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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/frv/atomic-ops.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/frv/atomic-ops.txt b/Documentation/frv/atomic-ops.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96638e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/frv/atomic-ops.txt @@ -0,0 +1,134 @@ + ===================================== + FUJITSU FR-V KERNEL ATOMIC OPERATIONS + ===================================== + +On the FR-V CPUs, there is only one atomic Read-Modify-Write operation: the SWAP/SWAPI +instruction. Unfortunately, this alone can't be used to implement the following operations: + + (*) Atomic add to memory + + (*) Atomic subtract from memory + + (*) Atomic bit modification (set, clear or invert) + + (*) Atomic compare and exchange + +On such CPUs, the standard way of emulating such operations in uniprocessor mode is to disable +interrupts, but on the FR-V CPUs, modifying the PSR takes a lot of clock cycles, and it has to be +done twice. This means the CPU runs for a relatively long time with interrupts disabled, +potentially having a great effect on interrupt latency. + + +============= +NEW ALGORITHM +============= + +To get around this, the following algorithm has been implemented. It operates in a way similar to +the LL/SC instruction pairs supported on a number of platforms. + + (*) The CCCR.CC3 register is reserved within the kernel to act as an atomic modify abort flag. + + (*) In the exception prologues run on kernel->kernel entry, CCCR.CC3 is set to 0 (Undefined + state). + + (*) All atomic operations can then be broken down into the following algorithm: + + (1) Set ICC3.Z to true and set CC3 to True (ORCC/CKEQ/ORCR). + + (2) Load the value currently in the memory to be modified into a register. + + (3) Make changes to the value. + + (4) If CC3 is still True, simultaneously and atomically (by VLIW packing): + + (a) Store the modified value back to memory. + + (b) Set ICC3.Z to false (CORCC on GR29 is sufficient for this - GR29 holds the current + task pointer in the kernel, and so is guaranteed to be non-zero). + + (5) If ICC3.Z is still true, go back to step (1). + +This works in a non-SMP environment because any interrupt or other exception that happens between +steps (1) and (4) will set CC3 to the Undefined, thus aborting the store in (4a), and causing the +condition in ICC3 to remain with the Z flag set, thus causing step (5) to loop back to step (1). + + +This algorithm suffers from two problems: + + (1) The condition CCCR.CC3 is cleared unconditionally by an exception, irrespective of whether or + not any changes were made to the target memory location during that exception. + + (2) The branch from step (5) back to step (1) may have to happen more than once until the store + manages to take place. In theory, this loop could cycle forever because there are too many + interrupts coming in, but it's unlikely. + + +======= +EXAMPLE +======= + +Taking an example from include/asm-frv/atomic.h: + + static inline int atomic_add_return(int i, atomic_t *v) + { + unsigned long val; + + asm("0: \n" + +It starts by setting ICC3.Z to true for later use, and also transforming that into CC3 being in the +True state. + + " orcc gr0,gr0,gr0,icc3 \n" <-- (1) + " ckeq icc3,cc7 \n" <-- (1) + +Then it does the load. Note that the final phase of step (1) is done at the same time as the +load. The VLIW packing ensures they are done simultaneously. The ".p" on the load must not be +removed without swapping the order of these two instructions. + + " ld.p %M0,%1 \n" <-- (2) + " orcr cc7,cc7,cc3 \n" <-- (1) + +Then the proposed modification is generated. Note that the old value can be retained if required +(such as in test_and_set_bit()). + + " add%I2 %1,%2,%1 \n" <-- (3) + +Then it attempts to store the value back, contingent on no exception having cleared CC3 since it +was set to True. + + " cst.p %1,%M0 ,cc3,#1 \n" <-- (4a) + +It simultaneously records the success or failure of the store in ICC3.Z. + + " corcc gr29,gr29,gr0 ,cc3,#1 \n" <-- (4b) + +Such that the branch can then be taken if the operation was aborted. + + " beq icc3,#0,0b \n" <-- (5) + : "+U"(v->counter), "=&r"(val) + : "NPr"(i) + : "memory", "cc7", "cc3", "icc3" + ); + + return val; + } + + +============= +CONFIGURATION +============= + +The atomic ops implementation can be made inline or out-of-line by changing the +CONFIG_FRV_OUTOFLINE_ATOMIC_OPS configuration variable. Making it out-of-line has a number of +advantages: + + - The resulting kernel image may be smaller + - Debugging is easier as atomic ops can just be stepped over and they can be breakpointed + +Keeping it inline also has a number of advantages: + + - The resulting kernel may be Faster + - no out-of-line function calls need to be made + - the compiler doesn't have half its registers clobbered by making a call + +The out-of-line implementations live in arch/frv/lib/atomic-ops.S. |