Code optimization to enable and disable coalescing of memory transactions

• US 9,690,556 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2016
• Issued: 06/27/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shum, Chung-Lung K., Busaba, Fadi Y., Gschwind, Michael Karl, Michael, Maged M., Salapura, Valentina
• Primary Examiner(s): YU, JAE UN
• Application Number:
  US15/173,758
• Publication Number:
  US 20160283213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 386 Days
• Field of Search: 711147
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0831 using a bus scheme, e.g. with bus monitoring or watching means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/084 with a shared cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1016 Performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/33 Intelligent editors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/4435 Detection or removal of dead or redundant code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/467 Transactional memory G06F9/528 takes precedence

Abstract

A transactional memory system controls the coalescing of outermost memory transactions. The coalescing causing committing of memory store data to memory for a first transaction to be done at transaction execution (TX) end of a second transaction. A processor of the transactional memory system executes a run-time instrumentation program for monitoring and modifying an associated program having a plurality of transactions. Based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information, the processor dynamically modifies continued execution of the plurality of transactions by adding a coalescing instruction that controls, at least in part, a coalescing of one or more outermost transactions of the plurality of transactions.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a coalescing of outermost memory transactions, the coalescing causing committing of memory store data to memory for a first transaction to be done at transaction execution (TX) end of a second transaction, the method comprising:

executing, by a processor, a run-time instrumentation program for monitoring and modifying an associated program having a plurality of transactions; and

based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of the plurality of transactions by adding a coalescing instruction that controls, at least in part, a coalescing of one or more outermost transactions of the plurality of transactions with at least one other transaction to form a new transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

initiating, by the processor, execution of the associated program;

based on execution of transactions, by the processor, of the associated program, the run-time instrumentation program dynamically obtaining instrumentation information associated with the execution; and

based on the obtained instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of transactions of the associated program to optimize transactional execution (TX).

3. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining by the instrumentation program, that a first outermost transaction and a second outermost transaction of the plurality of transactions of the associated program should be coalesced; and

coalescing transactions based on the determining.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the run-time instrumentation program includes:

generating an environment for run-time profiling of the continued execution of the associated program for obtaining instrumentation information; and

profiling the execution of the associated program using obtained instrumentation information and changes in a run-time environment of the associated program.

5. The method of claim 4, the method further comprising:

processing a run-time instrumentation directive of the run-time instrumentation program; and

configuring a control of a run-time instrument based, at least in part, on the processed run-time instrumentation directive, wherein the run-time instrument includes one or more instructions to obtain instrumentation information regarding the execution of transactions of the associated program.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the run-time instrumentation program is configured to modify the continued execution of the associated program, in part, by adding one or more coalescing instructions to the associated program to control coalescing of one or more of the plurality of transactions based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more coalescing instructions include one or more of:

(i) an instruction to coalesce outermost transactions, (ii) an instruction to remove a transaction begin or end instruction or to not execute a transaction begin or end instruction, (iii) an instruction to modify a transaction begin or end instruction such that an associated outermost transaction can-not be coalesced with a type of outermost transaction if a number of already coalesced instructions is greater than a threshold, (iv) an instruction to indicate that a particular outermost transaction is not-to-be coalesced with a type of outermost transaction if the number of already coalesced instructions is greater than the threshold, (v) an instruction to process non-transactional instructions as transactional instructions, (vi) an instruction to cease coalescing outermost transactions, and (vii) an instruction to specify a maximum allowable number of coalesced outermost transactions.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the obtained instrumentation information includes one or more of:

(i) a reason for a coalesced outermost transaction being aborted, and a number of aborts it has received, (ii) a number of instructions between two coalesced outermost transactions, (iii) a type of instruction between two coalesced outermost transactions, (iv) whether any of the instructions between two coalesced outermost transactions are restricted from running in a given outermost transaction, (v) a number of dynamic instructions in a given outermost transaction, and (vi) a size of a footprint of a dynamic instruction in a given outermost transaction.

