Widening memory access to an aligned address for unaligned memory operations

One or more hardware-based non-transitory computer readable memory devices storing computer-executable instructions which, upon execution by one or more processors in a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• receive an intended atomic memory operation instruction to be performed that specifies an original address providing N bytes of memory access, in which the original address is not naturally aligned;
• create an aligned address having a memory access that is widened by a next larger power of two for the N bytes;
• load bytes for the widened memory access from the aligned address into a temporary register;
• update the temporary register according to the intended atomic memory operation;
• and
• atomically write the bytes of the widened memory access at the aligned address.

A computing device, comprising:

• a processor configured to execute an atomic instruction that requires an aligned access to stored data in a memory;
• at least one non-transitory memory for storing the data, the memory having a plurality of address boundaries;
• and
• at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to
• receive an intended atomic memory operation instruction from an application to access the memory at an original address,
• check the access at the original address for natural alignment or unalignment,
• if the access is unaligned, then widen the access to an aligned address, in which the aligned address with widened access includes the original address, and
• perform the atomic memory operations using the widened access at the aligned address, wherein the atomic memory operations performed by the processor comprise
• load bytes at the widened aligned address into a temporary register,
• update the temporary register according to the intended atomic memory operation, and
• atomically write the bytes in the updated temporary register to the widened aligned address.