5590334 NuKernel ERS

111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 US005590334A United States Patent [19J [lll Patent Number: 5,590,334 Saulpaugh et al. [45] Date of Patent: Dec. 31, 1996 [54] OBJECT ORIENTED MESSAGE PASSING SYSTEM AND METHOD [75] Inventors: Thomas E. Saulpaugh, San Jose; Bill M. Bruffey, Cupertino; Russen T. Williams, San Jose, all of Calif. [73] Assignee: Apple Computer, Inc, Cupertino, Calif. [21] Appl. No.: 618,404 [22] Filed: Mar. 19, 1996 Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 220,043, Mar. 30, 1994, abandoned. [51] [52] Int. Cl. 6 ...................................................... G06F 13/14 U.S. Cl. ....................... 395/683; 395/600; 395/200.1; 3951733 Field of Search ..................................... 395/200, 700, 3951775, 600, 200.1; 364/DIG. 1, 228.5, 228.8 [58] References Cited [56] U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 5,142,683 8/1992 Burkhardt et al ....................... 395n25 5,230,051 711993 Quan ....................................... 395noo 5,265,206 11/1993 Shackelford et al. .................. 395/200 5,305,461 4/1994 Feigenbaum et al. .................. 395n75 5,315,709 5/1994 Alston, Jr. et al ...................... 395/600 5,317,746 5/1994 Watanabe ................................ 395noo 5,329,619 7/1994 Page et al ............................... 395/200 5,333,269 7/1994 Calvignac et al. ...................... 395/200 5,371,850 12/1994 Beisan et al. ........................... 395/200 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 0425420 0483036 5/1991 4/1992 European Pat. Off.. European Pat. Off. ..................... 9/44 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Tripathi, A. et al. "Type Management System In Tue Nexus Distributed Programming Environment," 5 Oct. 1988, pp. 170-177. Hong-Tai Chou et al. "Versions and Change Notification in an Object-Oriented Database System," 12 Jun. 1988, pp. 275-281. D. V. Pitts et al. "Object Memory and Storage Management in the Clouds Kernel," 13 Jun. 1988, pp. 10-17. D. C. Robinson et al. "Domain-Based Access Contra! for Distributed Computing Systems" in Software Engineering Journal, Sep. 1988, pp. 161-170, vol. 3, No. 5. U. Ramachandran et al. "A Measurement-Based Study of Hardware Support for Object lnvocation" in Software Practice & Experience, Sep. 1989, pp. 809-828, vol. 19, No. 9. M. Ancona. "Persistent Heaps," 21 Mar. 1990, pp. 324-331. G Pathak et al. "Object eXchange Service for an Object-0riented Database System," 6 Feb. 1989, pp. 27-34. Primary Examiner-Kevin A. Kriess Assistant Examiner-Majid A. Banankhah Attomey, Agent, or Finn-Carr, DeFilippo & Ferrell [57] ABSTRACT An object oriented message passing system for transferring messages between a client task and a server task comprises an object database, an object management unit, a message transaction unit, and a locking unit. Tue object management unit creates a port object and one or more associated message objects. Tue message transaction unit matches a send message request issue…