Hardware management of java threads utilizing a thread processor to manage a plurality of active threads with synchronization primitives

• US 7,089,340 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Penkovski, Vladimir M.
• Primary Examiner(s): PEYTON, TAMMARA R
• Application Number:
  US10/335,332
• Publication Number:
  US 20050080962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 710/5, 710/36, 710/107, 710/200, 709/100, 709/248, 718/102, 718/106
• US Class Current: 710/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/522 Manager
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/526 Mutual exclusion algorithms

Abstract

A system for managing threads to handle transaction requests connected to input/output (I/O) subsystems to enable notification to threads to complete operations.

Claims

1. A computing systems comprising:

a memory to contain a synchronization primitive;

an input/output (I/O) subsystem including at least one I/O device;

a processing unit to process a control thread; and

a thread control processor coupled to the processing unit, the thread control processor to exclusively manage a plurality of active threads and to communicate with (i) the synchronization primitive via a first interconnect for coordinating usage of a shared resource by the plurality of active threads and (ii) the I/O device via a second interconnect to receive information when an I/O event by the I/O device has completed.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization primitive comprises one of a mutual exclusion object (Mutex) and a Semaphore residing in the memory.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the I/O device is a disk controller.

4. The computing system of claim 3, wherein the I/O event is a file read operation being completed.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the I/O device is a network interface controller.

6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the I/O event is a transmission of a message onto a network via the network interface controller.

7. A method comprising

implementing a thread control processor in a computing system;

interconnecting the thread control processor to an input/output (I/O) device and to a system memory loaded with at least one synchronization primitive;

exclusively managing a plurality of active threads by the thread control processor of the computing system; and

communicating by the thread control processor with the I/O device via a first interconnect to receive information when an I/O event by the I/O device has completed.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the exclusive managing of the plurality of active threads comprises maintaining threads until they become ready-to-run and connecting threads for operation when ready-to-run.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the exclusive managing of the plurality of active threads further comprises selecting ready-to-run threads and connecting them to available processing resources.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

communicating by the thread control processor with the synchronization primitive via a second interconnect.

11. A computing system comprising:

a processing unit to process a control thread; and

a thread control processor coupled to the processing unit, the thread control processor to exclusively manage a plurality of active threads and to communicate with (i) a synchronization primitive via a first interconnect for coordinating usage of a shared resource by the plurality of active threads and (ii) an input/output (I/O) device via a second interconnect to receive information when an I/O event by the I/O device has completed.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the synchronization primitive is stored in a memory and comprises one of a mutual exclusion object (Mutex) and a Semaphore residing in the memory.

13. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the I/O device is one or a disk controller and a network interface controller.

14. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the I/O event is a file read operation being completed.

15. The computing system of claim 13, wherein the I/O event is a transmission of a message onto a network via the network interface controller.