Abstract:
A computer-implementable method, system and computer-usable medium. One or more objects among a plurality of objects can be processed utilizing a data-processing apparatus/system. One or more lock reservations can be applied among a group of lock reservations over a multiple sequential lock operations with respect the particular object. Thereafter, the lock reservation can be cancelled with respect to the last monitor exit operation in order to eliminate lock operations where traditional lock coarsening cannot be applied.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Embodiments are generally related to data-processing systems and methods. Embodiments also relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. In addition, embodiments relate to techniques and systems for implementing lock coarsening. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Lock reservation is a technique used by run-time systems (e.g., a Java virtual machine) to reduce the overhead associated with thread object access synchronization (also referred to as locking). (Java is a trademark of Oracle Corp.) Lock reservation assumes that most locks do not actually participate in inter-thread activities and can thus be ignored. One example of a prior art lock reservation technique is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2005/0289549A1, entitled “Lock Reservation Methods and Apparatus for Multi-Threaded Environments” by Cierniak et al, which published on Dec. 29, 2005, and is incorporated by reference herein. 
     Lock reservation is extremely effective for applications which have little or no actual thread interaction (i.e., referred to hereafter as “lock contention”). Lock reservation, however, may introduce significant additional performance overhead if reservation is used in cases where contention does occur. Therefore, it is very important to select appropriate situations in which to apply lock reservation, which also means that lock reservation may not be applicable in all cases. 
     Several solutions have been used or proposed to enhance the effectiveness of lock reservation. First, lock reservation may be enabled globally through the use of a command line option or other configuration flag. This solution places the onus of the decision upon the end user and is therefore undesirable. Second, lock reservation may be enabled for objects, which are instances of particular classes. This requires an effective heuristic for choosing such classes and assumes that instances of the class have similar locking characteristics. 
     Third, lock reservation may be adaptively enabled for objects or classes of objects within the system. This requires that statistics be gathered during the execution and incurs a certain start up cost as the runtime system learns the characteristics of the application. It also assumes that an object&#39;s locking characteristics do not change throughout its lifetime. Fourth, the objects reserved by one thread are reassigned to be owned by a new thread that is locking an object, using bulk object re-biasing. Such a technique, however, assumes that the threads use the objects in certain manner, that is, all objects reserved by one thread will be handed over to another thread. In general, applications may not behave this way and bulk re-biasing will happen all the time, impeding application performance. 
     Lock coarsening is a technique which is used by compilers (especially Java just-in-time compilers) to combine adjacent mutual exclusion regions (lock regions), usually performing thread synchronization on the same object. Lock coarsening reduces the number of locking operations which must be performed by identifying and removing redundant lock operations. The lock removal is based on static compiler analysis, where the lock region is extended replacing shorter adjacent locked regions. This way the number of lock and unlock operations is reduced, leading to better performance. 
     Lock coarsening, however, has a limited scope of applicability. There are a number of restrictions that are imposed on the lock optimization procedure, such as not being able to coarsen across other locks. For example, coarsening across region of code that locks another object may result in a deadlock situation where one didn&#39;t exist before. This restriction makes it difficult to apply lock coarsening across calls and potential exception points. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole. 
     It is, therefore, one aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved data-processing method, system and computer-usable medium. 
     It is another aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved method, system and computer-usable medium for lock coarsening. 
     It is an additional aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved method, system and computer-usable medium for speculative computation lock coarsening through the use of a localized lock reservation. 
     The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can now be achieved as described herein. A computer-implementable method, system and program product is disclosed herein. One or more objects among a plurality of objects can be processed utilizing a data-processing apparatus/system. One or more lock reservations can be applied among a group of lock reservations over multiple sequential lock operations with respect to the particular object. Thereafter, the lock reservation can be cancelled with respect to the last monitor exit operation in order to eliminate lock operations where traditional lock coarsening cannot be applied. 
