#1 posted on Sep 30 2013, 20:17
This paper introduces transactional memory, a new multiprocessor architecture intended to make lock-free synchronization as efficient (and easy to use) as conventional techniques based on mutual exclusion. By combining these primitives, the programmer can define customized read-modify-write operations that operate on arbitrary regions of memory, not just single words. Our transactions are intended to replace short critical sec- tions. A set of values in memory is in- consistent if it could not have been produced by any serial execution of transactions. Transactional memory is implemented by modifying standard multiprocessor cache coherence protocols.
The basic idea behind the design in the paper is simple any protocol capable of detecting accessibility conflicts can also detect transaction conflict at no extra cost. The author sketched how it can be implemented by adding new instructions to the processor, adding a smatl auxiliary, transactional cache (without disturbing the regular cache), and making straightforward changes to the cache coherence protocol.