Interprocessor communication

Both loosely coupled and tightly coupled multiprocessing require mechanisms for interprocessor communication to coordinate the work distributed among a set of cooperating processors in a variety of arrangements.

Essentially, there are several forms of interprocessor communication:
  • There is communication that takes place across channels using the multi-processor interconnect facility (MPIF) that is used to link central processor complexes (CPCs) in a loosely coupled complex.

    Interprocessor communication is associated with a mechanism for sending messages among z/Architecture configurations in a loosely coupled complex, where the content of the message does not necessarily imply that a lock is called.

  • There is also communication between programs running in different systems that are controlled by different operating systems using the z/TPF application requester (z/TPFAR).

    Using z/TPFAR, a request for data retrieval from an IBM Db2 database can be sent from a z/TPF system to an IBM® z/OS® or IBM VM system.