     Thus, the disclosed embodiments involve applying a lock reservation(s) over multiple sequential lock operations on the same object and cancelling the reservation on the last monitor exit operation. This is the scenario where one would traditionally apply lock coarsening, but because a lock reservation cannot introduce deadlock situations, lock operations can be eliminated where traditional lock coarsening cannot be applied. Essentially, data processing operations can be implemented in which operations are performed to speculate that the use of the object will be exclusive for a given thread for the duration of the current code region being optimized. The object on the first lock operation is reserved and then unreserved with respect to the last lock operation. In case another thread “needs” this object in the meantime, a deadlock situation can be avoided since the lock reservation is cancelled. Note that in traditional lock reservation implementations a reservation will never be voluntarily released; this is a unique and novel property of the embodiments disclosed herein. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the present invention and, together with the detailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principles of the present invention. 
         FIG. 1  illustrates a schematic view of a computer system in which the present invention may be embodied. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a schematic view of a software system including an operating system, application software, and a user interface for carrying out the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates a flow diagram of depicting an exemplary method, in accordance with a preferred embodiment; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates a flow diagram of an additional method, which can be implemented in accordance with a preferred embodiment; 
         FIG. 5  illustrates example software code, which can be implemented in accordance with a preferred embodiment; and 
         FIG. 6  illustrates a general flow-chart of operations depicting a lock-coarsening method, which can be implemented in accordance with an alternative embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope of such embodiments. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the present invention may be embodied on a data-processing system  100  comprising a central processor  101 , a main memory  102 , an input/output controller  103 , a keyboard  104 , a pointing device  105  (e.g., mouse, track ball, pen device, or the like), a display device  106 , and a mass storage  107  (e.g., hard disk). Additional input/output devices, such as a printing device  108 , may be included in the data-processing system  100  as desired. As illustrated, the various components of the data-processing system  100  communicate through a system bus  110  or similar architecture. 
     Illustrated in  FIG. 2 , a computer software system  150  is provided for directing the operation of the data-processing system  100 . Software system  150 , which is stored in system memory  102  and on disk memory  107 , includes a kernel or operating system  151  and a shell or interface  153 . One or more application programs, such as application software  152 , may be “loaded” (i.e., transferred from storage  107  into memory  102 ) for execution by the data-processing system  100 . The data-processing system  100  receives user commands and data through user interface  153 ; these inputs may then be acted upon by the data-processing system  100  in accordance with instructions from operating system  151  and/or application module  152 . The interface  153 , which is preferably a graphical user interface (GUI), also serves to display results, whereupon the user may supply additional inputs or terminate the session. In an embodiment, operating system  151  and interface  153  can be implemented in the context of a “Windows” system. Application module  152 , on the other hand, can include instructions, such as the various operations described herein with respect to respective methods  300 ,  500 , and  600  of  FIGS. 3 ,  5 , and  6 . 
     The following description is presented with respect to embodiments of the present invention, which can be embodied in the context of a data-processing system such as data-processing system  100  and computer software system  150  depicted in  FIGS. 1-2 . The present invention, however, is not limited to any particular application or any particular environment. Instead, those skilled in the art will find that the system and methods of the present invention may be advantageously applied to a variety of system and application software, including database management systems, word processors, and the like. Moreover, the present invention may be embodied on a variety of different platforms, including Macintosh, UNIX, LINUX, and the like. Therefore, the description of the exemplary embodiments which follows is for purposes of illustration and not considered a limitation. 
       FIGS. 3-6  illustrate generally a methodology of object profiling and management and lock coarsening, in accordance with a preferred embodiment. For example, the combination of method  300 ,  400  and the code  500  depicted respectively in  FIGS. 3-5  herein, can be implemented in the context of a computer-useable medium that contains a program product. The method  600  depicted in  FIG. 6  can also be implemented in a computer-usable medium containing a program product. 
     Programs defining functions on the present invention can be delivered to a data storage system or a computer system via a variety of media, which include, without limitation, non-writable storage media (e.g., CD-ROM), writable storage media (e.g., hard disk drive, read/write CD ROM, optical media), system memory such as but not limited to Random Access Memory (RAM), and communication media, such as computer and telephone networks including Ethernet, the Internet and like network systems. Further, it is understood that the present invention may be implemented by a system having means in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware as described herein or their equivalent. Thus, the methodology described herein can be deployed as process software in the context of a computer system or data-processing system as that depicted in  FIGS. 1-2 . 
