Patent ID: 7017158

Claim:
A multi-processor system, comprising: a plurality of processors each operable to perform data processing, each of said plurality of processors being assigned identification data for identifying such processor; a controller operable to broadcast broadcast data to all of said plurality of processors, the broadcast data including data usable by said plurality of data processors in performing the data processing; and a sort mechanism operable to receive the identification data from ones of said plurality of processors when each of said ones of said plurality of processors completes the data processing, the sort mechanism being operable to send the identification data received from said ones of said plurality of processors to said controller in a predetermined order, wherein said controller is operable to obtain at least some of the identification data from said sort mechanism to use as obtained identification data, to obtain results of the data processing completed by said ones of said plurality of processors based on the obtained identification data, and to generate and broadcast the broadcast data to all of said plurality of processors, the broadcast data including the obtained results and at least some of the obtained identification data, each of said plurality of processors is operable to generate priority data usable by said controller to determine an order of reading the results of the data processing, to receive the broadcast data and sort out data necessary to perform the data processing from the received broadcast data based on the identification data included in the received broadcast data, and to send the priority data to said sort mechanism together with the identification data identifying such processor upon completing the data processing, and said sort mechanism is operable to determine, based on the priority data, an order in which said ones of said plurality of processors send the identification data.