Global lock contention predictor

Abstract

An apparatus for lock acquisition is disclosed. A method and a computer program product also perform the functions of the apparatus. The apparatus includes a lock history module that adds a current contention state of a lock to a contention history. The lock includes a memory location for storing information used for excluding access to a resource by one or more threads while another thread accesses the resource. The apparatus, in some embodiments, includes a combination module that combines the contention history with a lock address for the lock to form a predictor table index, and a prediction module that uses the predictor table index to determine a lock prediction for the lock. The prediction includes a determination of an amount of contention.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.