     The disclosed embodiments generally describe how lock reservation can be utilized for applying lock coarsening. Such a technique may be used alone or in conjunction with one or more of the techniques described in the background section of this disclosure. Essentially, lock reservation eliminates the need of performing synchronizing instructions at the point of monitor enter and monitor exit operations, by marking the object as reserved for the current thread executing the mutually exclusive code region. The downside of the approach is that the object will remain marked as reserved and cancelling the reservation can be costly, outweighing the benefit of skipping the synchronizing instructions. 
     If the thread reserving the object voluntarily removes the reservation, however, then one can avoid the cost associated with cancelling the lock reservation. The disclosed embodiments thus describe the application of a lock reservation over multiple sequential lock operations on the same object and cancellation of the reservation on the last monitor exit operation. This is the scenario where one would traditionally apply lock coarsening, but since lock reservation cannot introduce deadlock situations, lock operations can be eliminated where traditional lock coarsening cannot be applied. Essentially, the disclosed methodology speculates that the use of the object will be exclusive for a given thread for the duration of the current code region that is being optimized. We reserve the object on the first lock operation and unreserve the object on the last lock operation. In case another thread desires this object in meantime, a deadlock situation can be avoided because the lock reservation is cancelled. Note that in traditional lock reservation implementations, a reservation is not voluntarily released, which is a unique and novel feature of the disclosed embodiments. 
     For example, consider the code region with lock operations as depicted in the flow diagram illustrated in  FIG. 3 , which represents an example lock reservation method  300  in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Lock coarsening cannot safely optimize the depicted code fragment because of potential deadlock scenario. However if the first monitor enter operation on Object  1  reserved the object for the current thread, then the second monitor enter on Object  1  will avoid all synchronizing instructions and Object  1  would be unreserved on the second monitor exit. This is generally indicated by the flow diagram of method  300  depicted in  FIG. 3 . 
       FIG. 3  indicates that the time required to enter a reserved region is approximately the same as the time required to enter a synchronized region. The time required, however, to enter a synchronized region within a reserved region is significantly less; on most computer systems it is, in fact, insignificant in comparison. Thus in the example method  300  depicted in  FIG. 3 , the cost to enter two synchronized regions (on Object  1 ) is replaced by the cost to enter one reserved region (i.e. it is half as expensive). 
     Note that the implementation of the optimization procedure preferably utilizes a dynamic compilation component  302 , such as a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, in association with a methodology, such as, for example, method  300  depicted in  FIG. 3 , and likewise method  400  depicted in  FIG. 4  and the example code  500  illustrated in  FIG. 5 . Such a compiler  302  generally includes an optimizing component and can perform value propagation and control flow analysis while additionally being able to identify that two or more references to an object in a code sequence are identical or different. The code sequence that the compiler optimizes can be a method, function or an execution trace. 
     Such a JIT optimizing compiler can perform a monitor identification phase where it detects multiple monitor operations on the same object in a given code region. The identification phase creates a list of candidates for speculative reservation, where a candidate is considered an object which is locked more than once on a given path in the code region. Using control flow analysis the compiler identifies the first monitor-enter and the last monitor-exit operation for a candidate on all code paths. The first monitor-enter and the last monitor-exit operations are tagged as such. 
     During code generation for monitor-enter and monitor-exit operations, the compiler checks the identification flag and generates reserving monitor operation on each first monitor-enter and unreserving code sequence for every last monitor-exit operation. 
     Such a transformation can be further illustrated by the example flow chart of method  400  depicted in  FIG. 4 , in accordance with a preferred embodiment. In method  400  illustrated in  FIG. 4  operations [ 1 ]-[ 7 ] are illustrated, where two monitor operations are implemented with respect to Object_ 1  and one monitor operation with respect to Object_ 2 . The marking “ . . . ” as depicted by method  400  in  FIG. 4  indicates any other possible code sequence that might occur in between the monitor operations. Given the flow diagram of method  400  depicted if  FIG. 4 , it can be appreciated that the compiler identification phase will identify that Object  1  as a candidate for transformation because there is more than one lock operation on in the code region. Object  2  on the other hand will not be identified as a candidate. The identification phase will tag monitor-enter operation [ 1 ] as reserving and monitor-exit operations [ 6 ] and [ 7 ] as un-reserving 
     The concept of speculative lock coarsening is based on the fact that multiple lock operations are exposed in a single code region (i.e., method, function or trace) optimization body. The ability to expose multiple lock operations on an object in a single code region would be limited by the effectiveness of the in-lining optimization, performed by the compiler. For example, instead of having locked operation in a particular code region, one could “call” a synchronized method/function on an object, which in turn can effectively introduce a lock operation on the object. 
