Time-efficient inter-process communication in a harmonic rate system

摘要

A time-efficient inter-process communication method (50, 60) and protocol allowing producers and consumers to execute at any combination of periods, where producers (12) and consumers (14, 16, 18) are isolated from execution ordering variations. The method and protocol is for periodic broadcast-type inter-process communication in a harmonic rate system. The system has a plurality of threads sharing a memory space (42) and including consuming threads and producing threads having potentially different rates. The producing threads have a period and are adapted to produce a message consumable by said consuming threads. The memory space (42) includes a plurality of buffers (44) for messages produced. The method includes the step of writing (58) a copy of said produced message to a buffer in said memory space during said producing thread's period, wherein only one copy of said produced message is written, regardless of the difference in rates between producing and consuming threads.