Root/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt

1             ============================
2             LINUX KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
3             ============================
4
5By: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
6
7Contents:
8
9 (*) Abstract memory access model.
10
11     - Device operations.
12     - Guarantees.
13
14 (*) What are memory barriers?
15
16     - Varieties of memory barrier.
17     - What may not be assumed about memory barriers?
18     - Data dependency barriers.
19     - Control dependencies.
20     - SMP barrier pairing.
21     - Examples of memory barrier sequences.
22     - Read memory barriers vs load speculation.
23
24 (*) Explicit kernel barriers.
25
26     - Compiler barrier.
27     - CPU memory barriers.
28     - MMIO write barrier.
29
30 (*) Implicit kernel memory barriers.
31
32     - Locking functions.
33     - Interrupt disabling functions.
34     - Sleep and wake-up functions.
35     - Miscellaneous functions.
36
37 (*) Inter-CPU locking barrier effects.
38
39     - Locks vs memory accesses.
40     - Locks vs I/O accesses.
41
42 (*) Where are memory barriers needed?
43
44     - Interprocessor interaction.
45     - Atomic operations.
46     - Accessing devices.
47     - Interrupts.
48
49 (*) Kernel I/O barrier effects.
50
51 (*) Assumed minimum execution ordering model.
52
53 (*) The effects of the cpu cache.
54
55     - Cache coherency.
56     - Cache coherency vs DMA.
57     - Cache coherency vs MMIO.
58
59 (*) The things CPUs get up to.
60
61     - And then there's the Alpha.
62
63 (*) References.
64
65
66============================
67ABSTRACT MEMORY ACCESS MODEL
68============================
69
70Consider the following abstract model of the system:
71
72                    : :
73                    : :
74                    : :
75        +-------+ : +--------+ : +-------+
76        | | : | | : | |
77        | | : | | : | |
78        | CPU 1 |<----->| Memory |<----->| CPU 2 |
79        | | : | | : | |
80        | | : | | : | |
81        +-------+ : +--------+ : +-------+
82            ^ : ^ : ^
83            | : | : |
84            | : | : |
85            | : v : |
86            | : +--------+ : |
87            | : | | : |
88            | : | | : |
89            +---------->| Device |<----------+
90                    : | | :
91                    : | | :
92                    : +--------+ :
93                    : :
94
95Each CPU executes a program that generates memory access operations. In the
96abstract CPU, memory operation ordering is very relaxed, and a CPU may actually
97perform the memory operations in any order it likes, provided program causality
98appears to be maintained. Similarly, the compiler may also arrange the
99instructions it emits in any order it likes, provided it doesn't affect the
100apparent operation of the program.
101
102So in the above diagram, the effects of the memory operations performed by a
103CPU are perceived by the rest of the system as the operations cross the
104interface between the CPU and rest of the system (the dotted lines).
105
106
107For example, consider the following sequence of events:
108
109    CPU 1 CPU 2
110    =============== ===============
111    { A == 1; B == 2 }
112    A = 3; x = A;
113    B = 4; y = B;
114
115The set of accesses as seen by the memory system in the middle can be arranged
116in 24 different combinations:
117
118    STORE A=3, STORE B=4, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->4
119    STORE A=3, STORE B=4, y=LOAD B->4, x=LOAD A->3
120    STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, STORE B=4, y=LOAD B->4
121    STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->2, STORE B=4
122    STORE A=3, y=LOAD B->2, STORE B=4, x=LOAD A->3
123    STORE A=3, y=LOAD B->2, x=LOAD A->3, STORE B=4
124    STORE B=4, STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->4
125    STORE B=4, ...
126    ...
127
128and can thus result in four different combinations of values:
129
130    x == 1, y == 2
131    x == 1, y == 4
132    x == 3, y == 2
133    x == 3, y == 4
134
135
136Furthermore, the stores committed by a CPU to the memory system may not be
137perceived by the loads made by another CPU in the same order as the stores were
138committed.
139
140
141As a further example, consider this sequence of events:
142
143    CPU 1 CPU 2
144    =============== ===============
145    { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
146    B = 4; Q = P;
147    P = &B D = *Q;
148
149There is an obvious data dependency here, as the value loaded into D depends on
150the address retrieved from P by CPU 2. At the end of the sequence, any of the
151following results are possible:
152
153    (Q == &A) and (D == 1)
154    (Q == &B) and (D == 2)
155    (Q == &B) and (D == 4)
156
157Note that CPU 2 will never try and load C into D because the CPU will load P
158into Q before issuing the load of *Q.
159
160
161DEVICE OPERATIONS
162-----------------
163
164Some devices present their control interfaces as collections of memory
165locations, but the order in which the control registers are accessed is very
166important. For instance, imagine an ethernet card with a set of internal
167registers that are accessed through an address port register (A) and a data
168port register (D). To read internal register 5, the following code might then
169be used:
170
171    *A = 5;
172    x = *D;
173
174but this might show up as either of the following two sequences:
175
176    STORE *A = 5, x = LOAD *D
177    x = LOAD *D, STORE *A = 5
178
179the second of which will almost certainly result in a malfunction, since it set
180the address _after_ attempting to read the register.
181
182
183GUARANTEES
184----------
185
186There are some minimal guarantees that may be expected of a CPU:
187
188 (*) On any given CPU, dependent memory accesses will be issued in order, with
189     respect to itself. This means that for:
190
191    Q = P; D = *Q;
192
193     the CPU will issue the following memory operations:
194
195    Q = LOAD P, D = LOAD *Q
196
197     and always in that order.
198
199 (*) Overlapping loads and stores within a particular CPU will appear to be
200     ordered within that CPU. This means that for:
201
202    a = *X; *X = b;
203
204     the CPU will only issue the following sequence of memory operations:
205
206    a = LOAD *X, STORE *X = b
207
208     And for:
209
210    *X = c; d = *X;
211
212     the CPU will only issue:
213
214    STORE *X = c, d = LOAD *X
215
216     (Loads and stores overlap if they are targeted at overlapping pieces of
217     memory).
218
219And there are a number of things that _must_ or _must_not_ be assumed:
220
221 (*) It _must_not_ be assumed that independent loads and stores will be issued
222     in the order given. This means that for:
223
224    X = *A; Y = *B; *D = Z;
225
226     we may get any of the following sequences:
227
228    X = LOAD *A, Y = LOAD *B, STORE *D = Z
229    X = LOAD *A, STORE *D = Z, Y = LOAD *B
230    Y = LOAD *B, X = LOAD *A, STORE *D = Z
231    Y = LOAD *B, STORE *D = Z, X = LOAD *A
232    STORE *D = Z, X = LOAD *A, Y = LOAD *B
233    STORE *D = Z, Y = LOAD *B, X = LOAD *A
234
235 (*) It _must_ be assumed that overlapping memory accesses may be merged or
236     discarded. This means that for:
237
238    X = *A; Y = *(A + 4);
239
240     we may get any one of the following sequences:
241
242    X = LOAD *A; Y = LOAD *(A + 4);
243    Y = LOAD *(A + 4); X = LOAD *A;
244    {X, Y} = LOAD {*A, *(A + 4) };
245
246     And for:
247
248    *A = X; Y = *A;
249
250     we may get either of:
251
252    STORE *A = X; Y = LOAD *A;
253    STORE *A = Y = X;
254
255
256=========================
257WHAT ARE MEMORY BARRIERS?
258=========================
259
260As can be seen above, independent memory operations are effectively performed
261in random order, but this can be a problem for CPU-CPU interaction and for I/O.
262What is required is some way of intervening to instruct the compiler and the
263CPU to restrict the order.
264
265Memory barriers are such interventions. They impose a perceived partial
266ordering over the memory operations on either side of the barrier.
267
268Such enforcement is important because the CPUs and other devices in a system
269can use a variety of tricks to improve performance, including reordering,
270deferral and combination of memory operations; speculative loads; speculative
271branch prediction and various types of caching. Memory barriers are used to
272override or suppress these tricks, allowing the code to sanely control the
273interaction of multiple CPUs and/or devices.
274
275
276VARIETIES OF MEMORY BARRIER
277---------------------------
278
279Memory barriers come in four basic varieties:
280
281 (1) Write (or store) memory barriers.
282
283     A write memory barrier gives a guarantee that all the STORE operations
284     specified before the barrier will appear to happen before all the STORE
285     operations specified after the barrier with respect to the other
286     components of the system.
287
288     A write barrier is a partial ordering on stores only; it is not required
289     to have any effect on loads.
290
291     A CPU can be viewed as committing a sequence of store operations to the
292     memory system as time progresses. All stores before a write barrier will
293     occur in the sequence _before_ all the stores after the write barrier.
294
295     [!] Note that write barriers should normally be paired with read or data
296     dependency barriers; see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
297
298
299 (2) Data dependency barriers.
300
301     A data dependency barrier is a weaker form of read barrier. In the case
302     where two loads are performed such that the second depends on the result
303     of the first (eg: the first load retrieves the address to which the second
304     load will be directed), a data dependency barrier would be required to
305     make sure that the target of the second load is updated before the address
306     obtained by the first load is accessed.
307
308     A data dependency barrier is a partial ordering on interdependent loads
309     only; it is not required to have any effect on stores, independent loads
310     or overlapping loads.
