International Business Machines Corporation
Synchronized access to data in shared memory by protecting the load target address of a load-reserve instruction

Abstract:

A data processing system includes multiple processing units all having access to a shared memory. A processing unit includes a processor core that executes memory access instructions including a load-type instruction. Execution of the load-type instruction generates a corresponding request that specifies a target address. The processing unit further includes a read-claim state machine that, responsive to receipt of the request, protects the load target address against access by any conflicting memory access request during a protection interval following servicing of the request.