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:
Apr. 24, 2007
Filed:
Jun. 20, 2003
Chad Allen Olstad, Rochester, MN (US);
David Finian Owen, Rochester, MN (US);
Gary Ross Ricard, Chatfield, MN (US);
Chad Allen Olstad, Rochester, MN (US);
David Finian Owen, Rochester, MN (US);
Gary Ross Ricard, Chatfield, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A flux indicator is utilized as a low-overhead consistency check for a shared resource such as a data structure, and provides a mechanism for determining both whether a data structure has or is currently in the process of being modified. In connection with attempts to modify the data structure, the flux indicator is updated from a first state to a second state prior to modifying the data structure, and thereafter updated to a third state after modifying the data structure, Copies of the flux indicator are then obtained both before and after attempting to obtain a copy of data from the data structure. The validity of the copy of the data is ensured when the first copy of the flux indicator does not indicate that the data structure is in the progress of being modified and the first and second copies of the flux indicator have the same state.