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David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001 ============================
2 LINUX KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
3 ============================
4
5By: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
David Howells90fddab2010-03-24 09:43:00 +00006 Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01007
8Contents:
9
10 (*) Abstract memory access model.
11
12 - Device operations.
13 - Guarantees.
14
15 (*) What are memory barriers?
16
17 - Varieties of memory barrier.
18 - What may not be assumed about memory barriers?
19 - Data dependency barriers.
20 - Control dependencies.
21 - SMP barrier pairing.
22 - Examples of memory barrier sequences.
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -070023 - Read memory barriers vs load speculation.
Paul E. McKenney241e6662011-02-10 16:54:50 -080024 - Transitivity
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +010025
26 (*) Explicit kernel barriers.
27
28 - Compiler barrier.
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -070029 - CPU memory barriers.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +010030 - MMIO write barrier.
31
32 (*) Implicit kernel memory barriers.
33
34 - Locking functions.
35 - Interrupt disabling functions.
David Howells50fa6102009-04-28 15:01:38 +010036 - Sleep and wake-up functions.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +010037 - Miscellaneous functions.
38
39 (*) Inter-CPU locking barrier effects.
40
41 - Locks vs memory accesses.
42 - Locks vs I/O accesses.
43
44 (*) Where are memory barriers needed?
45
46 - Interprocessor interaction.
47 - Atomic operations.
48 - Accessing devices.
49 - Interrupts.
50
51 (*) Kernel I/O barrier effects.
52
53 (*) Assumed minimum execution ordering model.
54
55 (*) The effects of the cpu cache.
56
57 - Cache coherency.
58 - Cache coherency vs DMA.
59 - Cache coherency vs MMIO.
60
61 (*) The things CPUs get up to.
62
63 - And then there's the Alpha.
64
David Howells90fddab2010-03-24 09:43:00 +000065 (*) Example uses.
66
67 - Circular buffers.
68
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +010069 (*) References.
70
71
72============================
73ABSTRACT MEMORY ACCESS MODEL
74============================
75
76Consider the following abstract model of the system:
77
78 : :
79 : :
80 : :
81 +-------+ : +--------+ : +-------+
82 | | : | | : | |
83 | | : | | : | |
84 | CPU 1 |<----->| Memory |<----->| CPU 2 |
85 | | : | | : | |
86 | | : | | : | |
87 +-------+ : +--------+ : +-------+
88 ^ : ^ : ^
89 | : | : |
90 | : | : |
91 | : v : |
92 | : +--------+ : |
93 | : | | : |
94 | : | | : |
95 +---------->| Device |<----------+
96 : | | :
97 : | | :
98 : +--------+ :
99 : :
100
101Each CPU executes a program that generates memory access operations. In the
102abstract CPU, memory operation ordering is very relaxed, and a CPU may actually
103perform the memory operations in any order it likes, provided program causality
104appears to be maintained. Similarly, the compiler may also arrange the
105instructions it emits in any order it likes, provided it doesn't affect the
106apparent operation of the program.
107
108So in the above diagram, the effects of the memory operations performed by a
109CPU are perceived by the rest of the system as the operations cross the
110interface between the CPU and rest of the system (the dotted lines).
111
112
113For example, consider the following sequence of events:
114
115 CPU 1 CPU 2
116 =============== ===============
117 { A == 1; B == 2 }
118 A = 3; x = A;
119 B = 4; y = B;
120
121The set of accesses as seen by the memory system in the middle can be arranged
122in 24 different combinations:
123
124 STORE A=3, STORE B=4, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->4
125 STORE A=3, STORE B=4, y=LOAD B->4, x=LOAD A->3
126 STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, STORE B=4, y=LOAD B->4
127 STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->2, STORE B=4
128 STORE A=3, y=LOAD B->2, STORE B=4, x=LOAD A->3
129 STORE A=3, y=LOAD B->2, x=LOAD A->3, STORE B=4
130 STORE B=4, STORE A=3, x=LOAD A->3, y=LOAD B->4
131 STORE B=4, ...
132 ...
