Re: [PATCH v2] arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h: redefine rmb and wmb to lwsync

From: Kautuk Consul
Date: Wed Feb 22 2023 - 23:02:20 EST


On 2023-02-22 09:47:19, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 02:33:44PM +0530, Kautuk Consul wrote:
> > A link from ibm.com states:
> > "Ensures that all instructions preceding the call to __lwsync
> > complete before any subsequent store instructions can be executed
> > on the processor that executed the function. Also, it ensures that
> > all load instructions preceding the call to __lwsync complete before
> > any subsequent load instructions can be executed on the processor
> > that executed the function. This allows you to synchronize between
> > multiple processors with minimal performance impact, as __lwsync
> > does not wait for confirmation from each processor."
> >
> > Thats why smp_rmb() and smp_wmb() are defined to lwsync.
> > But this same understanding applies to parallel pipeline
> > execution on each PowerPC processor.
> > So, use the lwsync instruction for rmb() and wmb() on the PPC
> > architectures that support it.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Kautuk Consul <kconsul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> > arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h | 7 +++++++
> > 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h
> > index b95b666f0374..e088dacc0ee8 100644
> > --- a/arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h
> > +++ b/arch/powerpc/include/asm/barrier.h
> > @@ -36,8 +36,15 @@
> > * heavy-weight sync, so smp_wmb() can be a lighter-weight eieio.
> > */
> > #define __mb() __asm__ __volatile__ ("sync" : : : "memory")
> > +
> > +/* The sub-arch has lwsync. */
> > +#if defined(CONFIG_PPC64) || defined(CONFIG_PPC_E500MC)
> > +#define __rmb() __asm__ __volatile__ ("lwsync" : : : "memory")
> > +#define __wmb() __asm__ __volatile__ ("lwsync" : : : "memory")
>
> Hmmm...
>
> Does the lwsync instruction now order both cached and uncached accesses?
> Or have there been changes so that smp_rmb() and smp_wmb() get this
> definition, while rmb() and wmb() still get the sync instruction?
> (Not seeing this, but I could easily be missing something.)
>
> Thanx, Paul
Upfront I don't see any documentation that states that lwsync
distinguishes between cached and uncached accesses.
That's why I requested the mailing list for test results with
kernel load testing.
>
> > +#else
> > #define __rmb() __asm__ __volatile__ ("sync" : : : "memory")
> > #define __wmb() __asm__ __volatile__ ("sync" : : : "memory")
> > +#endif
> >
> > /* The sub-arch has lwsync */
> > #if defined(CONFIG_PPC64) || defined(CONFIG_PPC_E500MC)
> > --
> > 2.31.1
> >