9. A computer system for controlling a coalescing of outermost memory transactions, the coalescing causing committing of memory store data to memory for a first transaction to be done at transaction execution (TX) end of a second transaction, the computer system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the computer system is configured to perform a method, said method comprising;

executing, by a processor, a run-time instrumentation program for monitoring and modifying an associated program having a plurality of transactions; and

based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of the plurality of transactions by adding a coalescing instruction that controls, at least in part, a coalescing of one or more outermost transactions of the plurality of transactions with at least one other transaction to form a new transaction.

10. The computer system of claim 9, the method further comprising:

initiating, by the processor, execution of the associated program;

based on execution of transactions, by the processor, of the associated program, the run-time instrumentation program dynamically obtaining instrumentation information associated with the execution; and

based on the obtained instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of transactions of the associated program to optimize transactional execution (TX).

11. The computer system of claim 9, the method further comprising:

determining by the instrumentation program, that a first outermost transaction and a second outermost transaction of the plurality of transactions of the associated program should be coalesced; and

coalescing transactions based on the determining.

12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein executing the run-time instrumentation program includes:

generating an environment for run-time profiling of the continued execution of the associated program for obtaining instrumentation information; and

profiling the execution of the associated program using obtained instrumentation information and changes in a run-time environment of the associated program.

13. The computer system of claim 12, the method further comprising:

processing a run-time instrumentation directive of the run-time instrumentation program; and

configuring a control of a run-time instrument based, at least in part, on the processed run-time instrumentation directive, wherein the run-time instrument includes one or more instructions to obtain instrumentation information regarding the execution of transactions of the associated program.

14. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the run-time instrumentation program is configured to modify the continued execution of the associated program, in part, by adding one or more coalescing instructions to the associated program to control coalescing of one or more of the plurality of transactions based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the one or more coalescing instructions include one or more of:

(i) an instruction to coalesce outermost transactions, (ii) an instruction to remove a transaction begin or end instruction or to not execute a transaction begin or end instruction, (iii) an instruction to modify a transaction begin or end instruction such that an associated outermost transaction can-not be coalesced with a type of outermost transaction if a number of already coalesced instructions is greater than a threshold, (iv) an instruction to indicate that a particular outermost transaction is not-to-be coalesced with a type of outermost transaction if the number of already coalesced instructions is greater than the threshold, (v) an instruction to process non-transactional instructions as transactional instructions, (vi) an instruction to cease coalescing outermost transactions, and (vii) an instruction to specify a maximum allowable number of coalesced outermost transactions.

16. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the obtained instrumentation information includes one or more of:

(i) a reason for a coalesced outermost transaction being aborted, and a number of aborts it has received, (ii) a number of instructions between two coalesced outermost transactions, (iii) a type of instruction between two coalesced outermost transactions, (iv) whether any of the instructions between two coalesced outermost transactions are restricted from running in a given outermost transaction, (v) a number of dynamic instructions in a given outermost transaction, and (vi) a size of a footprint of a dynamic instruction in a given outermost transaction.

17. A computer program product for controlling a coalescing of outermost memory transactions, the coalescing causing committing of memory store data to memory for a first transaction to be done at transaction execution (TX) end of a second transaction, the computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising;

executing, by a processor, a run-time instrumentation program for monitoring and modifying an associated program having a plurality of transactions; and

based, at least in part, on an analysis of gathered instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of the plurality of transactions by adding a coalescing instruction that controls, at least in part, a coalescing of one or more outermost transactions of the plurality of transactions with at least one other transaction to form a new transaction.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, the method further comprising:

initiating, by the processor, execution of the associated program;

based on execution of transactions, by the processor, of the associated program, the run-time instrumentation program dynamically obtaining instrumentation information associated with the execution; and

based on the obtained instrumentation information, dynamically modifying, by the processor, continued execution of transactions of the associated program to optimize transactional execution (TX).

19. The computer program product of claim 17, the method further comprising:

determining by the instrumentation program, that a first outermost transaction and a second outermost transaction of the plurality of transactions of the associated program should be coalesced; and

coalescing transactions based on the determining.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein executing the run-time instrumentation program includes:

generating an environment for run-time profiling of the continued execution of the associated program for obtaining instrumentation information; and

profiling the execution of the associated program using obtained instrumentation information and changes in a run-time environment of the associated program.