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:
Nov. 09, 2004
Filed:
May. 31, 2002
Kelvin S. Vartti, Hugo, MN (US);
Wayne D. Ward, New Brighton, MN (US);
Hans C. Mikkelsen, Afton, MN (US);
Unisys Corporation, Blue Bell, PA (US);
Abstract
The current invention provides an improved system and method for locking shared resources. The invention may operate in a data processing environment including a main memory system coupled to multiple instruction processors (IPs). Lock-type instructions are included within the hardware instruction set of ones of the IPs. These lock-type instructions are executed to gain access to a software-lock stored at a predetermined location within the main memory. After activating the software-lock, further, indivisible execution of the lock-type instruction causes one or more addresses associated with the software-lock to be retrieved. These addresses are used as pointers to, in turn, retrieve the data signals protected by the software-lock. Requests for the protected data signals are issued automatically by the hardware on behalf of the requesting IP, and the IP is allowed to continue instruction execution.