311
312     As mentioned in (1), the other CPUs in the system can be viewed as
313     committing sequences of stores to the memory system that the CPU being
314     considered can then perceive. A data dependency barrier issued by the CPU
315     under consideration guarantees that for any load preceding it, if that
316     load touches one of a sequence of stores from another CPU, then by the
317     time the barrier completes, the effects of all the stores prior to that
318     touched by the load will be perceptible to any loads issued after the data
319     dependency barrier.
320
321     See the "Examples of memory barrier sequences" subsection for diagrams
322     showing the ordering constraints.
323
324     [!] Note that the first load really has to have a _data_ dependency and
325     not a control dependency. If the address for the second load is dependent
326     on the first load, but the dependency is through a conditional rather than
327     actually loading the address itself, then it's a _control_ dependency and
328     a full read barrier or better is required. See the "Control dependencies"
329     subsection for more information.
330
331     [!] Note that data dependency barriers should normally be paired with
332     write barriers; see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
333
334
335 (3) Read (or load) memory barriers.
336
337     A read barrier is a data dependency barrier plus a guarantee that all the
338     LOAD operations specified before the barrier will appear to happen before
339     all the LOAD operations specified after the barrier with respect to the
340     other components of the system.
341
342     A read barrier is a partial ordering on loads only; it is not required to
343     have any effect on stores.
344
345     Read memory barriers imply data dependency barriers, and so can substitute
346     for them.
347
348     [!] Note that read barriers should normally be paired with write barriers;
349     see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
350
351
352 (4) General memory barriers.
353
354     A general memory barrier gives a guarantee that all the LOAD and STORE
355     operations specified before the barrier will appear to happen before all
356     the LOAD and STORE operations specified after the barrier with respect to
357     the other components of the system.
358
359     A general memory barrier is a partial ordering over both loads and stores.
360
361     General memory barriers imply both read and write memory barriers, and so
362     can substitute for either.
363
364
365And a couple of implicit varieties:
366
367 (5) LOCK operations.
368
369     This acts as a one-way permeable barrier. It guarantees that all memory
370     operations after the LOCK operation will appear to happen after the LOCK
371     operation with respect to the other components of the system.
372
373     Memory operations that occur before a LOCK operation may appear to happen
374     after it completes.
375
376     A LOCK operation should almost always be paired with an UNLOCK operation.
377
378
379 (6) UNLOCK operations.
380
381     This also acts as a one-way permeable barrier. It guarantees that all
382     memory operations before the UNLOCK operation will appear to happen before
383     the UNLOCK operation with respect to the other components of the system.
384
385     Memory operations that occur after an UNLOCK operation may appear to
386     happen before it completes.
387
388     LOCK and UNLOCK operations are guaranteed to appear with respect to each
389     other strictly in the order specified.
390
391     The use of LOCK and UNLOCK operations generally precludes the need for
392     other sorts of memory barrier (but note the exceptions mentioned in the
393     subsection "MMIO write barrier").
394
395
396Memory barriers are only required where there's a possibility of interaction
397between two CPUs or between a CPU and a device. If it can be guaranteed that
398there won't be any such interaction in any particular piece of code, then
399memory barriers are unnecessary in that piece of code.
400
401
402Note that these are the _minimum_ guarantees. Different architectures may give
403more substantial guarantees, but they may _not_ be relied upon outside of arch
404specific code.
405
406
407WHAT MAY NOT BE ASSUMED ABOUT MEMORY BARRIERS?
408----------------------------------------------
409
410There are certain things that the Linux kernel memory barriers do not guarantee:
411
412 (*) There is no guarantee that any of the memory accesses specified before a
413     memory barrier will be _complete_ by the completion of a memory barrier
414     instruction; the barrier can be considered to draw a line in that CPU's
415     access queue that accesses of the appropriate type may not cross.
416
417 (*) There is no guarantee that issuing a memory barrier on one CPU will have
418     any direct effect on another CPU or any other hardware in the system. The
419     indirect effect will be the order in which the second CPU sees the effects
420     of the first CPU's accesses occur, but see the next point:
421
422 (*) There is no guarantee that a CPU will see the correct order of effects
423     from a second CPU's accesses, even _if_ the second CPU uses a memory
424     barrier, unless the first CPU _also_ uses a matching memory barrier (see
425     the subsection on "SMP Barrier Pairing").
426
427 (*) There is no guarantee that some intervening piece of off-the-CPU
428     hardware[*] will not reorder the memory accesses. CPU cache coherency
429     mechanisms should propagate the indirect effects of a memory barrier
430     between CPUs, but might not do so in order.
431
432    [*] For information on bus mastering DMA and coherency please read:
433
434        Documentation/PCI/pci.txt
435        Documentation/PCI/PCI-DMA-mapping.txt
436        Documentation/DMA-API.txt
437
438
439DATA DEPENDENCY BARRIERS
440------------------------
441
442The usage requirements of data dependency barriers are a little subtle, and
443it's not always obvious that they're needed. To illustrate, consider the
444following sequence of events:
445
446    CPU 1 CPU 2
447    =============== ===============
448    { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
449    B = 4;
450    <write barrier>
451    P = &B
452            Q = P;
453            D = *Q;
454
455There's a clear data dependency here, and it would seem that by the end of the
456sequence, Q must be either &A or &B, and that:
457
458    (Q == &A) implies (D == 1)
459    (Q == &B) implies (D == 4)
460
461But! CPU 2's perception of P may be updated _before_ its perception of B, thus
462leading to the following situation:
463
464    (Q == &B) and (D == 2) ????
465
466Whilst this may seem like a failure of coherency or causality maintenance, it
467isn't, and this behaviour can be observed on certain real CPUs (such as the DEC
468Alpha).
469
470To deal with this, a data dependency barrier or better must be inserted
471between the address load and the data load:
472
473    CPU 1 CPU 2
474    =============== ===============
475    { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
476    B = 4;
477    <write barrier>
478    P = &B
479            Q = P;
480            <data dependency barrier>
481            D = *Q;
482
483This enforces the occurrence of one of the two implications, and prevents the
484third possibility from arising.
485
486[!] Note that this extremely counterintuitive situation arises most easily on
487machines with split caches, so that, for example, one cache bank processes
488even-numbered cache lines and the other bank processes odd-numbered cache
489lines. The pointer P might be stored in an odd-numbered cache line, and the
490variable B might be stored in an even-numbered cache line. Then, if the
491even-numbered bank of the reading CPU's cache is extremely busy while the
492odd-numbered bank is idle, one can see the new value of the pointer P (&B),
493but the old value of the variable B (2).
494
495
496Another example of where data dependency barriers might by required is where a
497number is read from memory and then used to calculate the index for an array
498access:
499
500    CPU 1 CPU 2
501    =============== ===============
502    { M[0] == 1, M[1] == 2, M[3] = 3, P == 0, Q == 3 }
503    M[1] = 4;
504    <write barrier>
505    P = 1
506            Q = P;
507            <data dependency barrier>
508            D = M[Q];
509
510
511The data dependency barrier is very important to the RCU system, for example.
512See rcu_dereference() in include/linux/rcupdate.h. This permits the current
513target of an RCU'd pointer to be replaced with a new modified target, without
514the replacement target appearing to be incompletely initialised.
515
516See also the subsection on "Cache Coherency" for a more thorough example.
517
518
519CONTROL DEPENDENCIES
520--------------------
521
522A control dependency requires a full read memory barrier, not simply a data
523dependency barrier to make it work correctly. Consider the following bit of
524code:
525
526    q = &a;
527    if (p)
528        q = &b;
529    <data dependency barrier>
530    x = *q;
531
532This will not have the desired effect because there is no actual data
533dependency, but rather a control dependency that the CPU may short-circuit by
534attempting to predict the outcome in advance. In such a case what's actually
535required is:
536
537    q = &a;
538    if (p)
539        q = &b;
540    <read barrier>
541    x = *q;
542
543
544SMP BARRIER PAIRING
545-------------------
546
547When dealing with CPU-CPU interactions, certain types of memory barrier should
548always be paired. A lack of appropriate pairing is almost certainly an error.
549
550A write barrier should always be paired with a data dependency barrier or read
551barrier, though a general barrier would also be viable. Similarly a read
552barrier or a data dependency barrier should always be paired with at least an
553write barrier, though, again, a general barrier is viable:
554
555    CPU 1 CPU 2
556    =============== ===============
557    a = 1;
558    <write barrier>
559    b = 2; x = b;
560            <read barrier>
561            y = a;
562
563Or:
564
565    CPU 1 CPU 2
566    =============== ===============================
567    a = 1;
568    <write barrier>
569    b = &a; x = b;
570            <data dependency barrier>
571            y = *x;
572
573Basically, the read barrier always has to be there, even though it can be of
574the "weaker" type.
575
576[!] Note that the stores before the write barrier would normally be expected to
577match the loads after the read barrier or the data dependency barrier, and vice
578versa:
579
580    CPU 1 CPU 2
581    =============== ===============
582    a = 1; }---- --->{ v = c
583    b = 2; } \ / { w = d
584    <write barrier> \ <read barrier>
585    c = 3; } / \ { x = a;
586    d = 4; }---- --->{ y = b;
587
588
589EXAMPLES OF MEMORY BARRIER SEQUENCES
590------------------------------------
591
592Firstly, write barriers act as partial orderings on store operations.
