Wake-and-go mechanism with dynamic allocation in hardware private array

Abstract

A wake-and-go mechanism is provided for a data processing system. When a thread first starts executing, a wake-and-go mechanism automatically allocates space for thread state in a hardware private array and space for a target address and other information, if any, in a wake-and-go array. If the hardware private array comprises a reserved portion of system memory, then the wake-and-go mechanism may request a sufficient portion of memory to store thread state for the thread. When a thread is waiting for an event, rather than performing a series of get-and-compare sequences, the thread updates a wake-and-go array with a target address associated with the event. The thread then goes to sleep until the event occurs. When a thread ends execution and is no longer in the run queue of the processor, the wake-and-go mechanism de-allocates the space for the thread state information for that thread.