A processor configured to manage a transaction memory (TM) state. The processor is configured to receive a first instruction indicating a start of a speculative transaction and update a register file with a speculative transaction memory (TM) state corresponding to the speculative transaction. The processor is further configured to determine whether or not the register file is able to store the entirety of speculative TM state. If the register file is unable to store the entirety of the speculative TM state, the processor is configured to copy a previous TM (pre-TM) state from the register file to a memory which is external to the processor. Further, the processor may be configured to complete updating the register file with the speculative TM state after the pre-TM state has been copied from the register file to the memory.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented method for controller address contention assumption. A non-limiting example computer-implemented method includes a shared controller receiving a fetch request for data from a first requesting agent, the receiving via at least one intermediary controller. The shared controller performs an address compare using a memory address of the data. In response to the memory address matching a memory address stored in the shared controller, the shared controller acknowledges the at least one intermediary controller's fetch request, wherein upon acknowledgement, the at least one intermediary controller resets. In response to release of the data by a second requesting agent, the shared controller transmits the data to the first requesting agent.

Branch prediction is suppressed for branch instructions executing in a transaction of a transactional memory (TM) environment in transactions that are re-executions of previously aborted transactions.

A distributed memory system including a plurality of chips, a plurality of nodes that are distributed across the plurality of chips such that each node is comprised within a chip, each node includes a dedicated local memory and a processor core, and each local memory is configured to be accessible over network communication, a network interface for each node, the network interface configured such that a corresponding network interface of each node is integrated in a coherence domain of the chip of the corresponding node, wherein each of the network interfaces are configured to support a one-sided operation, the network interface directly reading or writing in the dedicated local memory of the corresponding node without involving a processor core, and the one-sided operation is configured such that the processor core of a corresponding node uses a protocol to directly inject a remote memory access for read or write request to the network interface of the node, the remote memory access request allowing to read or write an arbitrarily long region of a memory of a remote node.

A guarded storage facility sets up a boundary indicating a range of addresses to be guarded or protected. When a program attempts to access an address in a guarded section defined by the boundary, a guarded storage event occurs. Use of this facility facilitates performance of certain tasks within a computing environment, including storage reclamation.

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for controlling execution of memory access instructions in a block-based processor architecture using an instruction decoder that decodes instructions having variable numbers of target operands. In one example of the disclosed technology, a block-based processor core includes an instruction decoder configured to decode target operands for an instruction in an instruction block, the instruction being encoded to allow for a variable number of target operands and a control unit configured to send data for at least one of the decoded target operands for an operation performed by the at least one of the cores. In some examples, the instruction indicates target instructions with a vector encoding. In other examples, a variable length format allows for the indication of one or more targets.

A processor includes a plurality of execution pipes and a distributed scheduler coupled to the plurality of execution pipes. The distributed scheduler includes a first queue to buffer instruction operations from a front end of an instruction pipeline of the processor and a plurality of second queues, wherein each second queue is to buffer instruction operations allocated from the first queue for a corresponding separate subset of execution pipes of the plurality of execution pipes. The distributed scheduler further includes a queue controller to select an allocation mode from a plurality of allocation modes based on whether at least one indicator of an imbalance at the distributed scheduler is detected, and further to control the distributed scheduler to allocate instruction operations from the first queue among the plurality of second queues in accordance with the selected allocation mode.

A system and associated processes may perform a memory access operation that includes receiving a data packet comprising a command of a type of a plurality of types of commands. The processes may include initiating a decoding of a first portion of the command, and automatically speculating as to the type of the command. Based on the speculation as to the type of the command, a bank activate command may be generated before the data packet is entirely decoded or received.

Techniques for efficiently managing the interruption of user-level critical sections are provided. In certain embodiments, a physical CPU of a computer system can execute a critical section of a user-level thread of an application, where program code for the critical section is marked with CPU instruction(s) indicating that the critical section should be executed atomically. The physical CPU can detect, while executing the critical section, an event to be handled by an OS kernel of the computer system and upon detecting the event, revert changes performed within the critical section. The physical CPU can then invoke a trap handler of the OS kernel, and in response the OS kernel can invoke a user-level handler of the application with information including (1) the identity of the user-level thread, (2) an indication of the event, (3) the physical CPU state upon detecting the event, and (4) an indication that the user-level thread was interrupted while in the critical section.

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a computer-implemented method for controller address contention assumption. A non-limiting example computer-implemented method includes a shared controller receiving a fetch request for data from a first requesting agent, the receiving via at least one intermediary controller. The shared controller performs an address compare using a memory address of the data. In response to the memory address matching a memory address stored in the shared controller, the shared controller acknowledges the at least one intermediary controller's fetch request, wherein upon acknowledgement, the at least one intermediary controller resets. In response to release of the data by a second requesting agent, the shared controller transmits the data to the first requesting agent.