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:
Mar. 20, 2012
Filed:
Jan. 11, 2007
Michael J. Corrigan, Rochester, MN (US);
Gary Ross Ricard, Chatfield, MN (US);
Timothy Joseph Torzewski, Rochester, MN (US);
Michael J. Corrigan, Rochester, MN (US);
Gary Ross Ricard, Chatfield, MN (US);
Timothy Joseph Torzewski, Rochester, MN (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A soft lock mechanism controls access by multiple processes to a shared resource to make simultaneous access an unlikely event, while not necessarily preventing simultaneous access. Preferably, the soft lock contains a next_free_time field, specifying when the soft lock will next be available, and a lock_duration, specifying a sufficiently long interval for most accesses to the resource to complete. The lock is obtained by comparing the current time to next_free_time. If the current time is later than next_free_time, then the lock is obtained immediately, and next_free_time is updated to the current time plus lock_duration. If the current time is before next_free_time, then next_free_time is incremented by lock_duration, and the requesting process waits until the old next_free_time to obtain the lock. No action is required to release the lock.