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:
Jul. 12, 2011
Filed:
Nov. 04, 2008
Paul E. Mckenney, Beaverton, OR (US);
Benedict Jackson, Beaverton, OR (US);
Ramakrishnan Rajamony, Austin, TX (US);
Ronald L. Rockhold, Austin, TX (US);
Paul E. McKenney, Beaverton, OR (US);
Benedict Jackson, Beaverton, OR (US);
Ramakrishnan Rajamony, Austin, TX (US);
Ronald L. Rockhold, Austin, TX (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and computer system for efficiently handling high contention locking in a multiprocessor computer system. At least some of the processors in the system are organized into a hierarchy, and process an interruptible lock in response to the hierarchy. The method utilizes two alternative methods of acquiring the lock, including a conditional lock acquisition primitive and an unconditional lock acquisition primitive, and an unconditional lock release primitive for releasing the lock from a particular processor. To prevent races between processors requesting a lock acquisition and a processor releasing the lock, a release flag is utilized. Furthermore, in order to ensure that the a processor utilizing the unconditional lock acquisition primitive is granted the lock, a handoff flag is utilized.