Alerting hardware transactions that are about to run out of space

Abstract

A transactional memory system determines whether to pass control of a transaction to an about-to-run-out-of-resource handler. A processor of the transactional memory system determines information about an about-to-run-out-of-resource handler for transaction execution of a code region of a hardware transaction. The processor dynamically monitors an amount of available resource for the currently running code region of the hardware transaction. The processor detects that the amount of available resource for transactional execution of the hardware transaction is below a predetermined threshold level. The processor, based on the detecting, saves speculative state information of the hardware transaction, and executes the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler, the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler determining whether the hardware transaction is to be aborted or salvaged.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for determining whether to pass control of a transaction, executing in a transactional memory environment, to an about-to-run-out-of-resource handler, the method comprising:
 determining, by a processor, information about an about-to-run-out-of-resource handler for transaction execution of a code region of a hardware transaction;   dynamically monitoring, by the processor, an amount of available resource for the currently running code region of the hardware transaction;   detecting, by the processor, that the amount of available resource for transactional execution of the hardware transaction is below a predetermined threshold level, wherein the threshold level is a level that is greater than exhaustion of available resources;   based on detecting the amount of available resource is below the predetermined threshold level, saving, by the processor, speculative state information of the hardware transaction; and   based on detecting the amount of available resource is below the predetermined threshold level, executing, by the processor, the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler, wherein the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler determines whether the hardware transaction is to be aborted or salvaged.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining information about an about-to-run-out-of-resource handler includes one or more of: providing an about-to-run-out-of-resource indicator, and receiving an address of the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein detecting, by the processor, that the amount of available resource for transactional execution is below the pre-determined threshold level further comprises determining, by the processor, that the amount of available resource for transactional execution will fall below the pre-determined threshold level upon execution of a pending instruction within the code region. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler determines whether the hardware transaction is to be aborted or salvaged based on at least the saved speculative state information of the hardware transaction. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the speculative state information is stored in a gathering store cache. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transferring, by the processor, control of the hardware transaction to the about-to-run-out-of-resource handler.