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author | Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org> | 2008-04-28 13:52:31 +1000 |
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committer | Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org> | 2008-04-29 15:57:34 +1000 |
commit | 745a14cc264b1832c638e41812e0cb04328b2db1 (patch) | |
tree | 427272e0a4a1f3df96f007b1df53b73d572ec63e /include | |
parent | a01e035ebb552223c03f2d9138ffc73f2d4d3965 (diff) | |
download | op-kernel-dev-745a14cc264b1832c638e41812e0cb04328b2db1.zip op-kernel-dev-745a14cc264b1832c638e41812e0cb04328b2db1.tar.gz |
[POWERPC] Add fast little-endian switch system call
This adds a system call on 64-bit platforms for switching between
little-endian and big-endian modes that is much faster than doing a
prctl call. This system call is handled as a special case right at
the start of the system call entry code, and because it is a special
case, it uses a system call number which is out of the range of
normal system calls, namely 0x1ebe.
Measurements with lmbench on a 4.2GHz POWER6 showed no measurable
change in the speed of normal system calls with this patch.
Switching endianness with this new system call takes around 60ns on a
4.2GHz POWER6, compared with around 300ns to switch endian mode with a
prctl. This can provide a significant performance advantage for
emulators for little-endian architectures that want to switch between
big-endian and little-endian mode frequently, e.g. because they are
generating instructions sequences on the fly and they want to run
those sequences in little-endian mode.
The other thing about this system call is that it doesn't clobber as
many registers as a normal system call. It only clobbers r12.
Signed-off-by: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'include')
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