133
134and can thus result in four different combinations of values:
135
136 x == 1, y == 2
137 x == 1, y == 4
138 x == 3, y == 2
139 x == 3, y == 4
140
141
142Furthermore, the stores committed by a CPU to the memory system may not be
143perceived by the loads made by another CPU in the same order as the stores were
144committed.
145
146
147As a further example, consider this sequence of events:
148
149 CPU 1 CPU 2
150 =============== ===============
151 { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
152 B = 4; Q = P;
153 P = &B D = *Q;
154
155There is an obvious data dependency here, as the value loaded into D depends on
156the address retrieved from P by CPU 2. At the end of the sequence, any of the
157following results are possible:
158
159 (Q == &A) and (D == 1)
160 (Q == &B) and (D == 2)
161 (Q == &B) and (D == 4)
162
163Note that CPU 2 will never try and load C into D because the CPU will load P
164into Q before issuing the load of *Q.
165
166
167DEVICE OPERATIONS
168-----------------
169
170Some devices present their control interfaces as collections of memory
171locations, but the order in which the control registers are accessed is very
172important. For instance, imagine an ethernet card with a set of internal
173registers that are accessed through an address port register (A) and a data
174port register (D). To read internal register 5, the following code might then
175be used:
176
177 *A = 5;
178 x = *D;
179
180but this might show up as either of the following two sequences:
181
182 STORE *A = 5, x = LOAD *D
183 x = LOAD *D, STORE *A = 5
184
185the second of which will almost certainly result in a malfunction, since it set
186the address _after_ attempting to read the register.
187
188
189GUARANTEES
190----------
191
192There are some minimal guarantees that may be expected of a CPU:
193
194 (*) On any given CPU, dependent memory accesses will be issued in order, with
195 respect to itself. This means that for:
196
197 Q = P; D = *Q;
198
199 the CPU will issue the following memory operations:
200
201 Q = LOAD P, D = LOAD *Q
202
203 and always in that order.
204
205 (*) Overlapping loads and stores within a particular CPU will appear to be
206 ordered within that CPU. This means that for:
207
208 a = *X; *X = b;
209
210 the CPU will only issue the following sequence of memory operations:
211
212 a = LOAD *X, STORE *X = b
213
214 And for:
215
216 *X = c; d = *X;
217
218 the CPU will only issue:
219
220 STORE *X = c, d = LOAD *X
221
Matt LaPlantefa00e7e2006-11-30 04:55:36 +0100222 (Loads and stores overlap if they are targeted at overlapping pieces of
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100223 memory).
224
225And there are a number of things that _must_ or _must_not_ be assumed:
226
227 (*) It _must_not_ be assumed that independent loads and stores will be issued
228 in the order given. This means that for:
229
230 X = *A; Y = *B; *D = Z;
231
232 we may get any of the following sequences:
233
234 X = LOAD *A, Y = LOAD *B, STORE *D = Z
235 X = LOAD *A, STORE *D = Z, Y = LOAD *B
236 Y = LOAD *B, X = LOAD *A, STORE *D = Z
237 Y = LOAD *B, STORE *D = Z, X = LOAD *A
238 STORE *D = Z, X = LOAD *A, Y = LOAD *B
239 STORE *D = Z, Y = LOAD *B, X = LOAD *A
240
241 (*) It _must_ be assumed that overlapping memory accesses may be merged or
242 discarded. This means that for:
243
244 X = *A; Y = *(A + 4);
245
246 we may get any one of the following sequences:
247
248 X = LOAD *A; Y = LOAD *(A + 4);
249 Y = LOAD *(A + 4); X = LOAD *A;
250 {X, Y} = LOAD {*A, *(A + 4) };
251
252 And for:
253
Paul E. McKenneyf191eec2012-10-03 10:28:30 -0700254 *A = X; *(A + 4) = Y;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100255
Paul E. McKenneyf191eec2012-10-03 10:28:30 -0700256 we may get any of:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100257
Paul E. McKenneyf191eec2012-10-03 10:28:30 -0700258 STORE *A = X; STORE *(A + 4) = Y;
259 STORE *(A + 4) = Y; STORE *A = X;
260 STORE {*A, *(A + 4) } = {X, Y};
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100261
262
263=========================
264WHAT ARE MEMORY BARRIERS?
