International Business Machines Corporation

Davis A Miller

Donald R DeSota

Robert Joersz

Maged M Michael

William Durr

Queuing of received transactions that have a resource conflict is disclosed. A first node receives a first transaction from a second node, where the first transaction relates to a resource of the first node. The transaction may be a request relating to a memory line of the first node, for instance. It is determined that a second transaction that relates to this resource of the first node is already being processed by the first node. Therefore, the first transaction is enqueued in a conflict queue within the first node. The queuing may be a linked list, a priority queue, or another type of queue. Once the second transaction has been processed, the first transaction is restarted for processing by the first node. The first transaction is then processed by the first node.

Queuing of conflicted remotely received transactions

A method of queuing of received transactions that have a resource conflict is disclosed. A first node receives a first transaction from a second node, where the first transaction relates to a resource of the first node. The transaction may be a request relating to a memory line of the first node, for instance. It is determined that a second transaction that relates to this resource of the first node is already being processed by the first node. Therefore, the first transaction is enqueued in a conflict queue within the first node. The queuing may be a linked list, a priority queue, or another type of queue. Once the second transaction has been processed, the first transaction is restarted for processing by the first node. The first transaction is then processed by the first node.

Information regarding memory access by other nodes within a coherency controller of a node is locally stored. The coherency controller receives a transaction relating a line of local memory of the node. In response to locally determining that the line of the local memory is not being cached by another node and/or has not been modified by another node, the coherency controller processes the transaction without accessing tag directory information regarding the line. A table within the controller may store entries corresponding to local memory sections. Each entry includes a count value tracking a number of lines of the section being cached by other nodes, and a count value tracking a number of lines of the section that have been modified by other nodes. The table may also include flags corresponding to the sections, each flag indicating the validity of the section's contents.

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Tigard, OR, United States of America

Davis A Miller