High performance locking facility

In a network computing environment having a plurality of central processing units coupled to a high performance locking facility, a method of assigning and releasing locks, comprising the steps of:

• processing multiple requests for locking operations simultaneously without requiring separate input and/or output requests;
• executing synchronous commands relating to one or more of said central processing units;
• said commands including multiple lock operations packaged into one of said commands for execution;
• said lock operations packaged into one of said commands including a mixture of lock, unlock, or other lock management operations;
• said lock operations packaged into one of said commands being able to be processed independently of other lock operations packaged into said one command, thereby enabling processing of a subset of said lock operations packaged into said one command;
• recording lock names and lock states in entry records of a lock table based on said requests;
• when a request is being processed, providing high-speed searching to search any particular lock entry in said table;
• altering and modifying said table accordingly depending upon any lock status that is being processed;
• generating an appropriate response and status of said lock state to other requestors requesting said lock.