265=========================
266
267As can be seen above, independent memory operations are effectively performed
268in random order, but this can be a problem for CPU-CPU interaction and for I/O.
269What is required is some way of intervening to instruct the compiler and the
270CPU to restrict the order.
271
272Memory barriers are such interventions. They impose a perceived partial
David Howells2b948952006-06-25 05:48:49 -0700273ordering over the memory operations on either side of the barrier.
274
275Such enforcement is important because the CPUs and other devices in a system
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700276can use a variety of tricks to improve performance, including reordering,
David Howells2b948952006-06-25 05:48:49 -0700277deferral and combination of memory operations; speculative loads; speculative
278branch prediction and various types of caching. Memory barriers are used to
279override or suppress these tricks, allowing the code to sanely control the
280interaction of multiple CPUs and/or devices.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100281
282
283VARIETIES OF MEMORY BARRIER
284---------------------------
285
286Memory barriers come in four basic varieties:
287
288 (1) Write (or store) memory barriers.
289
290 A write memory barrier gives a guarantee that all the STORE operations
291 specified before the barrier will appear to happen before all the STORE
292 operations specified after the barrier with respect to the other
293 components of the system.
294
295 A write barrier is a partial ordering on stores only; it is not required
296 to have any effect on loads.
297
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -0700298 A CPU can be viewed as committing a sequence of store operations to the
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100299 memory system as time progresses. All stores before a write barrier will
300 occur in the sequence _before_ all the stores after the write barrier.
301
302 [!] Note that write barriers should normally be paired with read or data
303 dependency barriers; see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
304
305
306 (2) Data dependency barriers.
307
308 A data dependency barrier is a weaker form of read barrier. In the case
309 where two loads are performed such that the second depends on the result
310 of the first (eg: the first load retrieves the address to which the second
311 load will be directed), a data dependency barrier would be required to
312 make sure that the target of the second load is updated before the address
313 obtained by the first load is accessed.
314
315 A data dependency barrier is a partial ordering on interdependent loads
316 only; it is not required to have any effect on stores, independent loads
317 or overlapping loads.
318
319 As mentioned in (1), the other CPUs in the system can be viewed as
320 committing sequences of stores to the memory system that the CPU being
321 considered can then perceive. A data dependency barrier issued by the CPU
322 under consideration guarantees that for any load preceding it, if that
323 load touches one of a sequence of stores from another CPU, then by the
324 time the barrier completes, the effects of all the stores prior to that
325 touched by the load will be perceptible to any loads issued after the data
326 dependency barrier.
327
328 See the "Examples of memory barrier sequences" subsection for diagrams
329 showing the ordering constraints.
330
331 [!] Note that the first load really has to have a _data_ dependency and
332 not a control dependency. If the address for the second load is dependent
333 on the first load, but the dependency is through a conditional rather than
334 actually loading the address itself, then it's a _control_ dependency and
335 a full read barrier or better is required. See the "Control dependencies"
336 subsection for more information.
337
338 [!] Note that data dependency barriers should normally be paired with
339 write barriers; see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
340
341
342 (3) Read (or load) memory barriers.
343
344 A read barrier is a data dependency barrier plus a guarantee that all the
345 LOAD operations specified before the barrier will appear to happen before
346 all the LOAD operations specified after the barrier with respect to the
347 other components of the system.
348
349 A read barrier is a partial ordering on loads only; it is not required to
350 have any effect on stores.
351
352 Read memory barriers imply data dependency barriers, and so can substitute
353 for them.
354
355 [!] Note that read barriers should normally be paired with write barriers;
356 see the "SMP barrier pairing" subsection.
357
358
359 (4) General memory barriers.
360
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700361 A general memory barrier gives a guarantee that all the LOAD and STORE
362 operations specified before the barrier will appear to happen before all
363 the LOAD and STORE operations specified after the barrier with respect to
364 the other components of the system.
365
366 A general memory barrier is a partial ordering over both loads and stores.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100367
368 General memory barriers imply both read and write memory barriers, and so
369 can substitute for either.
370
371
372And a couple of implicit varieties:
373
374 (5) LOCK operations.
