Patent ID: 7899663

Claim:
A computer program product for managing memory access in an emulated processing environment, the computer program product comprising: a tangible storage medium readable by a processor and storing instructions for execution by the processor to perform a method comprising: requesting, by an emulated central processing unit (CPU) process executing on a processor, access to a unit of memory as part of a unit of operation, the processor having a weak memory consistency architecture; and managing, by the requesting emulated CPU process, access to the unit of memory, the managing emulating a firm memory consistency on the weak memory consistency architecture, wherein the firm memory consistency provides memory consistency in that units of memory being modified are not observable other than by the one or more processes modifying the units of memory, and wherein the managing comprises: attempting, by the requesting emulated CPU process, to obtain a lock for the unit of memory; responsive to the lock not being obtained, determining whether the requesting emulated CPU process has received a request for access to a given unit of memory held by the requesting emulated CPU process; and responsive to the requesting emulated CPU process receiving the request for access to the given unit of memory held by the requesting emulated CPU process, nullifying by the requesting emulated CPU process the unit of operation to avoid a deadlock; wherein the nullifying comprises terminating the unit of operation absent a sending of an access request for the unit of memory to one or more emulated CPU processes holding the lock for the unit of memory and further comprising freeing locks held by the requesting emulated CPU process.