Restricted instructions in transactional execution

• US 9,448,797 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• 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, Slegel, Timothy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CALDWELL, ANDREW T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Metzger, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/783,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339685A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 712/220
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3004 to perform operations on memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30087 Synchronisation or serialisation instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30098 Register arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3834 Maintaining memory consistency
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3861 Recovery, e.g. branch miss-prediction, exception handling error detection or correction G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/466 Transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/467 Transactional memory G06F9/528 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/528 by using speculative mechanisms

Abstract

Restricted instructions are prohibited from execution within a transaction. There are classes of instructions that are restricted regardless of type of transaction: constrained or nonconstrained. There are instructions only restricted in constrained transactions, and there are instructions that are selectively restricted for given transactions based on controls specified on instructions used to initiate the transactions.

Claims

1. A method of performing processing associated with transactional execution in a computing environment, the method comprising:

executing a plurality of transaction begin instructions to initiate a plurality of transactions, the plurality of transactions creating a nest of transactions;

obtaining, by a processor, an instruction to be executed as part of a transaction of the nest of transactions;

computing one or more effective controls from one or more controls set by the plurality of transaction begin instructions, the one or more effective controls indicating whether one or more particular types of instructions, as indicated by the one or more effective controls, are permitted to be executed, wherein the one or more effective controls comprises an effective allow access register modification control that indicates whether an access register is permitted to be modified, and wherein the computing comprises determining a value for the effective allow access register modification control, wherein the determining the value for the effective allow access register modification control comprises performing a logical. AND of the allow access register modification controls of the plurality of transaction begin instructions;

determining by the processor whether the instruction is a selectively restricted instruction that is prohibited from execution within the transaction, the determining being based on the computed one or more effective controls; and

performing processing associated with the instruction based on whether the instruction is selectively restricted.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises aborting the transaction based on the instruction being a restricted instruction.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the performing further comprises based on aborting the transaction storing an abort code in a transaction diagnostic block identified by one transaction begin instruction of the plurality of transaction begin instructions and setting a condition code.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing comprises executing the instruction based on the determining indicating the instruction is not a restricted instruction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more effective controls further comprises an effective allow floating point operation control that indicates whether specified floating point instructions are permitted to be executed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the instruction is selectively restricted in that it is restricted for one transaction but not restricted for another transaction.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining another instruction to be executed in the transaction and checking whether the another instruction is a restricted instruction for transactional processing, wherein the performing processing aborts the transaction based on the another instruction being restricted.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining whether the transaction is a constrained transaction or a nonconstrained transaction, and wherein the checking whether the another instruction is restricted is based on whether the transaction is a constrained transaction or a nonconstrained transaction.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising executing the constrained transaction as a nonconstrained transaction based on the another instruction being restricted exclusively for constrained transactions.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the transaction is a constrained transaction or a nonconstrained transaction; and

providing an interrupt based on the transaction being a constrained transaction and the instruction being restricted.