Method for optimizing locks in computer programs
US6530079B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 2, 1999 |
| Grant date | Mar 4, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 2, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F8/443
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and several variants for using information about the scope of access of objects acted upon by mutual exclusion, or mutex, locks to transform a computer program by eliminating locking operations from the program or simplifying the locking operations, while strictly performing the semantics of the original program. In particular, if it can be determined by a compiler that the object locked can only be accessed by a single thread it is not necessary to perform the “acquire” or “release” part of the locking operation, and only its side effects must be performed. Likewise, if it can be determined that the side effects of a locking operation acting on a variable which is locked in multiple threads are not needed, then only the locking operation, and not the side effects, needs to be performed. This simplifies the locking operation, and leads to faster programs which use fewer computer processor resources to execute; and programs which perform fewer shared memory accesses, which in turn not only causes the optimized program, but also other programs executing on the same computing machine to execute faster. The method also describes how information about th…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.