Patent · US Active

Method for specifying and verifying multi-threaded object-oriented programs with invariants

US7774787B2 · kind B2 · utility

12Cited by
19References
15Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 11, 2005
Grant dateAug 10, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 10, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/526
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Various new and non-obvious systems and methods for ensuring within a multi-threaded environment that object fields hold legal values are disclosed. One of the disclosed embodiments is a method for a thread locking the top object of an object hierarchy. The thread then gains ownership of the locked object and any children of the locked object, by successively unpacking child objects, allowing the thread to write to any unpacked object field. By owning the top hierarchical object, the thread also achieves transitive ownership to any descendants of the object, allowing the thread to read any object fields which it transitively owns. When a thread locks an object within this exemplary embodiment all other threads are denied access to the locked object and to any descendants of the locked object.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.