593Consider the following sequence of events:
594
595    CPU 1
596    =======================
597    STORE A = 1
598    STORE B = 2
599    STORE C = 3
600    <write barrier>
601    STORE D = 4
602    STORE E = 5
603
604This sequence of events is committed to the memory coherence system in an order
605that the rest of the system might perceive as the unordered set of { STORE A,
606STORE B, STORE C } all occurring before the unordered set of { STORE D, STORE E
607}:
608
609    +-------+ : :
610    | | +------+
611    | |------>| C=3 | } /\
612    | | : +------+ }----- \ -----> Events perceptible to
613    | | : | A=1 | } \/ the rest of the system
614    | | : +------+ }
615    | CPU 1 | : | B=2 | }
616    | | +------+ }
617    | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww } <--- At this point the write barrier
618    | | +------+ } requires all stores prior to the
619    | | : | E=5 | } barrier to be committed before
620    | | : +------+ } further stores may take place
621    | |------>| D=4 | }
622    | | +------+
623    +-------+ : :
624                       |
625                       | Sequence in which stores are committed to the
626                       | memory system by CPU 1
627                       V
628
629
630Secondly, data dependency barriers act as partial orderings on data-dependent
631loads. Consider the following sequence of events:
632
633    CPU 1 CPU 2
634    ======================= =======================
635        { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
636    STORE A = 1
637    STORE B = 2
638    <write barrier>
639    STORE C = &B LOAD X
640    STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
641                LOAD *C (reads B)
642
643Without intervention, CPU 2 may perceive the events on CPU 1 in some
644effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
645
646    +-------+ : : : :
647    | | +------+ +-------+ | Sequence of update
648    | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 | | of perception on
649    | | : +------+ \ +-------+ | CPU 2
650    | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y | V
651    | | +------+ | +-------+
652    | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
653    | | +------+ | : :
654    | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
655    | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
656    | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
657    | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
658    +-------+ : : | : : | |
659                                   | : : | |
660                                   | : : | CPU 2 |
661                                   | +-------+ | |
662        Apparently incorrect ---> | | B->7 |------>| |
663        perception of B (!) | +-------+ | |
664                                   | : : | |
665                                   | +-------+ | |
666        The load of X holds ---> \ | X->9 |------>| |
667        up the maintenance \ +-------+ | |
668        of coherence of B ----->| B->2 | +-------+
669                                            +-------+
670                                            : :
671
672
673In the above example, CPU 2 perceives that B is 7, despite the load of *C
674(which would be B) coming after the LOAD of C.
675
676If, however, a data dependency barrier were to be placed between the load of C
677and the load of *C (ie: B) on CPU 2:
678
679    CPU 1 CPU 2
680    ======================= =======================
681        { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
682    STORE A = 1
683    STORE B = 2
684    <write barrier>
685    STORE C = &B LOAD X
686    STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
687                <data dependency barrier>
688                LOAD *C (reads B)
689
690then the following will occur:
691
692    +-------+ : : : :
693    | | +------+ +-------+
694    | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 |
695    | | : +------+ \ +-------+
696    | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y |
697    | | +------+ | +-------+
698    | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
699    | | +------+ | : :
700    | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
701    | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
702    | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
703    | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
704    +-------+ : : | : : | |
705                                   | : : | |
706                                   | : : | CPU 2 |
707                                   | +-------+ | |
708                                   | | X->9 |------>| |
709                                   | +-------+ | |
710      Makes sure all effects ---> \ ddddddddddddddddd | |
711      prior to the store of C \ +-------+ | |
712      are perceptible to ----->| B->2 |------>| |
713      subsequent loads +-------+ | |
714                                            : : +-------+
715
716
717And thirdly, a read barrier acts as a partial order on loads. Consider the
718following sequence of events:
719
720    CPU 1 CPU 2
721    ======================= =======================
722        { A = 0, B = 9 }
723    STORE A=1
724    <write barrier>
725    STORE B=2
726                LOAD B
727                LOAD A
728
729Without intervention, CPU 2 may then choose to perceive the events on CPU 1 in
730some effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
731
732    +-------+ : : : :
733    | | +------+ +-------+
734    | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
735    | | +------+ \ +-------+
736    | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
737    | | +------+ | +-------+
738    | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
739    | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
740    +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
741                                 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
742                                    | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
743                                    | | A->0 |------>| |
744                                    | +-------+ | |
745                                    | : : +-------+
746                                     \ : :
747                                      \ +-------+
748                                       ---->| A->1 |
749                                            +-------+
750                                            : :
751
752
753If, however, a read barrier were to be placed between the load of B and the
754load of A on CPU 2:
755
756    CPU 1 CPU 2
757    ======================= =======================
758        { A = 0, B = 9 }
759    STORE A=1
760    <write barrier>
761    STORE B=2
762                LOAD B
763                <read barrier>
764                LOAD A
765
766then the partial ordering imposed by CPU 1 will be perceived correctly by CPU
7672:
768
769    +-------+ : : : :
770    | | +------+ +-------+
771    | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
772    | | +------+ \ +-------+
773    | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
774    | | +------+ | +-------+
775    | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
776    | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
777    +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
778                                 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
779                                    | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
780                                    | : : | |
781                                    | : : | |
782      At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
783      barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
784      prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| |
785      to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
786                                            : : +-------+
787
788
789To illustrate this more completely, consider what could happen if the code
790contained a load of A either side of the read barrier:
791
792    CPU 1 CPU 2
793    ======================= =======================
794        { A = 0, B = 9 }
795    STORE A=1
796    <write barrier>
797    STORE B=2
798                LOAD B
799                LOAD A [first load of A]
800                <read barrier>
801                LOAD A [second load of A]
802
803Even though the two loads of A both occur after the load of B, they may both
804come up with different values:
805
806    +-------+ : : : :
807    | | +------+ +-------+
808    | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
809    | | +------+ \ +-------+
810    | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
811    | | +------+ | +-------+
812    | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
813    | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
814    +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
815                                 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
816                                    | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
817                                    | : : | |
818                                    | : : | |
819                                    | +-------+ | |
820                                    | | A->0 |------>| 1st |
821                                    | +-------+ | |
822      At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
823      barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
824      prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| 2nd |
825      to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
826                                            : : +-------+
827
828
829But it may be that the update to A from CPU 1 becomes perceptible to CPU 2
830before the read barrier completes anyway:
831
832    +-------+ : : : :
833    | | +------+ +-------+
834    | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
835    | | +------+ \ +-------+
836    | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
837    | | +------+ | +-------+
838    | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
839    | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
840    +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
841                                 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
842                                    | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
843                                    | : : | |
844                                     \ : : | |
845                                      \ +-------+ | |
846                                       ---->| A->1 |------>| 1st |
847                                            +-------+ | |
848                                        rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
849                                            +-------+ | |
850                                            | A->1 |------>| 2nd |
851                                            +-------+ | |
852                                            : : +-------+
853
854
855The guarantee is that the second load will always come up with A == 1 if the
856load of B came up with B == 2. No such guarantee exists for the first load of
857A; that may come up with either A == 0 or A == 1.
858
859
860READ MEMORY BARRIERS VS LOAD SPECULATION
861----------------------------------------
862
863Many CPUs speculate with loads: that is they see that they will need to load an
864item from memory, and they find a time where they're not using the bus for any
865other loads, and so do the load in advance - even though they haven't actually
866got to that point in the instruction execution flow yet. This permits the
867actual load instruction to potentially complete immediately because the CPU
868already has the value to hand.
869
870It may turn out that the CPU didn't actually need the value - perhaps because a
871branch circumvented the load - in which case it can discard the value or just
872cache it for later use.
873
874Consider:
875
876    CPU 1 CPU 2
877    ======================= =======================
878                    LOAD B
879                    DIVIDE } Divide instructions generally
880                    DIVIDE } take a long time to perform
881                    LOAD A
882
883Which might appear as this:
884
885                                            : : +-------+
886                                            +-------+ | |
887                                        --->| B->2 |------>| |
888                                            +-------+ | CPU 2 |
889                                            : :DIVIDE | |
890                                            +-------+ | |
891    The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
892    division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
893    LOAD of A : : ~ | |
894                                            : :DIVIDE | |
895                                            : : ~ | |
896    Once the divisions are complete --> : : ~-->| |
897    the CPU can then perform the : : | |
898    LOAD with immediate effect : : +-------+
899
900
901Placing a read barrier or a data dependency barrier just before the second
902load:
903
904    CPU 1 CPU 2
905    ======================= =======================
906                    LOAD B
907                    DIVIDE
908                    DIVIDE
909                <read barrier>
910                    LOAD A
911
912will force any value speculatively obtained to be reconsidered to an extent
913dependent on the type of barrier used. If there was no change made to the
914speculated memory location, then the speculated value will just be used:
915
916                                            : : +-------+
917                                            +-------+ | |
918                                        --->| B->2 |------>| |
919                                            +-------+ | CPU 2 |
920                                            : :DIVIDE | |
921                                            +-------+ | |
922    The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
923    division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
924    LOAD of A : : ~ | |
925                                            : :DIVIDE | |
926                                            : : ~ | |
927                                            : : ~ | |
928                                        rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~ | |
929                                            : : ~ | |
930                                            : : ~-->| |
931                                            : : | |
932                                            : : +-------+
933
934
935but if there was an update or an invalidation from another CPU pending, then
936the speculation will be cancelled and the value reloaded:
937
938                                            : : +-------+
939                                            +-------+ | |
940                                        --->| B->2 |------>| |
941                                            +-------+ | CPU 2 |
942                                            : :DIVIDE | |
943                                            +-------+ | |
944    The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
945    division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
946    LOAD of A : : ~ | |
947                                            : :DIVIDE | |
948                                            : : ~ | |
949                                            : : ~ | |
950                                        rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
951                                            +-------+ | |
952    The speculation is discarded ---> --->| A->1 |------>| |
953    and an updated value is +-------+ | |
954    retrieved : : +-------+
955
956
957========================
958EXPLICIT KERNEL BARRIERS
959========================
960
961The Linux kernel has a variety of different barriers that act at different
962levels:
963
964  (*) Compiler barrier.
