Re: [PATCH 0/3] 64-bit futexes: Intro

From: Ulrich Drepper
Date: Sat May 31 2008 - 00:38:43 EST


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Linus Torvalds wrote:
> Is it possible? I dunno.

Once again not without limitations which are too low. The main problem
is that there is far more information needed on the reader side. There
are two counters and a number of bits for state information. Which
means the counters can be at most 14 bits in size.

A counter this low also means I cannot unconditionally increment them
(since there can be more than 2^14 threads sharing one page). This
means you get in the cache line race I described in the last mail. You
first have to load a word and then perform a the write operation while
at the same time other threads competing with you for the same cache line.


> I personally suspect it is. I also suspect you
> didn't even try.

I have to disappoint you. I thought of that and had to reject it.

- --
â Ulrich Drepper â Red Hat, Inc. â 444 Castro St â Mountain View, CA â
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