Appeal 2007-1600
Application 09/753,062
Appellants’ invention relates to a method and system for efficiently
handling high contention locking in a multiprocessor system. “Locking”
refers to the designation of one of the processors in a multiprocessor system
as the processor entitled to access shared memory resources at any particular
instant in time. In Appellants’ invention, the processors are organized in a
hierarchical manner, wherein granting of an interruptible lock to a processor
is based upon the hierarchy (Specification 1).
Claim 1 is exemplary:
1. A method for efficiently handling high contention locking in
a multiprocessor computer system, comprising:
organizing at least some of the processors into a hierarchy;
providing a lock selected from the group consisting of: an
interruptible lock, and a lock which waits using only local memory;
and
processing the lock responsive to the hierarchy.
The prior art relied upon by the Examiner in rejecting the claims on
appeal is:
Kermani US 6,163,831 Dec. 19, 2000
Claims 1-31 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being
anticipated by Kermani.
Appellants contend that the Examiner erred because the processors or
agents of Kermani are not organized in a hierarchy as claimed by
2
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