965
966  (*) CPU memory barriers.
967
968  (*) MMIO write barrier.
969
970
971COMPILER BARRIER
972----------------
973
974The Linux kernel has an explicit compiler barrier function that prevents the
975compiler from moving the memory accesses either side of it to the other side:
976
977    barrier();
978
979This is a general barrier - lesser varieties of compiler barrier do not exist.
980
981The compiler barrier has no direct effect on the CPU, which may then reorder
982things however it wishes.
983
984
985CPU MEMORY BARRIERS
986-------------------
987
988The Linux kernel has eight basic CPU memory barriers:
989
990    TYPE MANDATORY SMP CONDITIONAL
991    =============== ======================= ===========================
992    GENERAL mb() smp_mb()
993    WRITE wmb() smp_wmb()
994    READ rmb() smp_rmb()
995    DATA DEPENDENCY read_barrier_depends() smp_read_barrier_depends()
996
997
998All memory barriers except the data dependency barriers imply a compiler
999barrier. Data dependencies do not impose any additional compiler ordering.
1000
1001Aside: In the case of data dependencies, the compiler would be expected to
1002issue the loads in the correct order (eg. `a[b]` would have to load the value
1003of b before loading a[b]), however there is no guarantee in the C specification
1004that the compiler may not speculate the value of b (eg. is equal to 1) and load
1005a before b (eg. tmp = a[1]; if (b != 1) tmp = a[b]; ). There is also the
1006problem of a compiler reloading b after having loaded a[b], thus having a newer
1007copy of b than a[b]. A consensus has not yet been reached about these problems,
1008however the ACCESS_ONCE macro is a good place to start looking.
1009
1010SMP memory barriers are reduced to compiler barriers on uniprocessor compiled
1011systems because it is assumed that a CPU will appear to be self-consistent,
1012and will order overlapping accesses correctly with respect to itself.
1013
1014[!] Note that SMP memory barriers _must_ be used to control the ordering of
1015references to shared memory on SMP systems, though the use of locking instead
1016is sufficient.
1017
1018Mandatory barriers should not be used to control SMP effects, since mandatory
1019barriers unnecessarily impose overhead on UP systems. They may, however, be
1020used to control MMIO effects on accesses through relaxed memory I/O windows.
1021These are required even on non-SMP systems as they affect the order in which
1022memory operations appear to a device by prohibiting both the compiler and the
1023CPU from reordering them.
1024
1025
1026There are some more advanced barrier functions:
1027
1028 (*) set_mb(var, value)
1029
1030     This assigns the value to the variable and then inserts a full memory
1031     barrier after it, depending on the function. It isn't guaranteed to
1032     insert anything more than a compiler barrier in a UP compilation.
1033
1034
1035 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1036 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_dec();
1037 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_inc();
1038 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_inc();
1039
1040     These are for use with atomic add, subtract, increment and decrement
1041     functions that don't return a value, especially when used for reference
1042     counting. These functions do not imply memory barriers.
1043
1044     As an example, consider a piece of code that marks an object as being dead
1045     and then decrements the object's reference count:
1046
1047    obj->dead = 1;
1048    smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1049    atomic_dec(&obj->ref_count);
1050
1051     This makes sure that the death mark on the object is perceived to be set
1052     *before* the reference counter is decremented.
1053
1054     See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1055     operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1056
1057
1058 (*) smp_mb__before_clear_bit(void);
1059 (*) smp_mb__after_clear_bit(void);
1060
1061     These are for use similar to the atomic inc/dec barriers. These are
1062     typically used for bitwise unlocking operations, so care must be taken as
1063     there are no implicit memory barriers here either.
1064
1065     Consider implementing an unlock operation of some nature by clearing a
1066     locking bit. The clear_bit() would then need to be barriered like this:
1067
1068    smp_mb__before_clear_bit();
1069    clear_bit( ... );
1070
1071     This prevents memory operations before the clear leaking to after it. See
1072     the subsection on "Locking Functions" with reference to UNLOCK operation
1073     implications.
1074
1075     See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1076     operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1077
1078
1079MMIO WRITE BARRIER
1080------------------
1081
1082The Linux kernel also has a special barrier for use with memory-mapped I/O
1083writes:
1084
1085    mmiowb();
1086
1087This is a variation on the mandatory write barrier that causes writes to weakly
1088ordered I/O regions to be partially ordered. Its effects may go beyond the
1089CPU->Hardware interface and actually affect the hardware at some level.
1090
1091See the subsection "Locks vs I/O accesses" for more information.
1092
1093
1094===============================
1095IMPLICIT KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
1096===============================
1097
1098Some of the other functions in the linux kernel imply memory barriers, amongst
1099which are locking and scheduling functions.
1100
1101This specification is a _minimum_ guarantee; any particular architecture may
1102provide more substantial guarantees, but these may not be relied upon outside
1103of arch specific code.
1104
1105
1106LOCKING FUNCTIONS
1107-----------------
1108
1109The Linux kernel has a number of locking constructs:
1110
1111 (*) spin locks
1112 (*) R/W spin locks
1113 (*) mutexes
1114 (*) semaphores
1115 (*) R/W semaphores
1116 (*) RCU
1117
1118In all cases there are variants on "LOCK" operations and "UNLOCK" operations
1119for each construct. These operations all imply certain barriers:
1120
1121 (1) LOCK operation implication:
1122
1123     Memory operations issued after the LOCK will be completed after the LOCK
1124     operation has completed.
1125
1126     Memory operations issued before the LOCK may be completed after the LOCK
1127     operation has completed.
1128
1129 (2) UNLOCK operation implication:
1130
1131     Memory operations issued before the UNLOCK will be completed before the
1132     UNLOCK operation has completed.
1133
1134     Memory operations issued after the UNLOCK may be completed before the
1135     UNLOCK operation has completed.
1136
1137 (3) LOCK vs LOCK implication:
1138
1139     All LOCK operations issued before another LOCK operation will be completed
1140     before that LOCK operation.
1141
1142 (4) LOCK vs UNLOCK implication:
1143
1144     All LOCK operations issued before an UNLOCK operation will be completed
1145     before the UNLOCK operation.
1146
1147     All UNLOCK operations issued before a LOCK operation will be completed
1148     before the LOCK operation.
1149
1150 (5) Failed conditional LOCK implication:
1151
1152     Certain variants of the LOCK operation may fail, either due to being
1153     unable to get the lock immediately, or due to receiving an unblocked
1154     signal whilst asleep waiting for the lock to become available. Failed
1155     locks do not imply any sort of barrier.
1156
1157Therefore, from (1), (2) and (4) an UNLOCK followed by an unconditional LOCK is
1158equivalent to a full barrier, but a LOCK followed by an UNLOCK is not.
1159
1160[!] Note: one of the consequences of LOCKs and UNLOCKs being only one-way
1161    barriers is that the effects of instructions outside of a critical section
1162    may seep into the inside of the critical section.
1163
1164A LOCK followed by an UNLOCK may not be assumed to be full memory barrier
1165because it is possible for an access preceding the LOCK to happen after the
1166LOCK, and an access following the UNLOCK to happen before the UNLOCK, and the
1167two accesses can themselves then cross:
1168
1169    *A = a;
1170    LOCK
1171    UNLOCK
1172    *B = b;
1173
1174may occur as:
1175
1176    LOCK, STORE *B, STORE *A, UNLOCK
1177
1178Locks and semaphores may not provide any guarantee of ordering on UP compiled
1179systems, and so cannot be counted on in such a situation to actually achieve
1180anything at all - especially with respect to I/O accesses - unless combined
1181with interrupt disabling operations.
1182
1183See also the section on "Inter-CPU locking barrier effects".
1184
1185
1186As an example, consider the following:
1187
1188    *A = a;
1189    *B = b;
1190    LOCK
1191    *C = c;
1192    *D = d;
1193    UNLOCK
1194    *E = e;
1195    *F = f;
1196
1197The following sequence of events is acceptable:
1198
1199    LOCK, {*F,*A}, *E, {*C,*D}, *B, UNLOCK
1200
1201    [+] Note that {*F,*A} indicates a combined access.
