linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/2] jump label: 2.6.38 updates

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Date:	Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:20:18 -0600
From:	Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>
To:	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
Cc:	simoneau@....uri.edu, will.newton@...il.com, hpa@...or.com,
	matt@...sole-pimps.org, rostedt@...dmis.org, peterz@...radead.org,
	jbaron@...hat.com, mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca, mingo@...e.hu,
	tglx@...utronix.de, andi@...stfloor.org, roland@...hat.com,
	rth@...hat.com, masami.hiramatsu.pt@...achi.com,
	fweisbec@...il.com, avi@...hat.com, sam@...nborg.org,
	ddaney@...iumnetworks.com, michael@...erman.id.au,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, vapier@...too.org,
	cmetcalf@...era.com, dhowells@...hat.com, schwidefsky@...ibm.com,
	heiko.carstens@...ibm.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/2] jump label: 2.6.38 updates

On Tue, 2011-02-15 at 13:27 -0800, David Miller wrote:
> From: Will Simoneau <simoneau@....uri.edu>
> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:11:23 -0500
> 
> > Note how the cache and cache coherence protocol are fundamental parts of this
> > operation; if these instructions simply bypassed the cache, they *could not*
> > work correctly - how do you detect when the underlying memory has been
> > modified?
> 
> The issue here isn't L2 cache bypassing, it's local L1 cache bypassing.
> 
> The chips in question aparently do not consult the local L1 cache on
> "ll" instructions.
> 
> Therefore you must only ever access such atomic data using "ll"
> instructions.

Note that it's actually a reasonable design choice to not consult the L1
in these case .... as long as you invalidate it on the way. That's how
current powerpcs do it afaik, they send a kill to any matching L1 line
along as reading from the L2. (Of course, L1 has to be write-through for
that to work).

Cheers,
Ben.


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