Resolving conflicts in a transactional execution model of a multiprocessor system

• US 20090198694A1
• Filed: 01/31/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Thomas, Tessil
• Application Number:
  US12/012,060
• Publication Number:
  US 20090198694A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing

Abstract

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for resolving conflicts, including receiving data access requests from multiple requestors at a home agent that owns the data, determining whether any of the requests are transactional requests, any of the requestors obtains the data forwarded from another agent, and a highest priority transactional requestor, and based at least in part on the determining, sending from the home agent a first message to the highest priority transactional requestor to indicate that the highest priority transactional requestor is to not abort its transaction and a second message to the other requestor to indicate that the corresponding requestor is to abort its transaction. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests for access to data from a plurality of requesters at a home agent that owns the data;

determining whether any of the requests are transactional requests, any of the requesters obtains the data forwarded from another agent, and a highest priority transactional requester; and

based at least in part on the determining, sending from the home agent a first completion message to the highest priority transactional requester with an abort indicator having a first state to indicate that the highest priority transactional requestor is to not abort its transaction, and sending a second completion message to all other of the plurality of requesters with the abort indicator having a second state to indicate that the corresponding requestor is to abort its transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein if one of the other requesters obtains the data forwarded from another agent, extracting the data from the one other requestor via a completion forward message from the home agent with the abort indicator having the second state.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting the completion forward message prior to transmitting the first completion message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and one of the non-transactional requestors obtains the data forwarded from another agent, ordering a conflict chain in the home agent so that the non-transactional requests proceed first and a last one of the non-transactional requesters forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requestor.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and one of the transactional requestors obtains the data forwarded from another agent, ordering a conflict chain in the home agent so that the non-transactional requests proceed after the transactional request that obtains the forwarded data, and a last one of the non-transactional requestors forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requestor.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and the data is not forwarded to any of the plurality of requesters, ordering a conflict chain in the home agent so that the non-transactional requests proceed first and a last one of the non-transactional requesters forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requestor.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending the first completion message to the highest priority transactional requestor after the data is forwarded from the last non-transactional requestor.

8. A system comprising:

a first processor including a home agent associated with a first distributed memory portion;

a second processor coupled to the first processor by a first point-to-point (PtP) link, the second processor including a caching agent to cache a copy of data of the first distributed memory portion;

a third processor coupled to the first processor by a second PtP link, wherein the home agent is to receive a plurality of requests for access to the data, resolve a conflict between the plurality of requests based on conflict resolution rules, and based at least in part on the resolution, send from the home agent a first completion message to a highest priority transactional requestor with an abort indicator having a first state to indicate that the highest priority transaction requester is to not abort its transaction, and send a second completion message to all other of the plurality of requestors with the abort indicator having a second state to indicate that the corresponding requestor is to abort its transaction.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the conflict resolution rules are to be applied based on an analysis including determining whether any of the requests are transactional requests, any of the requestors obtains the data forwarded from another processor, and the highest priority transactional requestor.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein if one of the other requesters obtains the data forwarded from another processor, the home agent is to extract the data from the one other requestor via a completion forward message from the home agent with the abort indicator having the second state.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the home agent is to transmit the completion forward message prior to transmission of the first completion message.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and one of the non-transactional requesters obtains the data forwarded from another processor, the home agent is to order a conflict chain so that the non-transactional requests proceed first and a last one of the non-transactional requesters forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requestor.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and one of the transactional requesters obtains the data forwarded from another processor, the home agent is to order a conflict chain so that the non-transactional requests proceed after the transactional request that obtains the forwarded data, and a last one of the non-transactional requesters forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requestor.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein if the plurality of requests includes a mix of transactional requests and non-transactional requests, and the data is not forwarded to any of the plurality of requesters, the home agent is to order a conflict chain so that the non-transactional requests proceed first and a last one of the non-transactional requestors forwards the data to the highest priority transactional requester.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the home agent is to send the first completion message to the highest priority transactional requestor after the data is forwarded from the last non-transactional requester.