1202
1203But none of the following are:
1204
1205    {*F,*A}, *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, *E
1206    *A, *B, *C, LOCK, *D, UNLOCK, *E, *F
1207    *A, *B, LOCK, *C, UNLOCK, *D, *E, *F
1208    *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, {*F,*A}, *E
1209
1210
1211
1212INTERRUPT DISABLING FUNCTIONS
1213-----------------------------
1214
1215Functions that disable interrupts (LOCK equivalent) and enable interrupts
1216(UNLOCK equivalent) will act as compiler barriers only. So if memory or I/O
1217barriers are required in such a situation, they must be provided from some
1218other means.
1219
1220
1221SLEEP AND WAKE-UP FUNCTIONS
1222---------------------------
1223
1224Sleeping and waking on an event flagged in global data can be viewed as an
1225interaction between two pieces of data: the task state of the task waiting for
1226the event and the global data used to indicate the event. To make sure that
1227these appear to happen in the right order, the primitives to begin the process
1228of going to sleep, and the primitives to initiate a wake up imply certain
1229barriers.
1230
1231Firstly, the sleeper normally follows something like this sequence of events:
1232
1233    for (;;) {
1234        set_current_state(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
1235        if (event_indicated)
1236            break;
1237        schedule();
1238    }
1239
1240A general memory barrier is interpolated automatically by set_current_state()
1241after it has altered the task state:
1242
1243    CPU 1
1244    ===============================
1245    set_current_state();
1246      set_mb();
1247        STORE current->state
1248        <general barrier>
1249    LOAD event_indicated
1250
1251set_current_state() may be wrapped by:
1252
1253    prepare_to_wait();
1254    prepare_to_wait_exclusive();
1255
1256which therefore also imply a general memory barrier after setting the state.
1257The whole sequence above is available in various canned forms, all of which
1258interpolate the memory barrier in the right place:
1259
1260    wait_event();
1261    wait_event_interruptible();
1262    wait_event_interruptible_exclusive();
1263    wait_event_interruptible_timeout();
1264    wait_event_killable();
1265    wait_event_timeout();
1266    wait_on_bit();
1267    wait_on_bit_lock();
1268
1269
1270Secondly, code that performs a wake up normally follows something like this:
1271
1272    event_indicated = 1;
1273    wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1274
1275or:
1276
1277    event_indicated = 1;
1278    wake_up_process(event_daemon);
1279
1280A write memory barrier is implied by wake_up() and co. if and only if they wake
1281something up. The barrier occurs before the task state is cleared, and so sits
1282between the STORE to indicate the event and the STORE to set TASK_RUNNING:
1283
1284    CPU 1 CPU 2
1285    =============================== ===============================
1286    set_current_state(); STORE event_indicated
1287      set_mb(); wake_up();
1288        STORE current->state <write barrier>
1289        <general barrier> STORE current->state
1290    LOAD event_indicated
1291
1292The available waker functions include:
1293
1294    complete();
1295    wake_up();
1296    wake_up_all();
1297    wake_up_bit();
1298    wake_up_interruptible();
1299    wake_up_interruptible_all();
1300    wake_up_interruptible_nr();
1301    wake_up_interruptible_poll();
1302    wake_up_interruptible_sync();
1303    wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll();
1304    wake_up_locked();
1305    wake_up_locked_poll();
1306    wake_up_nr();
1307    wake_up_poll();
1308    wake_up_process();
1309
1310
1311[!] Note that the memory barriers implied by the sleeper and the waker do _not_
1312order multiple stores before the wake-up with respect to loads of those stored
1313values after the sleeper has called set_current_state(). For instance, if the
1314sleeper does:
1315
1316    set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1317    if (event_indicated)
1318        break;
1319    __set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
1320    do_something(my_data);
1321
1322and the waker does:
1323
1324    my_data = value;
1325    event_indicated = 1;
1326    wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1327
1328there's no guarantee that the change to event_indicated will be perceived by
1329the sleeper as coming after the change to my_data. In such a circumstance, the
1330code on both sides must interpolate its own memory barriers between the
1331separate data accesses. Thus the above sleeper ought to do:
1332
1333    set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1334    if (event_indicated) {
1335        smp_rmb();
1336        do_something(my_data);
1337    }
1338
1339and the waker should do:
1340
1341    my_data = value;
1342    smp_wmb();
1343    event_indicated = 1;
1344    wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1345
1346
1347MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS
1348-----------------------
1349
1350Other functions that imply barriers:
1351
1352 (*) schedule() and similar imply full memory barriers.
1353
1354
1355=================================
1356INTER-CPU LOCKING BARRIER EFFECTS
1357=================================
1358
1359On SMP systems locking primitives give a more substantial form of barrier: one
1360that does affect memory access ordering on other CPUs, within the context of
1361conflict on any particular lock.
1362
1363
1364LOCKS VS MEMORY ACCESSES
1365------------------------
1366
1367Consider the following: the system has a pair of spinlocks (M) and (Q), and
1368three CPUs; then should the following sequence of events occur:
1369
1370    CPU 1 CPU 2
1371    =============================== ===============================
1372    *A = a; *E = e;
1373    LOCK M LOCK Q
1374    *B = b; *F = f;
1375    *C = c; *G = g;
1376    UNLOCK M UNLOCK Q
1377    *D = d; *H = h;
1378
1379Then there is no guarantee as to what order CPU 3 will see the accesses to *A
1380through *H occur in, other than the constraints imposed by the separate locks
1381on the separate CPUs. It might, for example, see:
1382
1383    *E, LOCK M, LOCK Q, *G, *C, *F, *A, *B, UNLOCK Q, *D, *H, UNLOCK M
1384
1385But it won't see any of:
1386
1387    *B, *C or *D preceding LOCK M
1388    *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M
1389    *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK Q
1390    *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK Q
1391
1392
1393However, if the following occurs:
1394
1395    CPU 1 CPU 2
1396    =============================== ===============================
1397    *A = a;
1398    LOCK M [1]
1399    *B = b;
1400    *C = c;
1401    UNLOCK M [1]
1402    *D = d; *E = e;
1403                    LOCK M [2]
1404                    *F = f;
1405                    *G = g;
1406                    UNLOCK M [2]
1407                    *H = h;
1408
1409CPU 3 might see:
1410
1411    *E, LOCK M [1], *C, *B, *A, UNLOCK M [1],
1412        LOCK M [2], *H, *F, *G, UNLOCK M [2], *D
1413
1414But assuming CPU 1 gets the lock first, CPU 3 won't see any of:
1415
1416    *B, *C, *D, *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [1]
1417    *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M [1]
1418    *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [2]
1419    *A, *B, *C, *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK M [2]
1420
1421
1422LOCKS VS I/O ACCESSES
1423---------------------
1424
1425Under certain circumstances (especially involving NUMA), I/O accesses within
1426two spinlocked sections on two different CPUs may be seen as interleaved by the
1427PCI bridge, because the PCI bridge does not necessarily participate in the
1428cache-coherence protocol, and is therefore incapable of issuing the required
1429read memory barriers.
1430
1431For example:
1432
1433    CPU 1 CPU 2
1434    =============================== ===============================
1435    spin_lock(Q)
1436    writel(0, ADDR)
1437    writel(1, DATA);
1438    spin_unlock(Q);
1439                    spin_lock(Q);
1440                    writel(4, ADDR);
1441                    writel(5, DATA);
1442                    spin_unlock(Q);
1443
1444may be seen by the PCI bridge as follows:
1445
1446    STORE *ADDR = 0, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = 1, STORE *DATA = 5
1447
1448which would probably cause the hardware to malfunction.
1449
1450
1451What is necessary here is to intervene with an mmiowb() before dropping the
1452spinlock, for example:
1453
1454    CPU 1 CPU 2
1455    =============================== ===============================
1456    spin_lock(Q)
1457    writel(0, ADDR)
1458    writel(1, DATA);
1459    mmiowb();
1460    spin_unlock(Q);
1461                    spin_lock(Q);
1462                    writel(4, ADDR);
1463                    writel(5, DATA);
1464                    mmiowb();
1465                    spin_unlock(Q);
1466
1467this will ensure that the two stores issued on CPU 1 appear at the PCI bridge
1468before either of the stores issued on CPU 2.
1469
1470
1471Furthermore, following a store by a load from the same device obviates the need
1472for the mmiowb(), because the load forces the store to complete before the load
1473is performed:
1474
1475    CPU 1 CPU 2
1476    =============================== ===============================
1477    spin_lock(Q)
1478    writel(0, ADDR)
1479    a = readl(DATA);
1480    spin_unlock(Q);
1481                    spin_lock(Q);
1482                    writel(4, ADDR);
1483                    b = readl(DATA);
1484                    spin_unlock(Q);
1485
1486
1487See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1488
1489
1490=================================
1491WHERE ARE MEMORY BARRIERS NEEDED?
1492=================================
1493
1494Under normal operation, memory operation reordering is generally not going to
1495be a problem as a single-threaded linear piece of code will still appear to
1496work correctly, even if it's in an SMP kernel. There are, however, four
1497circumstances in which reordering definitely _could_ be a problem:
1498
1499 (*) Interprocessor interaction.
1500
1501 (*) Atomic operations.
1502
1503 (*) Accessing devices.
1504
1505 (*) Interrupts.
