Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Shared memory area
Patent
1997-02-28
2000-08-22
Cabeca, John W.
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Shared memory area
711151, 711147, G06F 1200
Patent
active
061087572
ABSTRACT:
A method for efficiently acquiring and releasing a shared locking mechanism in a multiprocessor environment comprises updating variables associated with the locking mechanism and variables associated with processors seeking to acquire the lock. If the lock is currently occupied, a processor waits in accordance with information initialized in a spin variable associated with the processor. Upon releasing the lock, a relinquishing processor determines whether there are other processors waiting to acquire the lock. If other processors are waiting to acquire the lock, the relinquishing processor alters a successor variable associated with the waiting processor in the waiting processor's local shared memory so that the lock mechanism can be passed on and a first-in and first-out behavior of a waiting queue can be maintained.
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Bataille Pierre-Michel
Cabeca John W.
Ghose Mony R.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
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