Dynamic hardware multithreading and partitioned hardware multithreading

• US 7,698,540 B2
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Issued: 04/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Vaden, Thomas L., Callister, James, Norton, Scott J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Eddie P
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alrobaye; Idriss N
• Application Number:
  US11/591,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,260 Days
• Field of Search: 712/228, 714/24, 714/10, 718/108
• US Class Current: 712/228
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence

Abstract

In an embodiment of the invention, a method for dynamic hardware multithreading, includes: using a hardware halt function or a hardware yield function in a processor core in order to enable or disable a hardware thread that shares the core; wherein the hardware thread is disabled by placing the hardware thread in a halt state or yield state, and allowing another hardware thread to utilize the core.

Claims

1. A method for dynamic enabling or disabling of hardware multithreading on a processor core, the method comprising:

using a hardware halt function or a hardware yield function in the processor core in order to enable or disable a first hardware thread that shares the processor core, wherein the first hardware thread is disabled by placing the first hardware thread in a halt state or yield state;

allowing a second hardware thread to utilize the processor core; and

in addition to placing the first hardware thread in the halt or yield state, removing the first hardware thread from a view of an operating system by removing information associated with the first hardware thread from at least one data structure associated with the operating system, wherein placing the first hardware thread in the halt state or yield state and removing the first hardware thread from the view of the operating system cause disabling of the hardware multithreading on the processor core, and

enabling hardware multithreading on the processor core by removing the first hardware thread from the halt state or yield state and placing the first hardware thread in the view of the operating system by retrieving information associated with the first hardware thread into the at least one data structure associated with the operating system,

wherein using the hardware halt function or the hardware yield function permits multithreading enabling and disabling on hardware that does not support dynamic enabling and disabling of hardware threads without operating system reboot or system reset.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a CPU ID of the second hardware thread that will utilize the processor core after disabling the hardware multithreading on the processor core.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein enabling hardware multithreading on the processor core allows multiple hardware threads to share the processor core.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware multithreading is dynamically disabled without performing an operating system reboot or system reset.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware multithreading is dynamically enabled without performing an operating system reboot or system reset.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein using the hardware halt function or the hardware yield function permits multithreading enabling and disabling on hardware that does not support dynamic enabling and disabling of hardware threads on a per-core basis without operating system reboot or system reset.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the removed information associated with the first hardware thread in a buffer associated with a multithreading enabling and disabling engine.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising retrieving the information associated with the first hardware thread and stored in the buffer into the at least one data structure associated with the operating system to place the first hardware thread in the view of the operating system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one data structure is part of an operating system kernel layer.

10. An apparatus for dynamic enabling or disabling of hardware multithreading, the apparatus comprising:

a computer system including a processor and an operating system;

wherein the processor includes a processor core with a hardware halt function or a hardware yield function that is invoked for enabling and disabling a first hardware thread that shares the processor core, and wherein the first hardware thread is disabled by placing the first hardware thread in a halt state or yield state, and wherein a second hardware thread is allowed to utilize the processor core, wherein the first hardware thread is further removed from a view of the operating system by removing information associated with the first hardware thread from at least one data structure associated with the operating system, wherein placing the first hardware thread in the halt state or yield state and removing the first hardware thread from the view of the operating system cause disabling of the hardware multithreading on the processor core,

wherein the hardware multithreading is enabled on the processor core by removing the first hardware thread from the halt state or yield state and by placing the first hardware thread in the view of the operating system by retrieving information associated with the first hardware thread into the at least one data structure, and

wherein using the hardware halt function or the hardware yield function permits multithreading enabling and disabling on hardware that does not support dynamic enabling and disabling of hardware threads without system reset or operating system reboot.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the operating system is executable in the processor to select a CPU ID of the second hardware thread that will utilize the processor core after disabling the hardware multithreading on the processor core.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein enabling the hardware multithreading on the processor core allows multiple hardware threads to share the processor core.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the hardware multithreading is dynamically disabled without performing a system reset or operating system reboot.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the hardware multithreading is dynamically enabled without performing a system reset or operating system reboot.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein using the hardware halt function or the hardware yield function permits multithreading enabling and disabling on hardware that does not support dynamic enabling and disabling of hardware threads on a per-core basis without operating system reboot or system reset.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a multithreading enabling and disabling engine to dynamically enable and disable the hardware multithreading of the processor core; and

a buffer to store the information associated with the first hardware thread that has been removed from the at least one data structure associated with the operating system.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the multithreading enabling and disabling engine is to retrieve the information associated with the first hardware thread and stored in the buffer into the at least one data structure associated with the operating system to place the first hardware thread in the view of the operating system.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one structure is part of an operating system kernel layer.