Method and apparatus for locking shared memory locations in

Abstract

A method of synchronizing accesses to shared data in a multiprocessing system having an atomic swap capability. A distinguished lock value is defined. A processor which wishes to access a shared data memory location performs an atomic swap of the lock value to the shared data memory location. If the data received from the atomic swap is equivalent to the lock value the processor knows that the memory location has been locked by another processor. The processor then repeats the atomic swap at intervals until data is received which is not equivalent to the lock value. The processor operates on the data and then performs a write to the shared data memory location to replace the lock value with the updated data. In an alternate embodiment, in situations where a unique lock value cannot be defined, an array is created to store lock values associated with particular shared data memory locations. A processor seeking access to a shared data memory location performs atomic swaps of the lock value to the lock array to determine access to a shared data memory location.