Patent ID: 7756994

Claim:
A server system including a plurality of hardware server devices, the plurality of hardware server devices performing processing using a plurality of processing data without duplication, each of the plurality of hardware server devices relaying at least one of an initial signal initially transmitted by at least one of the hardware server devices and a corresponding signal corresponding to the initially transmitted signal to at least one other hardware server device so that at least one of the initial signal and the corresponding signal passes through all the hardware server devices to be finally received by the hardware server device that initially transmitted at least one of the initial signal and the corresponding signal, wherein each of the plurality of hardware server devices includes: transmission means for transmitting a first signal indicating that any of the processing data is in use to the at least one of the other hardware server devices when the processing data is to be used; relay means for receiving the first signal from the at least one of the other hardware server devices and relaying the first signal thus received to at least another hardware server device; and use permit means for permitting use of the processing data to be used when the first signal is transmitted from the transmission means to be relayed from the at least one of the other hardware server devices.