Investigation of the mechanisms for interprocess communication

From a study of the computer systems operating in a multiprogramming environment, a model for the interrupt activity is derived. The basic components of the interrupt activity are identified and a formulation is developed to express process switching in terms of these components. The systems studied include, in particular, the IBM 360/370, Burroughs 5000/6000/6, PDP 10/11/8, Nova 1200, etc. Some important aspects of interrupt structure, such as, response time, overhead and saturation are examined and compared. The results indicate that while logical functions1, such as, interrupt acknowledge, saving, servicing and post processing are easily identifiable, their hardware implementation exhibit variations which have significant influence on process switching flexibility2. The use of interrupt mechanisms in scheduling of processes in multiprogramming systems is illustrated with examples. Problems of suitable functional modules for processor multiplexing are discussed. The results of the aforementioned study are used to suggest a suitable representation of the mechanisms for interprocess communication.