Appeal No. 2000-1238
Application 08/566,638
can be viewed in terms of a granularity scale, with the
single global semaphore method as the least granular and the
one semaphore per object method as the most granular. The
rest of the allocation schemes lie somewhere in the middle
of the granularity scale. Incidentally, the most desirable
allocation scheme would consist of not too many semaphores
such that deadlock may become a problem and not too few
semaphores such that concurrency may be limited (or no
concurrency at all as in the case of the single global
semaphore method).
Specification at 4, ll. 1-9. Appellant's solution is to employ a
semaphore manager data structure which implements the following
assignment criteria: "a class can only be assigned to one
semaphore but a semaphore can be assigned to more than one class"
(id. at 5, ll. 19-21). The advantages of this data structure
include the number of actual semaphores that can be
controlled so that the computer system would not be
overwhelmed, the semaphore mapping can be performed
statically at the time of compilation or dynamically
during time of execution, potential deadlock situations
can be reduced due to the assurance that only one class
can request one semaphore at a time, and the semaphore
tracing or debugging capabilities can be enhanced
because all semaphores are managed centrally.
Id. at 5, ll. 21-28. In addition to classes which include
objects, Appellant's preferred embodiment employs a semaphore
class and a semaphore manager class. Id. at 10, ll. 18-21.
A specific example, including sections 1-6, is given in the
specification at page 11, line 23 to page 12, line 33. In
section 1, each of the five classes is assigned a unique index
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