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:
Dec. 26, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 27, 1997
Lars Bak, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Timothy G Lindholm, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus for locking and unlocking objects using synchronized threads are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a computer-implemented method for using a first thread to obtain a header value of an object includes replacing contents of a header of the object with a sentinel which identifies an execution stack associated with the first thread. Once the object contents are replaced with the sentinel, a determination is made regarding whether the object contents include a header value of the object, and when it is determined that the object contents do not include the header value of the object, a determination is made as to when the object is in the process of being studied by a second thread. In one embodiment, when it is determined that the object is not in the process of being studied by the second thread, the method involves adding the first thread to a list associated with the stack.