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. 18, 2008
Filed:
Jun. 25, 2002
Gordon Taylor Davis, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Marco Heddes, Lawrence, MA (US);
Steven Kenneth Jenkins, Raleigh, NC (US);
Ross Boyd Leavens, Cary, NC (US);
Robert Brian Likovich, Jr., Raleigh, NC (US);
Gordon Taylor Davis, Chapel Hill, NC (US);
Marco Heddes, Lawrence, MA (US);
Steven Kenneth Jenkins, Raleigh, NC (US);
Ross Boyd Leavens, Cary, NC (US);
Robert Brian Likovich, Jr., Raleigh, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A generic method and apparatus for managing semaphores in a multi-threaded processing system has a storage area for each of the threads in the processing system. Each storage area includes a first part for storing at least one indicia for identifying at least one unique semaphore from a plurality of semaphores utilized by the multi-threaded processing system and a second part for storing an indicia for indicating a locked status for the stored semaphore. A thread requiring a semaphore sends a semaphore lock request to the semaphore manager which examines the contents of all of the storage areas to determine the status of the requested semaphore. If the requested semaphore is not locked, it is locked for the requesting thread by inserting the requested semaphore and locked status in the memory location assigned to the requesting thread.