Transactional execution branch indications

• US 8,887,002 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2013
• Issued: 11/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Greiner, Dan F., Jacobi, Christian, Schmidt, Donald W., Slegel, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson, Yolanda L
• Application Number:
  US13/783,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 618 Days
• Field of Search: 714/45, 712/234
• US Class Current: 714/45
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 13/12 of the kidneys
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 9/12 Antihypertensives
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/366 using diagnostics G06F11/0703 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30058 Conditional branch instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30087 Synchronisation or serialisation instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/323 for indirect branch instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing

Abstract

Transactional execution branch indications are placed into one or more transaction diagnostic blocks when a transaction is aborted. Each branch indication specifies whether a branch was taken, as a result of executing a branch instruction within the transaction. As the transaction executes and a branch instruction is encountered, a branch indication is set in a vector indicating whether the branch was taken. Then, if the transaction aborts, the indicators are stored in one or more transaction diagnostic blocks providing a branch history usable in diagnosing the failure.

Claims

1. A method of providing diagnostic information on transaction aborts, the method comprising:

executing a transaction, the transaction effectively delaying committing transactional stores to main memory until completion of a selected transaction;

based on executing the transaction, determining whether the transaction includes one or more branching instructions;

based on determining the transaction includes one or more branching instructions, setting one or more indicators corresponding to the one or more branching instructions, wherein an indicator corresponds to a branching instruction and indicates whether a branch was taken by the branching instruction, wherein the setting of the indicator includes setting the indicator to a first value based on the branching instruction corresponding to the indicator taking a branch, and setting the indicator to a second value based on the branching instruction corresponding to the indicator not taking the branch;

determining that the transaction has aborted; and

based on determining the transaction has aborted, storing the one or more indicators in a transaction diagnostic block (TDB) associated with the transaction, wherein the transaction diagnostic block provides a branch history that indicates which branching instructions have taken the branch and which branching instructions have not taken the branch during a transactional execution mode that includes the transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating the transaction via a transaction begin instruction, the transaction begin instruction specifying an address for the transaction diagnostic block.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more indicators comprise one or more bits, the one or more bits being included within a vector of a plurality of bits, the plurality of bits, except for a selected bit, representing branching instructions executed within the transaction, the selected bit to indicate whether there are more branching instructions than bits in the vector.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more indicators are bit significant and arranged in sequential order of the branch instructions of the transaction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein there are a plurality of types of transaction diagnostic blocks, and the method further comprises selecting one or more types of transaction diagnostic blocks to store the one or more indicators, the selecting being based on one or more of:

a type of abort or information provided in initiating the transaction.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of types of transaction diagnostic blocks comprises a program-specified TDB, a program interruption TDB, and an interception TDB.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transaction is initiated by a transaction begin instruction, and the selecting comprises determining whether a valid transaction block address is provided in the transaction begin instruction, wherein based on a valid transaction diagnostic block address being provided, the one or more indicators are stored in the program-specified TDB.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating the transaction via a transaction begin instruction, the transaction being a nonconstrained transaction.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more indicators stored in the transaction diagnostic block provide a branch history of the transaction.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein an address of the transaction diagnostic block is specified by an instruction initiating the transaction.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the indicator is a bit.