Synchronization object prioritization systems and methods

1. A method for controlling a synchronization object of a computer processing system comprising:

executing a plurality of processing threads, each of the processing threads having a priority level within the computer processing system;

at least one of the plurality of threads requesting a lock to the synchronization object;

promoting the priority of lower priority processing threads having a lock to the synchronization object or are waiting in a waiting queue for the synchronization object, the lower priority threads have a priority lower than the lock requesting thread and are promoted to a priority level that is at least as high as that of the lock requesting thread; and

upon a release of the lock by a promoted processing thread, returning the promoted processing thread to the original priority level from which the processing thread was promoted;

wherein the lock requesting thread terminates the request to the synchronization object if the lock is not available.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein promoting the priority level comprises communicating a signal from the lock requesting thread to the lower priority waiting threads.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the promoted waiting threads return themselves to their original priority when they release a lock to the synchronization object.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the lock requesting thread waits for a predetermined amount of time for the lock before terminating the request to the synchronization object.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more additional lock requesting threads are configured to retry requesting a lock to the synchronization object until the requested lock is obtained.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each retry of requesting the lock is performed by a separate lock requesting thread.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein each of the separate lock requesting threads that terminates a request to the synchronization object is terminated prior to a retry by a separate lock requesting thread.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the lower priority threads are not promoted to a priority level that is higher than the lock requesting thread.

9. A system for controlling a synchronization object of a computer processing system comprising:

one or more processors programmed and configured to cause the execution of:

a plurality of processing threads, each of the processing threads having a priority level within the computer processing system;

a synchronization object for synchronizing the processing of the one or more processing threads, the synchronization object comprising a waiting queue for processing requests made by the one or more processing threads;

a lock requesting thread of the one or more processing threads that requests a lock to the synchronization object;

promoting the priority of lower priority processing threads having a lock to the synchronization object or are waiting in the waiting queue, the lower priority threads have a priority lower than the lock requesting thread and are promoted to a priority level that is at least as high as that of the lock requesting thread; and

upon a release of the lock by a promoted processing thread, returning the promoted processing thread to the original priority level from which the processing thread was promoted;

wherein the lock requesting thread terminates the request to the synchronization object if the lock is not available.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein promoting the priority level comprises communicating a signal from the lock requesting thread to the lower priority waiting threads.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the promoted waiting threads return themselves to their original priority when they release a lock to the synchronization object.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the lock requesting thread waits for a predetermined amount of time for the lock before terminating the request to the synchronization object.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein one or more additional lock requesting threads are configured to retry requesting a lock to the synchronization object until the requested lock is obtained.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein each retry of requesting the lock is performed by a separate lock requesting thread.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein each of the separate lock requesting threads that terminates a request to the synchronization object is terminated prior to a retry by a separate lock requesting thread.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the lower priority threads are not promoted to a priority level that is higher than the lock requesting thread.

17. A computer program product for sharing computing resources, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with computer-executable program code programmed to cause the execution across one or more processors of:

executing a plurality of processing threads, each of the processing threads having a priority level within the computer processing system;

at least one of the plurality of threads requesting a lock to the synchronization object;

promoting the priority of lower priority processing threads having a lock to the synchronization object or are waiting in a waiting queue for the synchronization object, the lower priority threads have a priority lower than the lock requesting thread and are promoted to a priority level that is at least as high as that of the lock requesting thread; and

upon a release of the lock by a promoted processing thread, returning the promoted processing thread to the original priority level from which the processing thread was promoted;

wherein the lock requesting thread terminates the request to the synchronization object if the lock is not available.