Wake-and-Go Mechanism With Software Save of Thread State

• US 20090199184A1
• Filed: 02/01/2008
• Published: 08/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arimilli, Ravi K., Sharma, Satya P., Swanberg, Randal C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,612,977 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/521 Atomic
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/461 Saving or restoring of program or task context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores

Abstract

A wake-and-go mechanism is provided for a data processing system. When a thread is waiting for an event, rather than performing a series of get-and-compare sequences, the thread updates a wake-and-go array with a target address associated with the event. Software may save the state of the thread. The thread is then put to sleep. When the wake-and-go array snoops a kill at a given target address, logic associated with wake-and-go array may generate an exception, which may result in a switch to kernel mode, wherein the operating system performs some action before returning control to the originating process. In this case, the trap results in other software, such as the operating system or background sleeper thread, for example, to reload thread from thread state storage and to continue processing of the active threads on the processor.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system, for performing a wake-and-go operation, the method comprising:

detecting a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address;

populating a wake-and-go storage array with the target address;

storing thread state information for the thread in a thread state storage;

placing the thread in a sleep state; and

responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, reloading the thread state information from the thread state storage and placing the thread in a non-sleep state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is an asynchronous event.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wake-and-go storage array is a content addressable memory and an address on a bus is used to address the content addressable memory.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, the content addressable memory generates an exception.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

performing a trap;

switching to kernel mode; and

performing a low-level task switch to reload the thread.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address comprises:

detecting that the thread executes a specialized processor instruction to update the wake-and-go storage array.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

initializing the thread using the thread state information.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is performed by a wake-and-go mechanism.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the wake-and-go mechanism is one of a hardware component within a processor, a hardware component associated with the wake-and-go storage array, or a hardware component associated with a system bus.

10. A data processing system, comprising:

a wake-and-go mechanism; and

a wake-and-go storage array,

wherein the wake-and-go mechanism is configured to;

detect a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address;

populate the wake-and-go storage array with the target address;

store thread state information for the thread in a thread state storage;

place the thread in a sleep state; and

responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, reload the thread state information from the thread state storage and place the thread in a non-sleep state.

11. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the wake-and-go storage array is a content addressable memory and an address on a bus is used to address the content addressable memory.

12. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, the content addressable memory generates an exception.

13. The data processing system of claim 12, wherein the wake-and-go mechanism is further configured to perform a trap, switch to kernel mode, and perform a low-level task switch to reload the thread.

14. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein detecting a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address comprises:

detecting that the thread executes a specialized processor instruction to update the wake-and-go array.

15. The data processing system of claim 10, wherein the wake-and-go mechanism is further configured to initialize the thread using the thread state information.

16. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

detect a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address;

populate a wake-and-go storage array with the target address;

store thread state information for the thread in a thread state storage;

place the thread in a sleep state; and

responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, reload the thread state information from the thread state storage and place the thread in a non-sleep state.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the wake-and-go storage array is a content addressable memory and an address on a bus is used to address the content addressable memory.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein responsive to the event that modifies a data value associated with the target address, the content addressable memory generates an exception.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein detecting a thread that is waiting for an event that modifies a data value associated with a target address comprises:

detecting that the thread executes a specialized processor instruction to update the wake-and-go storage array.