375
376 This acts as a one-way permeable barrier. It guarantees that all memory
377 operations after the LOCK operation will appear to happen after the LOCK
378 operation with respect to the other components of the system.
379
380 Memory operations that occur before a LOCK operation may appear to happen
381 after it completes.
382
383 A LOCK operation should almost always be paired with an UNLOCK operation.
384
385
386 (6) UNLOCK operations.
387
388 This also acts as a one-way permeable barrier. It guarantees that all
389 memory operations before the UNLOCK operation will appear to happen before
390 the UNLOCK operation with respect to the other components of the system.
391
392 Memory operations that occur after an UNLOCK operation may appear to
393 happen before it completes.
394
395 LOCK and UNLOCK operations are guaranteed to appear with respect to each
396 other strictly in the order specified.
397
398 The use of LOCK and UNLOCK operations generally precludes the need for
399 other sorts of memory barrier (but note the exceptions mentioned in the
400 subsection "MMIO write barrier").
401
402
403Memory barriers are only required where there's a possibility of interaction
404between two CPUs or between a CPU and a device. If it can be guaranteed that
405there won't be any such interaction in any particular piece of code, then
406memory barriers are unnecessary in that piece of code.
407
408
409Note that these are the _minimum_ guarantees. Different architectures may give
410more substantial guarantees, but they may _not_ be relied upon outside of arch
411specific code.
412
413
414WHAT MAY NOT BE ASSUMED ABOUT MEMORY BARRIERS?
415----------------------------------------------
416
417There are certain things that the Linux kernel memory barriers do not guarantee:
418
419 (*) There is no guarantee that any of the memory accesses specified before a
420 memory barrier will be _complete_ by the completion of a memory barrier
421 instruction; the barrier can be considered to draw a line in that CPU's
422 access queue that accesses of the appropriate type may not cross.
423
424 (*) There is no guarantee that issuing a memory barrier on one CPU will have
425 any direct effect on another CPU or any other hardware in the system. The
426 indirect effect will be the order in which the second CPU sees the effects
427 of the first CPU's accesses occur, but see the next point:
428
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -0700429 (*) There is no guarantee that a CPU will see the correct order of effects
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100430 from a second CPU's accesses, even _if_ the second CPU uses a memory
431 barrier, unless the first CPU _also_ uses a matching memory barrier (see
432 the subsection on "SMP Barrier Pairing").
433
434 (*) There is no guarantee that some intervening piece of off-the-CPU
435 hardware[*] will not reorder the memory accesses. CPU cache coherency
436 mechanisms should propagate the indirect effects of a memory barrier
437 between CPUs, but might not do so in order.
438
439 [*] For information on bus mastering DMA and coherency please read:
440
Randy Dunlap4b5ff462008-03-10 17:16:32 -0700441 Documentation/PCI/pci.txt
Paul Bolle395cf962011-08-15 02:02:26 +0200442 Documentation/DMA-API-HOWTO.txt
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100443 Documentation/DMA-API.txt
444
445
446DATA DEPENDENCY BARRIERS
447------------------------
448
449The usage requirements of data dependency barriers are a little subtle, and
450it's not always obvious that they're needed. To illustrate, consider the
451following sequence of events:
452
453 CPU 1 CPU 2
454 =============== ===============
455 { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
456 B = 4;
457 <write barrier>
458 P = &B
459 Q = P;
460 D = *Q;
461
462There's a clear data dependency here, and it would seem that by the end of the
463sequence, Q must be either &A or &B, and that:
464
465 (Q == &A) implies (D == 1)
466 (Q == &B) implies (D == 4)
467
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700468But! CPU 2's perception of P may be updated _before_ its perception of B, thus
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100469leading to the following situation:
470
471 (Q == &B) and (D == 2) ????
472
473Whilst this may seem like a failure of coherency or causality maintenance, it
474isn't, and this behaviour can be observed on certain real CPUs (such as the DEC
475Alpha).
476
David Howells2b948952006-06-25 05:48:49 -0700477To deal with this, a data dependency barrier or better must be inserted
478between the address load and the data load:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100479
480 CPU 1 CPU 2
481 =============== ===============
482 { A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
483 B = 4;
484 <write barrier>
485 P = &B
486 Q = P;
487 <data dependency barrier>
488 D = *Q;
489
490This enforces the occurrence of one of the two implications, and prevents the
491third possibility from arising.
