Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all architectures

[Russell King <rmk+lkml@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 05:05:18PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 21, 2007 at 01:02:01AM +0200, Segher Boessenkool wrote:
> > >>And no, RMW on MMIO isn't "problematic" at all, either.
> > >>
> > >>An RMW op is a read op, a modify op, and a write op, all rolled
> > >>into one opcode.  But three actual operations.
> > >
> > >Maybe for some CPUs, but not all.  ARM for instance can't use the
> > >load exclusive and store exclusive instructions to MMIO space.
> > 
> > Sure, your CPU doesn't have RMW instructions -- how to emulate
> > those if you don't have them is a totally different thing.
> 
> I thought that ARM's load exclusive and store exclusive instructions
> were its equivalent of LL and SC, which RISC machines typically use to
> build atomic sequences of instructions -- and which normally cannot be
> applied to MMIO space.

Absolutely correct.

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of:
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