1506
1507
1508INTERPROCESSOR INTERACTION
1509--------------------------
1510
1511When there's a system with more than one processor, more than one CPU in the
1512system may be working on the same data set at the same time. This can cause
1513synchronisation problems, and the usual way of dealing with them is to use
1514locks. Locks, however, are quite expensive, and so it may be preferable to
1515operate without the use of a lock if at all possible. In such a case
1516operations that affect both CPUs may have to be carefully ordered to prevent
1517a malfunction.
1518
1519Consider, for example, the R/W semaphore slow path. Here a waiting process is
1520queued on the semaphore, by virtue of it having a piece of its stack linked to
1521the semaphore's list of waiting processes:
1522
1523    struct rw_semaphore {
1524        ...
1525        spinlock_t lock;
1526        struct list_head waiters;
1527    };
1528
1529    struct rwsem_waiter {
1530        struct list_head list;
1531        struct task_struct *task;
1532    };
1533
1534To wake up a particular waiter, the up_read() or up_write() functions have to:
1535
1536 (1) read the next pointer from this waiter's record to know as to where the
1537     next waiter record is;
1538
1539 (2) read the pointer to the waiter's task structure;
1540
1541 (3) clear the task pointer to tell the waiter it has been given the semaphore;
1542
1543 (4) call wake_up_process() on the task; and
1544
1545 (5) release the reference held on the waiter's task struct.
1546
1547In other words, it has to perform this sequence of events:
1548
1549    LOAD waiter->list.next;
1550    LOAD waiter->task;
1551    STORE waiter->task;
1552    CALL wakeup
1553    RELEASE task
1554
1555and if any of these steps occur out of order, then the whole thing may
1556malfunction.
1557
1558Once it has queued itself and dropped the semaphore lock, the waiter does not
1559get the lock again; it instead just waits for its task pointer to be cleared
1560before proceeding. Since the record is on the waiter's stack, this means that
1561if the task pointer is cleared _before_ the next pointer in the list is read,
1562another CPU might start processing the waiter and might clobber the waiter's
1563stack before the up*() function has a chance to read the next pointer.
1564
1565Consider then what might happen to the above sequence of events:
1566
1567    CPU 1 CPU 2
1568    =============================== ===============================
1569                    down_xxx()
1570                    Queue waiter
1571                    Sleep
1572    up_yyy()
1573    LOAD waiter->task;
1574    STORE waiter->task;
1575                    Woken up by other event
1576    <preempt>
1577                    Resume processing
1578                    down_xxx() returns
1579                    call foo()
1580                    foo() clobbers *waiter
1581    </preempt>
1582    LOAD waiter->list.next;
1583    --- OOPS ---
1584
1585This could be dealt with using the semaphore lock, but then the down_xxx()
1586function has to needlessly get the spinlock again after being woken up.
1587
1588The way to deal with this is to insert a general SMP memory barrier:
1589
1590    LOAD waiter->list.next;
1591    LOAD waiter->task;
1592    smp_mb();
1593    STORE waiter->task;
1594    CALL wakeup
1595    RELEASE task
1596
1597In this case, the barrier makes a guarantee that all memory accesses before the
1598barrier will appear to happen before all the memory accesses after the barrier
1599with respect to the other CPUs on the system. It does _not_ guarantee that all
1600the memory accesses before the barrier will be complete by the time the barrier
1601instruction itself is complete.
1602
1603On a UP system - where this wouldn't be a problem - the smp_mb() is just a
1604compiler barrier, thus making sure the compiler emits the instructions in the
1605right order without actually intervening in the CPU. Since there's only one
1606CPU, that CPU's dependency ordering logic will take care of everything else.
1607
1608
1609ATOMIC OPERATIONS
1610-----------------
1611
1612Whilst they are technically interprocessor interaction considerations, atomic
1613operations are noted specially as some of them imply full memory barriers and
1614some don't, but they're very heavily relied on as a group throughout the
1615kernel.
1616
1617Any atomic operation that modifies some state in memory and returns information
1618about the state (old or new) implies an SMP-conditional general memory barrier
1619(smp_mb()) on each side of the actual operation (with the exception of
1620explicit lock operations, described later). These include:
1621
1622    xchg();
1623    cmpxchg();
1624    atomic_cmpxchg();
1625    atomic_inc_return();
1626    atomic_dec_return();
1627    atomic_add_return();
1628    atomic_sub_return();
1629    atomic_inc_and_test();
1630    atomic_dec_and_test();
1631    atomic_sub_and_test();
1632    atomic_add_negative();
1633    atomic_add_unless(); /* when succeeds (returns 1) */
1634    test_and_set_bit();
1635    test_and_clear_bit();
1636    test_and_change_bit();
1637
1638These are used for such things as implementing LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class
1639operations and adjusting reference counters towards object destruction, and as
1640such the implicit memory barrier effects are necessary.
1641
1642
1643The following operations are potential problems as they do _not_ imply memory
1644barriers, but might be used for implementing such things as UNLOCK-class
1645operations:
1646
1647    atomic_set();
1648    set_bit();
1649    clear_bit();
1650    change_bit();
1651
1652With these the appropriate explicit memory barrier should be used if necessary
1653(smp_mb__before_clear_bit() for instance).
1654
1655
1656The following also do _not_ imply memory barriers, and so may require explicit
1657memory barriers under some circumstances (smp_mb__before_atomic_dec() for
1658instance):
1659
1660    atomic_add();
1661    atomic_sub();
1662    atomic_inc();
1663    atomic_dec();
1664
1665If they're used for statistics generation, then they probably don't need memory
1666barriers, unless there's a coupling between statistical data.
1667
1668If they're used for reference counting on an object to control its lifetime,
1669they probably don't need memory barriers because either the reference count
1670will be adjusted inside a locked section, or the caller will already hold
1671sufficient references to make the lock, and thus a memory barrier unnecessary.
1672
1673If they're used for constructing a lock of some description, then they probably
1674do need memory barriers as a lock primitive generally has to do things in a
1675specific order.
1676
1677Basically, each usage case has to be carefully considered as to whether memory
1678barriers are needed or not.
1679
1680The following operations are special locking primitives:
1681
1682    test_and_set_bit_lock();
1683    clear_bit_unlock();
1684    __clear_bit_unlock();
1685
1686These implement LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class operations. These should be used in
1687preference to other operations when implementing locking primitives, because
1688their implementations can be optimised on many architectures.
1689
1690[!] Note that special memory barrier primitives are available for these
1691situations because on some CPUs the atomic instructions used imply full memory
1692barriers, and so barrier instructions are superfluous in conjunction with them,
1693and in such cases the special barrier primitives will be no-ops.
1694
1695See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information.
1696
1697
1698ACCESSING DEVICES
1699-----------------
1700
1701Many devices can be memory mapped, and so appear to the CPU as if they're just
1702a set of memory locations. To control such a device, the driver usually has to
1703make the right memory accesses in exactly the right order.
1704
1705However, having a clever CPU or a clever compiler creates a potential problem
1706in that the carefully sequenced accesses in the driver code won't reach the
1707device in the requisite order if the CPU or the compiler thinks it is more
1708efficient to reorder, combine or merge accesses - something that would cause
1709the device to malfunction.
1710
1711Inside of the Linux kernel, I/O should be done through the appropriate accessor
1712routines - such as inb() or writel() - which know how to make such accesses
1713appropriately sequential. Whilst this, for the most part, renders the explicit
1714use of memory barriers unnecessary, there are a couple of situations where they
1715might be needed:
1716
1717 (1) On some systems, I/O stores are not strongly ordered across all CPUs, and
1718     so for _all_ general drivers locks should be used and mmiowb() must be
1719     issued prior to unlocking the critical section.
1720
1721 (2) If the accessor functions are used to refer to an I/O memory window with
1722     relaxed memory access properties, then _mandatory_ memory barriers are
1723     required to enforce ordering.
1724
1725See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1726
1727
1728INTERRUPTS
1729----------
1730
1731A driver may be interrupted by its own interrupt service routine, and thus the
1732two parts of the driver may interfere with each other's attempts to control or
1733access the device.
1734
1735This may be alleviated - at least in part - by disabling local interrupts (a
1736form of locking), such that the critical operations are all contained within
1737the interrupt-disabled section in the driver. Whilst the driver's interrupt
1738routine is executing, the driver's core may not run on the same CPU, and its
1739interrupt is not permitted to happen again until the current interrupt has been
1740handled, thus the interrupt handler does not need to lock against that.
1741
1742However, consider a driver that was talking to an ethernet card that sports an
1743address register and a data register. If that driver's core talks to the card
1744under interrupt-disablement and then the driver's interrupt handler is invoked:
1745
1746    LOCAL IRQ DISABLE
1747    writew(ADDR, 3);
1748    writew(DATA, y);
1749    LOCAL IRQ ENABLE
1750    <interrupt>
1751    writew(ADDR, 4);
1752    q = readw(DATA);
1753    </interrupt>
1754
1755The store to the data register might happen after the second store to the
1756address register if ordering rules are sufficiently relaxed:
1757
1758    STORE *ADDR = 3, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = y, q = LOAD *DATA
1759
1760
1761If ordering rules are relaxed, it must be assumed that accesses done inside an
1762interrupt disabled section may leak outside of it and may interleave with
1763accesses performed in an interrupt - and vice versa - unless implicit or
1764explicit barriers are used.
1765
1766Normally this won't be a problem because the I/O accesses done inside such
1767sections will include synchronous load operations on strictly ordered I/O
1768registers that form implicit I/O barriers. If this isn't sufficient then an
1769mmiowb() may need to be used explicitly.