492
493[!] Note that this extremely counterintuitive situation arises most easily on
494machines with split caches, so that, for example, one cache bank processes
495even-numbered cache lines and the other bank processes odd-numbered cache
496lines. The pointer P might be stored in an odd-numbered cache line, and the
497variable B might be stored in an even-numbered cache line. Then, if the
498even-numbered bank of the reading CPU's cache is extremely busy while the
499odd-numbered bank is idle, one can see the new value of the pointer P (&B),
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -0700500but the old value of the variable B (2).
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100501
502
503Another example of where data dependency barriers might by required is where a
504number is read from memory and then used to calculate the index for an array
505access:
506
507 CPU 1 CPU 2
508 =============== ===============
509 { M[0] == 1, M[1] == 2, M[3] = 3, P == 0, Q == 3 }
510 M[1] = 4;
511 <write barrier>
512 P = 1
513 Q = P;
514 <data dependency barrier>
515 D = M[Q];
516
517
518The data dependency barrier is very important to the RCU system, for example.
519See rcu_dereference() in include/linux/rcupdate.h. This permits the current
520target of an RCU'd pointer to be replaced with a new modified target, without
521the replacement target appearing to be incompletely initialised.
522
523See also the subsection on "Cache Coherency" for a more thorough example.
524
525
526CONTROL DEPENDENCIES
527--------------------
528
529A control dependency requires a full read memory barrier, not simply a data
530dependency barrier to make it work correctly. Consider the following bit of
531code:
532
533 q = &a;
534 if (p)
535 q = &b;
536 <data dependency barrier>
537 x = *q;
538
539This will not have the desired effect because there is no actual data
540dependency, but rather a control dependency that the CPU may short-circuit by
541attempting to predict the outcome in advance. In such a case what's actually
542required is:
543
544 q = &a;
545 if (p)
546 q = &b;
547 <read barrier>
548 x = *q;
549
550
551SMP BARRIER PAIRING
552-------------------
553
554When dealing with CPU-CPU interactions, certain types of memory barrier should
555always be paired. A lack of appropriate pairing is almost certainly an error.
556
557A write barrier should always be paired with a data dependency barrier or read
558barrier, though a general barrier would also be viable. Similarly a read
559barrier or a data dependency barrier should always be paired with at least an
560write barrier, though, again, a general barrier is viable:
561
562 CPU 1 CPU 2
563 =============== ===============
564 a = 1;
565 <write barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700566 b = 2; x = b;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100567 <read barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700568 y = a;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100569
570Or:
571
572 CPU 1 CPU 2
573 =============== ===============================
574 a = 1;
575 <write barrier>
576 b = &a; x = b;
577 <data dependency barrier>
578 y = *x;
579
580Basically, the read barrier always has to be there, even though it can be of
581the "weaker" type.
