Company Filing History:
Years Active: 2010-2012
Title: Fu'ad W F Al Tabba′: Innovator in Transactional Memory Systems
Introduction
Fu'ad W F Al Tabba′ is a notable inventor based in Auckland, New Zealand. He has made significant contributions to the field of software transactional memory, holding 2 patents that showcase his innovative approaches to memory management in computing systems.
Latest Patents
His latest patents include a "System and method for implementing nonblocking zero-indirection transactional memory." This invention discloses systems and methods for implementing and using nonblocking zero-indirection software transactional memory (NZSTM). The NZSTM systems implement object-based software transactional memory that eliminates all levels of indirection except in the uncommon case of a conflict with an unresponsive thread. Shared data is co-located with a header in an NZObject, which is addressable at a fixed offset from the header. Conflicting transactions are requested to abort themselves without being forced to abort. NZObjects are modified in place when there are no conflicts, and when a conflicting transaction acknowledges the abort request. In the uncommon case, NZObjects are inflated to introduce a locator and some levels of indirection, and are restored to their un-inflated form following resolution of the conflict. In some embodiments, transactions are executed using best effort hardware transactional memory if it is available and effective, and software transactional memory if not, yielding a hybrid transactional memory system, NZTM.
Another significant patent is the "System and method for implementing hybrid single-compare-single-store operations." This hybrid Single-Compare-Single-Store (SCSS) operation exploits best-effort hardware transactional memory (HTM) for good performance when it succeeds, and transparently resorts to software-mediated transactions if the hardware transactional mechanisms fail. The SCSS operation compares a value in a control location to a specified expected value, and if they match, stores a new value in a separate data location. The control value may include a global lock, a transaction status indicator, and/or a portion of an ownership record, in different embodiments. If another transaction in progress owns the data location, the SCSS operation may abort the other transaction or help it complete by copying the other transaction's write set into its own right set before acquiring ownership. A hybrid SCSS operation, which is usually nonblocking, may be applied to building software transactional memories (STMs) and/or hybrid transactional memories (HyTMs).
Career Highlights