DISTRIBUTED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM USING HASHING OPERATION TO DIRECT RESOURCE REQUEST FROM DIFFERENT PROCESSORS TO THE PROCESSOR CONTROLLING THE REQUESTED RESOURCE

A resource managing method operates in a computer system in which a variety of processes run essentially simultaneously on a group of processors, each processor being provided with a respective section of memory which is also accessible by the other processors in the group though typically not as quickly as by the respective processor. Resource data objects corresponding to particular resources are located by means of a hash table which is divided into portions which are distributed over respective sections of the overall system memory. A resource manager program, which is essentially replicated for each processor, implements a hashing algorithm which directs requests for access to designated resources to the corresponding portion of the hash table irrespective of which processor originated the request. Each section of the hash table includes a series of entries which provide pointers to respective lists of resource data objects which hash to that entry. The resource data objects, as well as various other data objects, are distributed over the different memory sections and include data elements which implement basic protection latches using a read-modify-write instruction.