Patent ID: 7844782

Claim:
A data processing system arranged to control access by a plurality of processes to a region of shared memory, the data processing system being arranged to: prevent more than one of the plurality of processes from concurrently accessing the region of shared memory by locking the region of shared memory; establish a data structure for holding items of a first type each of the items configured to store a process identifier configured to identify a particular process that has attempted and failed to access the region of shared memory operation to be performed by the particular process on the region of shared memory; store a first process identifier for the first process that has attempted and failed to access the region of shared memory, and a first operation intended to be performed by the first process on the region of shared memory, wherein the first process identifier and the first operation are stored in an item of the first type within the data structure; and on a second process other than the first process finishing accessing the region of shared memory, read the item and perform the first operation on behalf of the first process with a process other than the first process.