, each primary controller directly connected to each of the more than one partition.