Hardware assisted lease-based access to memory

摘要

A memory system is disclosed in which hardware assisted leases are utilized to control access to shared data resources among data users. The lease is a type of lock on content in the memory system that automatically expires after a preset period of time. The lease enables the lease owner exclusive use of the associated content in the memory system. Furthermore, the memory system has a memory access mechanism that is separate from the data users. The memory access mechanism includes hardware components to enforce lease-based access to the memory system. Since the lease expires rather than being permanently granted, no CPU or software thread is able to monopolize a lease forever. Moreover, since the lease-base access is hardware-assisted, faulty CPUs or software are prevented from unauthorized access to leased (or locked) content in which another CPU or software already holds a lease.