Patent ID: 7620753

Claim:
A method for lockless access to a buffer, comprising the steps of: a computing device generating a set of elements, the set of elements comprising at least a first element, a second element, a third element, and a fourth element; wherein said first element comprises a next pointer that points to said second element and a nextfilled pointer that does not point to any particular location; wherein said second element comprises a next pointer that points to said third element; wherein said third element comprises a next pointer that points to said fourth element and a nextfilled pointer that does not point to any particular location; after a writer has finished writing to a buffer associated with said second element, the writer performing the steps of, determining whether the nextfilled pointer of the third element points to any particular location, and in response to determining that the nextfilled pointer of the third element does not point to any particular location, advancing to the third element and setting the nextfilled pointer of the first element to point to the second element; after a reader has finished reading from a buffer associated with the first element, the reader performing the steps of, determining whether the nextfilled pointer of the first element points to any particular location, and in response to determining that the nextfilled pointer of the first element points to a particular location, advancing to the second element and setting the nextfilled pointer of the first element to not point to any particular location.