Protecting large regions without operating-system support
AssigneeAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.
InventorsMartin T. Pohlack, Stephan Diestelhorst
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for providing very large read-sets for hardware transactional memory with limited hardware support by monitoring meta data such as page table entries. The system and method include a Hardware-based Transactional Memory (HTM) mechanism that tracks meta-data such as page-table entries (PTE) rather than all the data itself. The HTM mechanism protects large regions of memory by providing conflict detection so that regions of memory can be located within a local read or write set.
Claims24
An apparatus comprising:
- a processor coupleable to a shared memory that is shared by one or more other processors, wherein the processor is configured to execute a section of code that includes a plurality of memory access operations to the shared memory;
- and
- the processor comprising a large region protection module, the large region protection module configured to allow protection of a large region of memory by monitoring meta data relating to the large region of memory, the large region of memory being larger than a memory line, wherein the meta data is not used by an operating system.
A multiprocessor computer system comprising:
- a shared memory;
- and
- a plurality of processors coupled to the shared memory that is shared by one or more other processors, wherein each of the plurality of processors is configured to execute a section of code that includes a plurality of memory access operations to the shared memory, and each of the plurality of processors comprising a large region protection module, the large region protection module configured to allow protection of a large region of memory by monitoring meta data relating to the large region of memory, the large region of memory being larger than a memory line, wherein the meta data is not used by an operating system.
In a system comprising a memory shared among a plurality of processors, a method comprising:
- executing a section of code via one of the plurality of processors, the section of code comprising a plurality of memory access operations to the shared memory;
- and
- protecting a large region of memory, the large region of memory being larger than a memory line, by monitoring meta data relating to the large region of memory, wherein the meta data is not used by an operating system.
A computer readable medium comprising code stored therein, said code being executable by a processor to fabricate at least one of a plurality of processors of a multiprocessor computer system, the multiprocessor system comprising a shared memory and the plurality of processors, said at least one of the plurality of processors comprising:
- a processor core, the processor core being configured to execute a section of code that includes a plurality of memory access operations to the shared memory;
- and,
- a large region protection module, the large object protection module configured to allow protection of a large region of memory by monitoring meta data relating to the large region of memory, the large region of memory being larger than a memory line, wherein the meta data is not used by an operating system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.