linux-kernel - Re: Q: smp.c && barriers (Was: [PATCH 1/4] generic-smp: remove single ipi fallback for smp_call_function

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Date:	Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:58:08 +0100
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Suresh Siddha <suresh.b.siddha@...el.com>,
	"Pallipadi, Venkatesh" <venkatesh.pallipadi@...el.com>,
	Yinghai Lu <yinghai@...nel.org>, Nick Piggin <npiggin@...e.de>,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Q: smp.c && barriers (Was: [PATCH 1/4] generic-smp: remove
	single ipi fallback for smp_call_function_many())


* Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Feb 2009, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > 
> > But ... WRMSR should already be serializing - it is documented 
> > as a serializing instruction.
> 
> Hmm. I was thinking about this some more, and I think I've 
> come up with an explanation.
> 
> "wrmsr" probably serializes _after_ doing the write. After 
> all, it's historically used for changing internal CPU state, 
> so you want to do the write, and then wait until the effects 
> of the write are "stable" in the core.
> 
> That would explain how x2apic can use both a serializing 
> instruction (wrmsr) and still effectively cause the IPI to 
> happen out of sequence: the IPI can reach the destination CPU 
> before the source CPU has flushed its store buffers, because 
> the IPI is actually sent before serializing the core.
> 
> But I would very strongly put this in the "x2apic code bug" 
> column. If this is a true issue (and your TLB patch does imply 
> it is), then we should just make sure that the x2apic IPI 
> calls always do a 'sfence' before they happen - regardless of 
> whether they are for TLB flushes or for generic kernel 
> cross-calls, or for anything else.

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. IPIs are an out of band 
signalling mechanism that do not listen to the normal cache 
coherency rules.

Moving the smp_mb() to the x2apic specific code will also speed 
up the normal mmio-mapped IPI sequence a bit. It should be an 
smp_wmb() i suspect - which turns it into an sfence.

	Ingo
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