The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 26, 1996
Filed:
Jul. 03, 1995
Richard R Barton, Lexington, SC (US);
NCR Corporation, Dayton, OH (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus in a multiprocessor computer system which advises a requesting process of how it should wait for a system process having shared data and/or shared resources that is currently occupied by another process. The method begins by storing data representing the state of the synchronization lock of the requested process in a memory within the computer system. A first processor acquires exclusive access to the data. The first processor reads the data. The first processor determines from a synchronization lock owner portion of the data if the synchronization lock of the requested process is currently owned by either the requesting process or another process executing on a second processor within the computer system, and if it is owned determines if the contention process indicated in an advice portion of the data is appropriate for the requesting process. If the contention process is appropriate, the first processor releases the exclusive access to the data and performs the contention process indicated by the advice portion of the data. If the contention process is not appropriate, the first processor releases the exclusive access to the data and performs a default contention process predetermined by the requesting process.