METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR BUS LOCK DURING ATOMIC COMPUTER OPERATIONS

A computer system having a plurality of processors sharing common memory and data bus structures and operable to perform atomic operations which comprise several instruction actions, wherein the processor performing the atomic operation prevents memory access interruptions by other processors by locking out other processors during the atomic operation. The system bus includes signal paths accommodating bus lock request and bus lock signals which are provided and received by each processor, which signals are initiated by specific bus lock and lock release instructions added to each processor instruction set.