582
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700583[!] Note that the stores before the write barrier would normally be expected to
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700584match the loads after the read barrier or the data dependency barrier, and vice
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700585versa:
586
587 CPU 1 CPU 2
588 =============== ===============
589 a = 1; }---- --->{ v = c
590 b = 2; } \ / { w = d
591 <write barrier> \ <read barrier>
592 c = 3; } / \ { x = a;
593 d = 4; }---- --->{ y = b;
594
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100595
596EXAMPLES OF MEMORY BARRIER SEQUENCES
597------------------------------------
598
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700599Firstly, write barriers act as partial orderings on store operations.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100600Consider the following sequence of events:
601
602 CPU 1
603 =======================
604 STORE A = 1
605 STORE B = 2
606 STORE C = 3
607 <write barrier>
608 STORE D = 4
609 STORE E = 5
610
611This sequence of events is committed to the memory coherence system in an order
612that the rest of the system might perceive as the unordered set of { STORE A,
Adrian Bunk80f72282006-06-30 18:27:16 +0200613STORE B, STORE C } all occurring before the unordered set of { STORE D, STORE E
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100614}:
615
616 +-------+ : :
617 | | +------+
618 | |------>| C=3 | } /\
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700619 | | : +------+ }----- \ -----> Events perceptible to
620 | | : | A=1 | } \/ the rest of the system
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100621 | | : +------+ }
622 | CPU 1 | : | B=2 | }
623 | | +------+ }
624 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww } <--- At this point the write barrier
625 | | +------+ } requires all stores prior to the
626 | | : | E=5 | } barrier to be committed before
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700627 | | : +------+ } further stores may take place
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100628 | |------>| D=4 | }
629 | | +------+
630 +-------+ : :
631 |
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700632 | Sequence in which stores are committed to the
633 | memory system by CPU 1
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100634 V
635
636
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700637Secondly, data dependency barriers act as partial orderings on data-dependent
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100638loads. Consider the following sequence of events:
639
640 CPU 1 CPU 2
641 ======================= =======================
David Howellsc14038c2006-04-10 22:54:24 -0700642 { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100643 STORE A = 1
644 STORE B = 2
645 <write barrier>
646 STORE C = &B LOAD X
647 STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
648 LOAD *C (reads B)
649
650Without intervention, CPU 2 may perceive the events on CPU 1 in some
651effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
652
653 +-------+ : : : :
654 | | +------+ +-------+ | Sequence of update
655 | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 | | of perception on
656 | | : +------+ \ +-------+ | CPU 2
657 | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y | V
658 | | +------+ | +-------+
659 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
660 | | +------+ | : :
661 | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
662 | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
663 | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
664 | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
665 +-------+ : : | : : | |
666 | : : | |
667 | : : | CPU 2 |
668 | +-------+ | |
669 Apparently incorrect ---> | | B->7 |------>| |
670 perception of B (!) | +-------+ | |
671 | : : | |
672 | +-------+ | |
673 The load of X holds ---> \ | X->9 |------>| |
674 up the maintenance \ +-------+ | |
675 of coherence of B ----->| B->2 | +-------+
676 +-------+
677 : :
678
679
680In the above example, CPU 2 perceives that B is 7, despite the load of *C
Paolo Ornati670e9f32006-10-03 22:57:56 +0200681(which would be B) coming after the LOAD of C.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100682
683If, however, a data dependency barrier were to be placed between the load of C
David Howellsc14038c2006-04-10 22:54:24 -0700684and the load of *C (ie: B) on CPU 2:
685
686 CPU 1 CPU 2
687 ======================= =======================
688 { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
689 STORE A = 1
690 STORE B = 2
691 <write barrier>
692 STORE C = &B LOAD X
693 STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
694 <data dependency barrier>
695 LOAD *C (reads B)
696
697then the following will occur:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100698
699 +-------+ : : : :
700 | | +------+ +-------+
701 | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 |
702 | | : +------+ \ +-------+
703 | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y |
704 | | +------+ | +-------+
705 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
706 | | +------+ | : :
707 | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
708 | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
709 | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
710 | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
711 +-------+ : : | : : | |
712 | : : | |
713 | : : | CPU 2 |
714 | +-------+ | |
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700715 | | X->9 |------>| |
716 | +-------+ | |
717 Makes sure all effects ---> \ ddddddddddddddddd | |
718 prior to the store of C \ +-------+ | |
719 are perceptible to ----->| B->2 |------>| |
720 subsequent loads +-------+ | |
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100721 : : +-------+
722
723
724And thirdly, a read barrier acts as a partial order on loads. Consider the
725following sequence of events:
726
727 CPU 1 CPU 2
