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master slave operation

Master-slave, meaning main computer- satellite computer, is a hierarchical concept for the organization and distribution of tasks between higher- level stations - in this case, the master stations - and lower-level computing units, the slaves. Such concepts are used whenever one computing unit takes over control and task distribution from another.

In the master-slave principle, one computing unit, the master, has unidirectional control functions for one or more slaves. In some constellations, a master is selected from a group of equal computing units. The master has the resources to which it has unrestricted access. The slaves can only ask the master for the resources, they have no direct access. Thus, the master can control communication paths or memory resources and allocate them according to demand.

The master-slave concept is implemented in client- server architectures, fieldbuses and Bluetooth, among others. In the client-server principle, the server operates as the master station, which is equipped with its own operating system, higher intelligence and a greater range of functions than the clients. The clients, acting as slave stations, are passive communication participants that are requested by the master station to receive or send data.

Simple master-slave configuration

Simple master-slave configuration

In the case of the fieldbus, the master station organizes the access authorization of the subordinate slaves to the fieldbus. At the same time it controls several slaves and requests the data of the slaves. For this purpose, the master station first sends, for example, a command data field to the slave stations and after a time safety gap, the interframe gap( IFG), either the master or a slave sends a data frame.

The slaves only process partial tasks such as the acquisition of sensor values, to stay with the fieldbus example. Tasks in the computer environment could be printer jobs, data storage, mail dispatch and many more.

Informations:
Englisch: master slave operation
Updated at: 29.01.2014
#Words: 299
Links: slave, computer, satellite, level, unit (U)
Translations: DE
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