     To increase the effectiveness of the speculative lock coarsening operation, the disclosed embodiments extend the scope of the optimization to handle synchronized method/function calls, and treat these as synchronization points for the optimization. Essentially, one can enable the optimization if multiple lock operations are exposed in a particular code region or synchronized calls are made in the code region. 
     Handling of synchronized calls for the purpose of speculative lock reservation is different than synchronized lock operations. The main difference is that the disclosed embodiments do not tag the monitor-enter/monitor-exit primitives for a call to a reservation as one can with respect to a synchronized lock operation. The synchronized lock operations can be provided as “private” to the disclosed method body, while a synchronized call has global implications. A synchronized method can be made from more than one calling context, where in some contexts it may not be desirable to reserve the object. Therefore, tagging of the lock operations for a synchronized method is undesirable. 
     To resolve this issue, two separate locking primitives can be introduced, that is “reserve object” and “unreserve object”. The reserve locking primitive can be introduced before making a synchronized call on an object that is locked in the context of the current code region. One only needs to introduce the reserve primitive if the synchronized call is a first lock operation on the object in the current code context. The unreserve primitive is introduced after making the synchronized call to a method/function and the synchronized call is the last lock operation of the object in the current code region context. 
     The semantics of the reserve and unreserve primitives are depicted in the example code  500  illustrated in  FIG. 5 . It can be appreciated that the code  500  depicted in  FIG. 5  represents merely an example of software code that can be implemented in accordance with one particular embodiment and that numerous other types of code can be implemented in accordance with other embodiments. The code  500  of  FIG. 5  is thus provided herein for exemplary purposes only and is not considered a limiting feature of the embodiments disclosed herein. 
     The reserve primitive can utilize a lock operation to reserve the object if the lock is in an “unowned” state. There is no side-effect if the lock operation fails because another thread has modified the object lock state, after a determination is made that the lock was unowned. In case one fails to take the lock, the current execution thread will simply continue to the synchronized call and use normal lock semantics. The unreserve lock operation does not require a lock operation, because the object is reserved and the lock state cannot be changed by another thread, unless the reserving thread has stopped. One may not stop the reserving thread at random locations but at well defined async points, which permits avoidance of using lock operations for the unreserve primitive. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a general flow-chart of operations depicting a lock-coarsening method  600 , which can be implemented in accordance with an alternative embodiment. As depicted at block  602 , an operation can be initiated to begin a lock-coarsening optimization. Next, as illustrated at block  604 , coarsening candidates can be identified. Thereafter, as described at block  606 , a test can be performed to determine if coarsening candidates exist. If it is determined that coarsening candidates do not exist, then the operation illustrated at block  618  is processed in which the lock-coarsening optimization procedure is terminated. If, however, it is determined that coarsening candidates do in fact exist, then one or more coarsening candidates can actually be selected, as depicted at block  608 . 
     Thereafter, as indicated at block  610 , an operation can be implemented to perform a control-flow analysis for the coarsening candidate or candidates. Next, as illustrated at block  612 , the first and last monitor enter can be identified with respect to the coarsening candidate(s). Thereafter, as indicated at block  614 , an operation can be processed to tag the first monitor enter as “reserving” and the last monitor exit as “unreserving”. Finally, an operation can be implemented as described at block  616  to remove the coarsening candidate(s) from the list. The operation depicted at block  606  can then be implemented followed by a repetition of the operations described at blocks  608  to  614 . 
     While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Furthermore, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the term “computer” or “system” or “computer system” or “computing device” includes any data processing system including, but not limited to, personal computers, servers, workstations, network computers, main frame computers, routers, switches, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA&#39;s), telephones, and any other system capable of processing, transmitting, receiving, capturing and/or storing data. 
     It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.