728 ======================= =======================
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700729 { A = 0, B = 9 }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100730 STORE A=1
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100731 <write barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700732 STORE B=2
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100733 LOAD B
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700734 LOAD A
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100735
736Without intervention, CPU 2 may then choose to perceive the events on CPU 1 in
737some effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
738
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700739 +-------+ : : : :
740 | | +------+ +-------+
741 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
742 | | +------+ \ +-------+
743 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
744 | | +------+ | +-------+
745 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
746 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
747 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
748 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
749 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
750 | | A->0 |------>| |
751 | +-------+ | |
752 | : : +-------+
753 \ : :
754 \ +-------+
755 ---->| A->1 |
756 +-------+
757 : :
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100758
759
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -0700760If, however, a read barrier were to be placed between the load of B and the
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700761load of A on CPU 2:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100762
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700763 CPU 1 CPU 2
764 ======================= =======================
765 { A = 0, B = 9 }
766 STORE A=1
767 <write barrier>
768 STORE B=2
769 LOAD B
770 <read barrier>
771 LOAD A
772
773then the partial ordering imposed by CPU 1 will be perceived correctly by CPU
7742:
775
776 +-------+ : : : :
777 | | +------+ +-------+
778 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
779 | | +------+ \ +-------+
780 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
781 | | +------+ | +-------+
782 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
783 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
784 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
785 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
786 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
787 | : : | |
788 | : : | |
789 At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
790 barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
791 prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| |
792 to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
793 : : +-------+
794
795
796To illustrate this more completely, consider what could happen if the code
797contained a load of A either side of the read barrier:
798
799 CPU 1 CPU 2
800 ======================= =======================
801 { A = 0, B = 9 }
802 STORE A=1
803 <write barrier>
804 STORE B=2
805 LOAD B
806 LOAD A [first load of A]
807 <read barrier>
808 LOAD A [second load of A]
809
810Even though the two loads of A both occur after the load of B, they may both
811come up with different values:
812
813 +-------+ : : : :
814 | | +------+ +-------+
815 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
816 | | +------+ \ +-------+
817 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
818 | | +------+ | +-------+
819 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
820 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
821 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
822 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
823 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
824 | : : | |
825 | : : | |
826 | +-------+ | |
827 | | A->0 |------>| 1st |
828 | +-------+ | |
829 At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
830 barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
831 prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| 2nd |
832 to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
833 : : +-------+
834
835
836But it may be that the update to A from CPU 1 becomes perceptible to CPU 2
837before the read barrier completes anyway:
838
839 +-------+ : : : :
840 | | +------+ +-------+
841 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
842 | | +------+ \ +-------+
843 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
844 | | +------+ | +-------+
845 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
846 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
847 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
848 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
849 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
850 | : : | |
851 \ : : | |
852 \ +-------+ | |
853 ---->| A->1 |------>| 1st |
854 +-------+ | |
855 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
856 +-------+ | |
857 | A->1 |------>| 2nd |
858 +-------+ | |
859 : : +-------+
860
861
862The guarantee is that the second load will always come up with A == 1 if the
863load of B came up with B == 2. No such guarantee exists for the first load of
864A; that may come up with either A == 0 or A == 1.
865
866
867READ MEMORY BARRIERS VS LOAD SPECULATION
868----------------------------------------
869
870Many CPUs speculate with loads: that is they see that they will need to load an
871item from memory, and they find a time where they're not using the bus for any
872other loads, and so do the load in advance - even though they haven't actually
873got to that point in the instruction execution flow yet. This permits the
874actual load instruction to potentially complete immediately because the CPU
875already has the value to hand.
876
877It may turn out that the CPU didn't actually need the value - perhaps because a
878branch circumvented the load - in which case it can discard the value or just
879cache it for later use.
