Operating system virtual memory management for hardware transactional memory

US8688951B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Microsoft Corporation · US

Inventors

• Koichi Yamada · Los Gatos, US
• Gad Sheaffer · Haifa, IL
• Ali-Reza Adl-Tabatabai · Santa Clara, US
• Landy Wang · Redmond, US
• Martin Taillefer · Redmond, US
• Arun U. Kishan · Kirkland, US
• David Callahan · Seattle, US
• Jan Gray · Bellevue, US
• Vadim Bassin · Raanana, IL

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 20, 2012
• Grant date: Apr 1, 2014
• Expiry date: Jul 20, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F12/0815
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

Operating system virtual memory management for hardware transactional memory. A system includes an operating system deciding to unmap a first virtual page. As a result, the operating system removes the mapping of the first virtual page to the first physical page from the virtual memory page table. As a result, the operating system performs an action to discard transactional memory hardware state for at least the first physical page. Embodiments may further suspend hardware transactions in kernel mode. Embodiments may further perform soft page fault handling without aborting a hardware transaction, resuming the hardware transaction upon return to user mode, and even successfully committing the hardware transaction.