diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/memory-barriers.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/memory-barriers.txt | 22 |
1 files changed, 14 insertions, 8 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt index 479ecec80593..a863009849a3 100644 --- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt +++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt @@ -227,17 +227,20 @@ There are some minimal guarantees that may be expected of a CPU: (*) On any given CPU, dependent memory accesses will be issued in order, with respect to itself. This means that for: - Q = READ_ONCE(P); smp_read_barrier_depends(); D = READ_ONCE(*Q); + Q = READ_ONCE(P); D = READ_ONCE(*Q); the CPU will issue the following memory operations: Q = LOAD P, D = LOAD *Q - and always in that order. On most systems, smp_read_barrier_depends() - does nothing, but it is required for DEC Alpha. The READ_ONCE() - is required to prevent compiler mischief. Please note that you - should normally use something like rcu_dereference() instead of - open-coding smp_read_barrier_depends(). + and always in that order. However, on DEC Alpha, READ_ONCE() also + emits a memory-barrier instruction, so that a DEC Alpha CPU will + instead issue the following memory operations: + + Q = LOAD P, MEMORY_BARRIER, D = LOAD *Q, MEMORY_BARRIER + + Whether on DEC Alpha or not, the READ_ONCE() also prevents compiler + mischief. (*) Overlapping loads and stores within a particular CPU will appear to be ordered within that CPU. This means that for: @@ -1815,7 +1818,7 @@ The Linux kernel has eight basic CPU memory barriers: GENERAL mb() smp_mb() WRITE wmb() smp_wmb() READ rmb() smp_rmb() - DATA DEPENDENCY read_barrier_depends() smp_read_barrier_depends() + DATA DEPENDENCY READ_ONCE() All memory barriers except the data dependency barriers imply a compiler @@ -2864,7 +2867,10 @@ access depends on a read, not all do, so it may not be relied on. Other CPUs may also have split caches, but must coordinate between the various cachelets for normal memory accesses. The semantics of the Alpha removes the -need for coordination in the absence of memory barriers. +need for hardware coordination in the absence of memory barriers, which +permitted Alpha to sport higher CPU clock rates back in the day. However, +please note that smp_read_barrier_depends() should not be used except in +Alpha arch-specific code and within the READ_ONCE() macro. CACHE COHERENCY VS DMA |