linux/Documentation/arm/swp_emulation.rst
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   1Software emulation of deprecated SWP instruction (CONFIG_SWP_EMULATE)
   2---------------------------------------------------------------------
   3
   4ARMv6 architecture deprecates use of the SWP/SWPB instructions, and recommeds
   5moving to the load-locked/store-conditional instructions LDREX and STREX.
   6
   7ARMv7 multiprocessing extensions introduce the ability to disable these
   8instructions, triggering an undefined instruction exception when executed.
   9Trapped instructions are emulated using an LDREX/STREX or LDREXB/STREXB
  10sequence. If a memory access fault (an abort) occurs, a segmentation fault is
  11signalled to the triggering process.
  12
  13/proc/cpu/swp_emulation holds some statistics/information, including the PID of
  14the last process to trigger the emulation to be invocated. For example::
  15
  16  Emulated SWP:         12
  17  Emulated SWPB:                0
  18  Aborted SWP{B}:               1
  19  Last process:         314
  20
  21
  22NOTE:
  23  when accessing uncached shared regions, LDREX/STREX rely on an external
  24  transaction monitoring block called a global monitor to maintain update
  25  atomicity. If your system does not implement a global monitor, this option can
  26  cause programs that perform SWP operations to uncached memory to deadlock, as
  27  the STREX operation will always fail.
  28