By J. Carver Hill
Communications of the ACM,
June 1973,
Vol. 16 No. 6, Pages 350-351
10.1145/362248.364641
Comments
Implementations of the “Lock-Unlock” method of synchronizing processors in a multiprocessor system usually require uninterruptable, memory-pause type instructions. An interlock scheme called read-interlock, which does not require memory-pause instructions, has been developed for a dual DEC PDP-10 system with real-time requirements. The read-interlock method does require a special “read-interlock” instruction in the repertoire of the processors and a special “read-interlock” cycle in the repertoire of the memory modules.
When a processor examines a “lock” (a memory location) with a read-interlock instruction, it will be interrupted if the lock was already set; examining a lock immediately sets it if it was not already set (this event sequence is a read-interlock cycle). Writing into a lock clears it.
Having the processor interrupted upon encountering a set lock instead of branching is advantageous if the branch would have resulted in an effective interrupt.
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