Synchronization

Synchronization involves the implementation of synchronized methods and blocks and the wait, notify, notifyAll method of java.lang.Object.

Both items are implemented using the classes Monitor and MonitorManager.

Lightweight locks

JNode implement a lightweight locking mechanism for synchronized methods and blocks. For this purpose a lockword is added to the header of each object. Depending on the state of the object on which a thread wants to synchronize a different route it taken.

This is in principle how the various states are handled.

1. The object is not locked: the lockword it set to a merge of the id of this thread and a lockcount of '1'.
2. The object is locked by this thread: the lockcount part of the lockword is incremented.
3. The object is locked by another thread: an inflated lock is installed for the object and this thread is added to the waiting list of the inflated lock.

All manipulation of the lockword is performed using atomic instructions prefixed with multiprocessor LOCK flags.


When the lockcount part of the lockword is full, an inflated lock is also installed.


Once an object has an inflated lock installed, this inflated lock will always be used.

Wait, notify

Wait and notify(all) requires that the current thread is owner of the object on which wait/notify are invoked. The wait/notify implementation will install an inflated lock on the object if the object does not already have an inflated lock installed.