Abstract: APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MULTIPLE PROCESSOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT include a host computer 10, a control processor 12, and a bus 16 between them and one or more nodes 14. Each node 14 includes a master processor 22 and one or more slave processors 24, all of the processors 22, 24 sharing a memory 26. Multiple processor application software may be developed using the host computer 10 and control processor 12 by concurrently monitoring every processor 22, 24 of every node 14. Each master processor 22 is monitored directly through a master transmit/receive buffer 20 between it and the bus 16, and each slave processor 24 of each node 14 is monitored indirectly through a slave transmit/receive buffer 38 in the node's shared memory 26, the buffer 38 extending between that slave processor 24 and that node's master processor 22.

Abstract: A time division switching system having a time-space-time architecture is disclosed. The time-multiplexed communication links of this system comprise a plurality of channels certain of which are used to convey control information and the remaining ones of which are normally used to convey digital representations of subscriber signals. When a large quantity of control information must be exchanged, the system preempts selected channels from conveying digital representations of subscriber signals and uses these preempted channels to convey the large quantity of control information.