An approach to dynamic software cache consistency maintenance based on conditional invalidation

Introduces a class of software protocols for the maintenance of cache consistency in multiprocessors with shared main memory and private caches. These protocols are designed to be built into the operating system primitives for mutual exclusion. The approach is based on a dynamic decision about invalidation of the shared segment copy residing in the private cache, at the moment of entering into the appropriate critical region. The authors gradually introduce three consistency schemes.