Multiprocessor load sharing arrangement

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A method and apparatus for allocating work requests among a plurality of processors attached to a data ring. Each processor has an interface for communicating with the data ring. The interface for each work request accepting processor has a memory defining a plurality of destination addresses for which the associated processor will accept work requests. Each type of work request has several destination addresses corresponding to different priority levels. If that processor becomes too heavily loaded, it will delete one or more of the destination addresses for which the interface will accept work requests. Such deletions result in the processor only accepting higher priority requests for a …