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:
Aug. 08, 2006
Filed:
Jun. 12, 2003
Michael Norman Day, Round Rock, TX (US);
Roy Moonseuk Kim, Austin, TX (US);
Mark Richard Nutter, Austin, TX (US);
Yasukichi Okawa, Austin, TX (US);
Thuong Quang Truong, Austin, TX (US);
Michael Norman Day, Round Rock, TX (US);
Roy Moonseuk Kim, Austin, TX (US);
Mark Richard Nutter, Austin, TX (US);
Yasukichi Okawa, Austin, TX (US);
Thuong Quang Truong, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and an apparatus are provided for enhancing lock acquisition in a multiprocessor system. A lock-load instruction is sent from a first processor to a cache. In response, a reservation flag for the first processor is set, and lock data is sent to the first processor. The lock data is placed in target and shadow registers of the first processor. Upon a determination that the lock is taken, the lock-load instruction is resent from the first processor to the cache. Upon a determination that the reservation flag is still set for the first processor, a status-quo signal is sent to the first processor without resending the lock data to the first processor. In response, the lock data is copied from the shadow register to the target register.