Hint instruction for managing transactional aborts in transactional memory computing environments

摘要

When executed, a transaction-hint instruction specifies a transaction-count-to-completion (CTC) value for a transaction. The CTC value indicates how far a transaction is from completion. The CTC may be a number of instructions to completion or an amount of time to completion. The CTC value is adjusted as the transaction progresses. When a disruptive event associated with inducing transactional aborts, such as an interrupt or a conflicting memory access, is identified while processing the transaction, processing of the disruptive event is deferred if the adjusted CTC value satisfies deferral criteria. If the adjusted CTC value does not satisfy deferral criteria, the transaction is aborted and the disruptive event is processed.

主权项

1. A method for processing transactions in a computing environment with transactional memory, the method comprising:
executing, by a processor, a transaction-hint instruction associated with a first transaction, the transaction-hint instruction specifying a transaction-count-to-completion (CTC) value, the CTC value indicating how far the first transaction is from completion; adjusting, by the processor, the CTC value based on progress of the first transaction; identifying, by the processor, a disruptive event while processing the first transaction, the disruptive event associated with inducing transactional aborts; determining, by the processor, whether the adjusted CTC value satisfies deferral criteria; and based on determining that the adjusted CTC value satisfies the deferral criteria, deferring processing of the disruptive event.