US 10,310,952 B2Granted

Using transactional execution for reliability and recovery of transient failures

AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation

InventorsMichael Karl Gschwind, Valentina Salapura

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Abstract

Autonomous recovery from a transient hardware failure by executing portions of a stream of program instructions as a transaction. A start of a transaction is created in a stream of program instructions executing on a first processor of a multi-processor computer. A snapshot of a system state information is saved when the transaction begins. When the transaction ends, store data of the transaction is committed. If a transient hardware failure occurs, the transaction is aborted without notifying the computer software application that initiated the stream of program instructions. The transaction is re-executed on a second processor of the multi-processors, based on the saved snapshot of the system state information.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method for autonomous recovery from a transient hardware failure by executing each portion of a stream of program instructions as a transaction, the method comprising:

creating, by an operating system on a multi-processor computer system configured to support transactional execution mode processing, a start of a transactional region portion of a stream of program instructions wherein the portion of the stream of program instructions in the transactional region is to be executed as a transaction in transactional execution mode;
starting the transactional region in transactional execution mode on a first processor of the multi-processors;
saving, by the operating system, a snapshot of a system state information;
executing, by the operating system on the first processor, the portion of the stream of program instructions as a transaction;
creating, by the operating system, an end of the transactional region portion of the stream of program instructions;
in response to ending execution of the transactional region in transactional execution mode, committing, by the operating system, store data of the transaction to memory;
and
in response to a transient hardware failure affecting a program resource required by one or more instructions in the transactional region portion stream of program instructions executing as a transaction in transactional execution mode:
aborting, by the operating system, the transaction without notifying a computer software application that initiated the stream of program instructions;
and
re-executing, by the operating system on a second processor of the multi-processors, the transactional region portion stream of program instructions as a transaction in transactional execution mode, based on the saved snapshot of the system state information.

8 more elements

A computer system for autonomous recovery from a transient hardware failure by executing each portion of a stream of program instructions as a 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 comprising:
creating, by an operating system on a multi-processor computer system configured to support transactional execution mode processing, a start of a transactional region portion of a stream of program instructions wherein the portion of the stream of program instructions in the transactional region is to be executed as a transaction in transactional execution mode;
starting the transactional region in transactional execution mode on a first processor of the multi-processors;
saving, by the operating system, a snapshot of a system state information;
executing, by the operating system on the first processor, the portion of the stream of program instructions as a transaction;
creating, by the operating system, an end of the transactional region portion of the stream of program instructions;
in response to ending execution of the transactional region in transactional execution mode, committing, by the operating system, store data of the transaction to memory;
and
in response to a transient hardware failure affecting a program resource required by one or more instructions in the transactional region portion stream of program instructions executing as a transaction in transactional execution mode:
aborting, by the operating system, the transaction without notifying a computer software application that initiated the stream of program instructions;
and
re-executing, by the operating system on a second processor of the multi-processors, the transactional region portion stream of program instructions as a transaction in transactional execution mode, based on the saved snapshot of the system state information.

11 more elements

A computer program product for autonomous recovery from a transient hardware failure by executing each portion of a stream of program instructions as a transaction, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readable storage medium is not a transitory signal per se, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

creating, by an operating system on a multi-processor computer system configured to support transactional execution mode processing, a start of a transactional region portion of a stream of program instructions wherein the portion of the stream of program instructions in the transactional region is to be executed as a transaction in transactional execution mode;
starting the transactional region in transactional execution mode on a first processor of the multi-processors;
saving, by the operating system, a snapshot of a system state information;
executing, by the operating system on the first processor, the portion of the stream of program instructions as a transaction;
creating, by the operating system, an end of the transactional region portion of the stream of program instructions;
in response to ending execution of the transactional region in transactional execution mode, committing, by the operating system, store data of the transaction to memory;
and
in response to a transient hardware failure affecting a program resource required by one or more instructions in the transactional region portion stream of program instructions executing as a transaction in transactional execution mode:
aborting, by the operating system, the transaction without notifying a computer software application that initiated the stream of program instructions;
and
re-executing, by the operating system on a second processor of the multi-processors, the transactional region portion stream of program instructions as a transaction in transactional execution mode, based on the saved snapshot of the system state information.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/070,012Filed 15 Mar 2016 · continuation
Priority: 24 Jan 2014
Published: US 2016/0196193 A17 Jul 2016
Granted: 4 Jun 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification13 codes

G06F 11/1474
Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations: in transactions
G06F 3/0619
Improving the reliability of storage systems: in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
G06F 3/0629
Making use of a particular technique: configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
G06F 3/0673
In-line storage system: single storage device

Family

Application14/163,384Parent of this continuation · filed 24 Jan 2014
US 2016/0196193 A1Pre-grant publication · published 7 Jul 2016
US 9,317,379 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2015/0212906 A1Published application
US 10,310,952 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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