Patent ID: 8112658

Claim:
A method for determining a nodal fault within a parallel processing system having a plurality of nodes, the method comprising: determining a row of the plurality of nodes from among a plurality of rows, wherein the nodes within the row are coupled to one another by point-to-point links; causing each node within the row to communicate with every adjacent node also within the row, wherein nodes in the row are adjacent to one another when sharing a point-to-point link with one another, and wherein causing each node within the row to communicate with every adjacent node also within the row includes causing each node to send a communication to every adjacent node also within the row over the point-to-point link therebetween; and analyzing the communications between the adjacent nodes within the row to determine the nodal fault relating to at least one respective node of the plurality of nodes based at least in part on the communications between the at least one respective node and the nodes adjacent the at least one respective node.