Global address and data routers interconnect individual system units each
having its own processors, memory, and I/O. A domain filter coupled to
the routers dynamically defines groups of system units as domains and
clusters of domains which have both software and hardware isolation from
each other. Clusters can share dynamically definable ranges of memory
with each other. The domain filter has software-loadable registers on the
system units and in the global routers to set the parameters of the
domains and clusters. The registers label individual inter-system
transactions on the routers as invalid for system units not in the same
domain or cluster as the originating unit.