1770
1771
1772A similar situation may occur between an interrupt routine and two routines
1773running on separate CPUs that communicate with each other. If such a case is
1774likely, then interrupt-disabling locks should be used to guarantee ordering.
1775
1776
1777==========================
1778KERNEL I/O BARRIER EFFECTS
1779==========================
1780
1781When accessing I/O memory, drivers should use the appropriate accessor
1782functions:
1783
1784 (*) inX(), outX():
1785
1786     These are intended to talk to I/O space rather than memory space, but
1787     that's primarily a CPU-specific concept. The i386 and x86_64 processors do
1788     indeed have special I/O space access cycles and instructions, but many
1789     CPUs don't have such a concept.
1790
1791     The PCI bus, amongst others, defines an I/O space concept which - on such
1792     CPUs as i386 and x86_64 - readily maps to the CPU's concept of I/O
1793     space. However, it may also be mapped as a virtual I/O space in the CPU's
1794     memory map, particularly on those CPUs that don't support alternate I/O
1795     spaces.
1796
1797     Accesses to this space may be fully synchronous (as on i386), but
1798     intermediary bridges (such as the PCI host bridge) may not fully honour
1799     that.
1800
1801     They are guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to each other.
1802
1803     They are not guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to other types of
1804     memory and I/O operation.
1805
1806 (*) readX(), writeX():
1807
1808     Whether these are guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined with
1809     respect to each other on the issuing CPU depends on the characteristics
1810     defined for the memory window through which they're accessing. On later
1811     i386 architecture machines, for example, this is controlled by way of the
1812     MTRR registers.
1813
1814     Ordinarily, these will be guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined,
1815     provided they're not accessing a prefetchable device.
1816
1817     However, intermediary hardware (such as a PCI bridge) may indulge in
1818     deferral if it so wishes; to flush a store, a load from the same location
1819     is preferred[*], but a load from the same device or from configuration
1820     space should suffice for PCI.
1821
1822     [*] NOTE! attempting to load from the same location as was written to may
1823          cause a malfunction - consider the 16550 Rx/Tx serial registers for
1824          example.
1825
1826     Used with prefetchable I/O memory, an mmiowb() barrier may be required to
1827     force stores to be ordered.
1828
1829     Please refer to the PCI specification for more information on interactions
1830     between PCI transactions.
1831
1832 (*) readX_relaxed()
1833
1834     These are similar to readX(), but are not guaranteed to be ordered in any
1835     way. Be aware that there is no I/O read barrier available.
1836
1837 (*) ioreadX(), iowriteX()
1838
1839     These will perform appropriately for the type of access they're actually
1840     doing, be it inX()/outX() or readX()/writeX().
1841
1842
1843========================================
1844ASSUMED MINIMUM EXECUTION ORDERING MODEL
1845========================================
1846
1847It has to be assumed that the conceptual CPU is weakly-ordered but that it will
1848maintain the appearance of program causality with respect to itself. Some CPUs
1849(such as i386 or x86_64) are more constrained than others (such as powerpc or
1850frv), and so the most relaxed case (namely DEC Alpha) must be assumed outside
1851of arch-specific code.
1852
1853This means that it must be considered that the CPU will execute its instruction
1854stream in any order it feels like - or even in parallel - provided that if an
1855instruction in the stream depends on an earlier instruction, then that
1856earlier instruction must be sufficiently complete[*] before the later
1857instruction may proceed; in other words: provided that the appearance of
1858causality is maintained.
1859
1860 [*] Some instructions have more than one effect - such as changing the
1861     condition codes, changing registers or changing memory - and different
1862     instructions may depend on different effects.
1863
1864A CPU may also discard any instruction sequence that winds up having no
1865ultimate effect. For example, if two adjacent instructions both load an
1866immediate value into the same register, the first may be discarded.
1867
1868
1869Similarly, it has to be assumed that compiler might reorder the instruction
1870stream in any way it sees fit, again provided the appearance of causality is
1871maintained.
1872
1873
1874============================
1875THE EFFECTS OF THE CPU CACHE
1876============================
1877
1878The way cached memory operations are perceived across the system is affected to
1879a certain extent by the caches that lie between CPUs and memory, and by the
1880memory coherence system that maintains the consistency of state in the system.
1881
1882As far as the way a CPU interacts with another part of the system through the
1883caches goes, the memory system has to include the CPU's caches, and memory
1884barriers for the most part act at the interface between the CPU and its cache
1885(memory barriers logically act on the dotted line in the following diagram):
1886
1887        <--- CPU ---> : <----------- Memory ----------->
1888                              :
1889    +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1890    | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1891    | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | | | |
1892    | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1893    | | | Queue | : | | | |--->| Memory |
1894    | | | | : | | | | | |
1895    +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1896                              : | Cache | +--------+
1897                              : | Coherency |
1898                              : | Mechanism | +--------+
1899    +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1900    | | | | : | | | | | |
1901    | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | |--->| Device |
1902    | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1903    | | | Queue | : | | | | | |
1904    | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1905    +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1906                              :
1907                              :
1908
1909Although any particular load or store may not actually appear outside of the
1910CPU that issued it since it may have been satisfied within the CPU's own cache,
1911it will still appear as if the full memory access had taken place as far as the
1912other CPUs are concerned since the cache coherency mechanisms will migrate the
1913cacheline over to the accessing CPU and propagate the effects upon conflict.
1914
1915The CPU core may execute instructions in any order it deems fit, provided the
1916expected program causality appears to be maintained. Some of the instructions
1917generate load and store operations which then go into the queue of memory
1918accesses to be performed. The core may place these in the queue in any order
1919it wishes, and continue execution until it is forced to wait for an instruction
1920to complete.
1921
1922What memory barriers are concerned with is controlling the order in which
1923accesses cross from the CPU side of things to the memory side of things, and
1924the order in which the effects are perceived to happen by the other observers
1925in the system.
1926
1927[!] Memory barriers are _not_ needed within a given CPU, as CPUs always see
1928their own loads and stores as if they had happened in program order.
1929
1930[!] MMIO or other device accesses may bypass the cache system. This depends on
1931the properties of the memory window through which devices are accessed and/or
1932the use of any special device communication instructions the CPU may have.
1933
1934
1935CACHE COHERENCY
1936---------------
1937
1938Life isn't quite as simple as it may appear above, however: for while the
1939caches are expected to be coherent, there's no guarantee that that coherency
1940will be ordered. This means that whilst changes made on one CPU will
1941eventually become visible on all CPUs, there's no guarantee that they will
1942become apparent in the same order on those other CPUs.
1943
1944
1945Consider dealing with a system that has a pair of CPUs (1 & 2), each of which
1946has a pair of parallel data caches (CPU 1 has A/B, and CPU 2 has C/D):
1947
1948                :
1949                : +--------+
1950                : +---------+ | |
1951    +--------+ : +--->| Cache A |<------->| |
1952    | | : | +---------+ | |
1953    | CPU 1 |<---+ | |
1954    | | : | +---------+ | |
1955    +--------+ : +--->| Cache B |<------->| |
1956                : +---------+ | |
1957                : | Memory |
1958                : +---------+ | System |
1959    +--------+ : +--->| Cache C |<------->| |
1960    | | : | +---------+ | |
1961    | CPU 2 |<---+ | |
1962    | | : | +---------+ | |
1963    +--------+ : +--->| Cache D |<------->| |
1964                : +---------+ | |
1965                : +--------+
1966                :
1967
1968Imagine the system has the following properties:
1969
1970 (*) an odd-numbered cache line may be in cache A, cache C or it may still be
1971     resident in memory;
1972
1973 (*) an even-numbered cache line may be in cache B, cache D or it may still be
1974     resident in memory;
1975
1976 (*) whilst the CPU core is interrogating one cache, the other cache may be
1977     making use of the bus to access the rest of the system - perhaps to
1978     displace a dirty cacheline or to do a speculative load;
1979
1980 (*) each cache has a queue of operations that need to be applied to that cache
1981     to maintain coherency with the rest of the system;
1982
1983 (*) the coherency queue is not flushed by normal loads to lines already
1984     present in the cache, even though the contents of the queue may
1985     potentially affect those loads.
1986
1987Imagine, then, that two writes are made on the first CPU, with a write barrier
1988between them to guarantee that they will appear to reach that CPU's caches in
1989the requisite order:
1990
1991    CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
1992    =============== =============== =======================================
1993                    u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
1994    v = 2;
1995    smp_wmb(); Make sure change to v is visible before
1996                     change to p
1997    <A:modify v=2> v is now in cache A exclusively
1998    p = &v;
1999    <B:modify p=&v> p is now in cache B exclusively
2000
2001The write memory barrier forces the other CPUs in the system to perceive that
2002the local CPU's caches have apparently been updated in the correct order. But
2003now imagine that the second CPU wants to read those values:
2004
2005    CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2006    =============== =============== =======================================
2007    ...
