ATOMIC WRITE AND READ MICROPROCESSOR INSTRUCTIONS

摘要

Methods and apparatus for performing an atomic hardware operation (HWOP) instruction. According to a method in a computer processor coupled to a memory, the method includes fetching, decoding, and executing the atomic HWOP instruction. The instruction includes a source operand indicating a source location and a destination operand indicating a destination location, wherein each of the source location and the destination location is either a register of the computer processor or an address of the memory. Executing the atomic HWOP instruction includes sending a message to an external agent to cause the external agent to atomically access a set of one or more memory locations of the memory based upon a value stored at the source location, and return a result obtained from said atomic access of the set of memory locations to the destination location. The external agent is external to the computer processor.

主权项

1. A method of performing an atomic hardware operation (HWOP) instruction in a computer processor coupled to a memory, the method comprising:
fetching the atomic HWOP instruction, wherein the instruction includes a source operand indicating a source location and a destination operand indicating a destination location, wherein each of the source location and the destination location is either a register of the computer processor or an address of the memory; decoding the fetched atomic HWOP instruction; and executing the decoded atomic HWOP instruction by sending a message to an external agent to cause the external agent to:
atomically access a set of one or more memory locations of the memory based upon a value stored at the source location, andreturn a result obtained from said atomic access of the set of memory locations to the destination location, wherein the external agent is external to the computer processor.