LXR linux/Documentation/frv/atomic-ops.txt

   1                               =====================================
   2                               FUJITSU FR-V KERNEL ATOMIC OPERATIONS
   3                               =====================================
   4
   5On the FR-V CPUs, there is only one atomic Read-Modify-Write operation: the SWAP/SWAPI
   6instruction. Unfortunately, this alone can't be used to implement the following operations:
   7
   8 (*) Atomic add to memory
   9
  10 (*) Atomic subtract from memory
  11
  12 (*) Atomic bit modification (set, clear or invert)
  13
  14 (*) Atomic compare and exchange
  15
  16On such CPUs, the standard way of emulating such operations in uniprocessor mode is to disable
  17interrupts, but on the FR-V CPUs, modifying the PSR takes a lot of clock cycles, and it has to be
  18done twice. This means the CPU runs for a relatively long time with interrupts disabled,
  19potentially having a great effect on interrupt latency.
  20
  21
  22=============
  23NEW ALGORITHM
  24=============
  25
  26To get around this, the following algorithm has been implemented. It operates in a way similar to
  27the LL/SC instruction pairs supported on a number of platforms.
  28
  29 (*) The CCCR.CC3 register is reserved within the kernel to act as an atomic modify abort flag.
  30
  31 (*) In the exception prologues run on kernel->kernel entry, CCCR.CC3 is set to 0 (Undefined
  32     state).
  33
  34 (*) All atomic operations can then be broken down into the following algorithm:
  35
  36     (1) Set ICC3.Z to true and set CC3 to True (ORCC/CKEQ/ORCR).
  37
  38     (2) Load the value currently in the memory to be modified into a register.
  39
  40     (3) Make changes to the value.
  41
  42     (4) If CC3 is still True, simultaneously and atomically (by VLIW packing):
  43
  44         (a) Store the modified value back to memory.
  45
  46         (b) Set ICC3.Z to false (CORCC on GR29 is sufficient for this - GR29 holds the current
  47             task pointer in the kernel, and so is guaranteed to be non-zero).
  48
  49     (5) If ICC3.Z is still true, go back to step (1).
  50
  51This works in a non-SMP environment because any interrupt or other exception that happens between
  52steps (1) and (4) will set CC3 to the Undefined, thus aborting the store in (4a), and causing the
  53condition in ICC3 to remain with the Z flag set, thus causing step (5) to loop back to step (1).
  54
  55
  56This algorithm suffers from two problems:
  57
  58 (1) The condition CCCR.CC3 is cleared unconditionally by an exception, irrespective of whether or
  59     not any changes were made to the target memory location during that exception.
  60
  61 (2) The branch from step (5) back to step (1) may have to happen more than once until the store
  62     manages to take place. In theory, this loop could cycle forever because there are too many
  63     interrupts coming in, but it's unlikely.
  64
  65
  66=======
  67EXAMPLE
  68=======
  69
  70Taking an example from include/asm-frv/atomic.h:
  71
  72        static inline int atomic_add_return(int i, atomic_t *v)
  73        {
  74                unsigned long val;
  75
  76                asm("0:                                         \n"
  77
  78It starts by setting ICC3.Z to true for later use, and also transforming that into CC3 being in the
  79True state.
  80
  81                    "   orcc            gr0,gr0,gr0,icc3        \n"     <-- (1)
  82                    "   ckeq            icc3,cc7                \n"     <-- (1)
  83
  84Then it does the load. Note that the final phase of step (1) is done at the same time as the
  85load. The VLIW packing ensures they are done simultaneously. The ".p" on the load must not be
  86removed without swapping the order of these two instructions.
  87
  88                    "   ld.p            %M0,%1                  \n"     <-- (2)
  89                    "   orcr            cc7,cc7,cc3             \n"     <-- (1)
  90
  91Then the proposed modification is generated. Note that the old value can be retained if required
  92(such as in test_and_set_bit()).
  93
  94                    "   add%I2          %1,%2,%1                \n"     <-- (3)
  95
  96Then it attempts to store the value back, contingent on no exception having cleared CC3 since it
  97was set to True.
  98
  99                    "   cst.p           %1,%M0          ,cc3,#1 \n"     <-- (4a)
 100
 101It simultaneously records the success or failure of the store in ICC3.Z.
 102
 103                    "   corcc           gr29,gr29,gr0   ,cc3,#1 \n"     <-- (4b)
 104
 105Such that the branch can then be taken if the operation was aborted.
 106
 107                    "   beq             icc3,#0,0b              \n"     <-- (5)
 108                    : "+U"(v->counter), "=&r"(val)
 109                    : "NPr"(i)
 110                    : "memory", "cc7", "cc3", "icc3"
 111                    );
 112
 113                return val;
 114        }
 115
 116
 117=============
 118CONFIGURATION
 119=============
 120
 121The atomic ops implementation can be made inline or out-of-line by changing the
 122CONFIG_FRV_OUTOFLINE_ATOMIC_OPS configuration variable. Making it out-of-line has a number of
 123advantages:
 124
 125 - The resulting kernel image may be smaller
 126 - Debugging is easier as atomic ops can just be stepped over and they can be breakpointed
 127
 128Keeping it inline also has a number of advantages:
 129
 130 - The resulting kernel may be Faster
 131   - no out-of-line function calls need to be made
 132   - the compiler doesn't have half its registers clobbered by making a call
 133
 134The out-of-line implementations live in arch/frv/lib/atomic-ops.S.
 135