2008            q = p;
2009            x = *q;
2010
2011The above pair of reads may then fail to happen in the expected order, as the
2012cacheline holding p may get updated in one of the second CPU's caches whilst
2013the update to the cacheline holding v is delayed in the other of the second
2014CPU's caches by some other cache event:
2015
2016    CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2017    =============== =============== =======================================
2018                    u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2019    v = 2;
2020    smp_wmb();
2021    <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2022            <C:queue v=2>
2023    p = &v; q = p;
2024            <D:request p>
2025    <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2026              <D:read p>
2027            x = *q;
2028            <C:read *q> Reads from v before v updated in cache
2029            <C:unbusy>
2030            <C:commit v=2>
2031
2032Basically, whilst both cachelines will be updated on CPU 2 eventually, there's
2033no guarantee that, without intervention, the order of update will be the same
2034as that committed on CPU 1.
2035
2036
2037To intervene, we need to interpolate a data dependency barrier or a read
2038barrier between the loads. This will force the cache to commit its coherency
2039queue before processing any further requests:
2040
2041    CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2042    =============== =============== =======================================
2043                    u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2044    v = 2;
2045    smp_wmb();
2046    <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2047            <C:queue v=2>
2048    p = &v; q = p;
2049            <D:request p>
2050    <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2051              <D:read p>
2052            smp_read_barrier_depends()
2053            <C:unbusy>
2054            <C:commit v=2>
2055            x = *q;
2056            <C:read *q> Reads from v after v updated in cache
2057
2058
2059This sort of problem can be encountered on DEC Alpha processors as they have a
2060split cache that improves performance by making better use of the data bus.
2061Whilst most CPUs do imply a data dependency barrier on the read when a memory
2062access depends on a read, not all do, so it may not be relied on.
2063
2064Other CPUs may also have split caches, but must coordinate between the various
2065cachelets for normal memory accesses. The semantics of the Alpha removes the
2066need for coordination in the absence of memory barriers.
2067
2068
2069CACHE COHERENCY VS DMA
2070----------------------
2071
2072Not all systems maintain cache coherency with respect to devices doing DMA. In
2073such cases, a device attempting DMA may obtain stale data from RAM because
2074dirty cache lines may be resident in the caches of various CPUs, and may not
2075have been written back to RAM yet. To deal with this, the appropriate part of
2076the kernel must flush the overlapping bits of cache on each CPU (and maybe
2077invalidate them as well).
2078
2079In addition, the data DMA'd to RAM by a device may be overwritten by dirty
2080cache lines being written back to RAM from a CPU's cache after the device has
2081installed its own data, or cache lines present in the CPU's cache may simply
2082obscure the fact that RAM has been updated, until at such time as the cacheline
2083is discarded from the CPU's cache and reloaded. To deal with this, the
2084appropriate part of the kernel must invalidate the overlapping bits of the
2085cache on each CPU.
2086
2087See Documentation/cachetlb.txt for more information on cache management.
2088
2089
2090CACHE COHERENCY VS MMIO
2091-----------------------
2092
2093Memory mapped I/O usually takes place through memory locations that are part of
2094a window in the CPU's memory space that has different properties assigned than
2095the usual RAM directed window.
2096
2097Amongst these properties is usually the fact that such accesses bypass the
2098caching entirely and go directly to the device buses. This means MMIO accesses
2099may, in effect, overtake accesses to cached memory that were emitted earlier.
2100A memory barrier isn't sufficient in such a case, but rather the cache must be
2101flushed between the cached memory write and the MMIO access if the two are in
2102any way dependent.
2103
2104
2105=========================
2106THE THINGS CPUS GET UP TO
2107=========================
2108
2109A programmer might take it for granted that the CPU will perform memory
2110operations in exactly the order specified, so that if the CPU is, for example,
2111given the following piece of code to execute:
2112
2113    a = *A;
2114    *B = b;
2115    c = *C;
2116    d = *D;
2117    *E = e;
2118
2119they would then expect that the CPU will complete the memory operation for each
2120instruction before moving on to the next one, leading to a definite sequence of
2121operations as seen by external observers in the system:
2122
2123    LOAD *A, STORE *B, LOAD *C, LOAD *D, STORE *E.
2124
2125
2126Reality is, of course, much messier. With many CPUs and compilers, the above
2127assumption doesn't hold because:
2128
2129 (*) loads are more likely to need to be completed immediately to permit
2130     execution progress, whereas stores can often be deferred without a
2131     problem;
2132
2133 (*) loads may be done speculatively, and the result discarded should it prove
2134     to have been unnecessary;
2135
2136 (*) loads may be done speculatively, leading to the result having been fetched
2137     at the wrong time in the expected sequence of events;
2138
2139 (*) the order of the memory accesses may be rearranged to promote better use
2140     of the CPU buses and caches;
2141
2142 (*) loads and stores may be combined to improve performance when talking to
2143     memory or I/O hardware that can do batched accesses of adjacent locations,
2144     thus cutting down on transaction setup costs (memory and PCI devices may
2145     both be able to do this); and
2146
2147 (*) the CPU's data cache may affect the ordering, and whilst cache-coherency
2148     mechanisms may alleviate this - once the store has actually hit the cache
2149     - there's no guarantee that the coherency management will be propagated in
2150     order to other CPUs.
2151
2152So what another CPU, say, might actually observe from the above piece of code
2153is:
2154
2155    LOAD *A, ..., LOAD {*C,*D}, STORE *E, STORE *B
2156
2157    (Where "LOAD {*C,*D}" is a combined load)
2158
2159
2160However, it is guaranteed that a CPU will be self-consistent: it will see its
2161_own_ accesses appear to be correctly ordered, without the need for a memory
2162barrier. For instance with the following code:
2163
2164    U = *A;
2165    *A = V;
2166    *A = W;
2167    X = *A;
2168    *A = Y;
2169    Z = *A;
2170
2171and assuming no intervention by an external influence, it can be assumed that
2172the final result will appear to be:
2173
2174    U == the original value of *A
2175    X == W
2176    Z == Y
2177    *A == Y
2178
2179The code above may cause the CPU to generate the full sequence of memory
2180accesses:
2181
2182    U=LOAD *A, STORE *A=V, STORE *A=W, X=LOAD *A, STORE *A=Y, Z=LOAD *A
2183
2184in that order, but, without intervention, the sequence may have almost any
2185combination of elements combined or discarded, provided the program's view of
2186the world remains consistent.
2187
2188The compiler may also combine, discard or defer elements of the sequence before
2189the CPU even sees them.
2190
2191For instance:
2192
2193    *A = V;
2194    *A = W;
2195
2196may be reduced to:
2197
2198    *A = W;
2199
2200since, without a write barrier, it can be assumed that the effect of the
2201storage of V to *A is lost. Similarly:
2202
2203    *A = Y;
2204    Z = *A;
2205
2206may, without a memory barrier, be reduced to:
2207
2208    *A = Y;
2209    Z = Y;
2210
2211and the LOAD operation never appear outside of the CPU.
2212
2213
2214AND THEN THERE'S THE ALPHA
2215--------------------------
2216
2217The DEC Alpha CPU is one of the most relaxed CPUs there is. Not only that,
2218some versions of the Alpha CPU have a split data cache, permitting them to have
2219two semantically-related cache lines updated at separate times. This is where
2220the data dependency barrier really becomes necessary as this synchronises both
2221caches with the memory coherence system, thus making it seem like pointer
2222changes vs new data occur in the right order.
2223
2224The Alpha defines the Linux kernel's memory barrier model.
2225
2226See the subsection on "Cache Coherency" above.
2227
2228
2229==========
2230REFERENCES
2231==========
2232
2233Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual, Second Edition (Sites & Witek,
2234Digital Press)
2235    Chapter 5.2: Physical Address Space Characteristics
2236    Chapter 5.4: Caches and Write Buffers
2237    Chapter 5.5: Data Sharing
2238    Chapter 5.6: Read/Write Ordering
2239
2240AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual Volume 2: System Programming
2241    Chapter 7.1: Memory-Access Ordering
2242    Chapter 7.4: Buffering and Combining Memory Writes
2243
2244IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3:
2245System Programming Guide
2246    Chapter 7.1: Locked Atomic Operations
2247    Chapter 7.2: Memory Ordering
2248    Chapter 7.4: Serializing Instructions
2249
2250The SPARC Architecture Manual, Version 9
2251    Chapter 8: Memory Models
2252    Appendix D: Formal Specification of the Memory Models
2253    Appendix J: Programming with the Memory Models
2254
2255UltraSPARC Programmer Reference Manual
2256    Chapter 5: Memory Accesses and Cacheability
2257    Chapter 15: Sparc-V9 Memory Models
2258
2259UltraSPARC III Cu User's Manual
2260    Chapter 9: Memory Models
2261
2262UltraSPARC IIIi Processor User's Manual
2263    Chapter 8: Memory Models
2264
2265UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2266    Chapter 9: Memory
2267    Appendix D: Formal Specifications of the Memory Models
2268
2269UltraSPARC T1 Supplement to the UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2270    Chapter 8: Memory Models
2271    Appendix F: Caches and Cache Coherency
2272
2273Solaris Internals, Core Kernel Architecture, p63-68:
2274    Chapter 3.3: Hardware Considerations for Locks and
2275            Synchronization
2276
2277Unix Systems for Modern Architectures, Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching
2278for Kernel Programmers:
2279    Chapter 13: Other Memory Models
2280
2281Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual: Volume 1:
2282    Section 2.6: Speculation
2283    Section 4.4: Memory Access
2284

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