880
881Consider:
882
883 CPU 1 CPU 2
884 ======================= =======================
885 LOAD B
886 DIVIDE } Divide instructions generally
887 DIVIDE } take a long time to perform
888 LOAD A
889
890Which might appear as this:
891
892 : : +-------+
893 +-------+ | |
894 --->| B->2 |------>| |
895 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
896 : :DIVIDE | |
897 +-------+ | |
898 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
899 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
900 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
901 : :DIVIDE | |
902 : : ~ | |
903 Once the divisions are complete --> : : ~-->| |
904 the CPU can then perform the : : | |
905 LOAD with immediate effect : : +-------+
906
907
908Placing a read barrier or a data dependency barrier just before the second
909load:
910
911 CPU 1 CPU 2
912 ======================= =======================
913 LOAD B
914 DIVIDE
915 DIVIDE
916 <read barrier>
917 LOAD A
918
919will force any value speculatively obtained to be reconsidered to an extent
920dependent on the type of barrier used. If there was no change made to the
921speculated memory location, then the speculated value will just be used:
922
923 : : +-------+
924 +-------+ | |
925 --->| B->2 |------>| |
926 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
927 : :DIVIDE | |
928 +-------+ | |
929 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
930 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
931 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
932 : :DIVIDE | |
933 : : ~ | |
934 : : ~ | |
935 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~ | |
936 : : ~ | |
937 : : ~-->| |
938 : : | |
939 : : +-------+
940
941
942but if there was an update or an invalidation from another CPU pending, then
943the speculation will be cancelled and the value reloaded:
944
945 : : +-------+
946 +-------+ | |
947 --->| B->2 |------>| |
948 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
949 : :DIVIDE | |
950 +-------+ | |
951 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
952 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
953 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
954 : :DIVIDE | |
955 : : ~ | |
956 : : ~ | |
957 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
958 +-------+ | |
959 The speculation is discarded ---> --->| A->1 |------>| |
960 and an updated value is +-------+ | |
961 retrieved : : +-------+
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100962
963
Paul E. McKenney241e6662011-02-10 16:54:50 -0800964TRANSITIVITY
965------------
966
967Transitivity is a deeply intuitive notion about ordering that is not
968always provided by real computer systems. The following example
969demonstrates transitivity (also called "cumulativity"):
970
971 CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3
972 ======================= ======================= =======================
973 { X = 0, Y = 0 }
974 STORE X=1 LOAD X STORE Y=1
975 <general barrier> <general barrier>
976 LOAD Y LOAD X
977
978Suppose that CPU 2's load from X returns 1 and its load from Y returns 0.
979This indicates that CPU 2's load from X in some sense follows CPU 1's
980store to X and that CPU 2's load from Y in some sense preceded CPU 3's
981store to Y. The question is then "Can CPU 3's load from X return 0?"
982
983Because CPU 2's load from X in some sense came after CPU 1's store, it
984is natural to expect that CPU 3's load from X must therefore return 1.
985This expectation is an example of transitivity: if a load executing on
986CPU A follows a load from the same variable executing on CPU B, then
987CPU A's load must either return the same value that CPU B's load did,
988or must return some later value.
989
990In the Linux kernel, use of general memory barriers guarantees
991transitivity. Therefore, in the above example, if CPU 2's load from X
992returns 1 and its load from Y returns 0, then CPU 3's load from X must
993also return 1.
994
995However, transitivity is -not- guaranteed for read or write barriers.
996For example, suppose that CPU 2's general barrier in the above example
997is changed to a read barrier as shown below:
998
999 CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3
1000 ======================= ======================= =======================
1001 { X = 0, Y = 0 }
1002 STORE X=1 LOAD X STORE Y=1
1003 <read barrier> <general barrier>
1004 LOAD Y LOAD X
1005
1006This substitution destroys transitivity: in this example, it is perfectly
1007legal for CPU 2's load from X to return 1, its load from Y to return 0,
1008and CPU 3's load from X to return 0.
1009
1010The key point is that although CPU 2's read barrier orders its pair
1011of loads, it does not guarantee to order CPU 1's store. Therefore, if
1012this example runs on a system where CPUs 1 and 2 share a store buffer
1013or a level of cache, CPU 2 might have early access to CPU 1's writes.
1014General barriers are therefore required to ensure that all CPUs agree
1015on the combined order of CPU 1's and CPU 2's accesses.
1016
1017To reiterate, if your code requires transitivity, use general barriers
1018throughout.
1019
1020
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001021========================
1022EXPLICIT KERNEL BARRIERS
1023========================
1024
1025The Linux kernel has a variety of different barriers that act at different
1026levels:
1027
1028 (*) Compiler barrier.
1029
1030 (*) CPU memory barriers.
1031
1032 (*) MMIO write barrier.
1033
1034
1035COMPILER BARRIER
1036----------------
1037
1038The Linux kernel has an explicit compiler barrier function that prevents the
1039compiler from moving the memory accesses either side of it to the other side:
1040
1041 barrier();
1042
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001043This is a general barrier - lesser varieties of compiler barrier do not exist.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001044
1045The compiler barrier has no direct effect on the CPU, which may then reorder
1046things however it wishes.
1047
1048
1049CPU MEMORY BARRIERS
1050-------------------
1051
1052The Linux kernel has eight basic CPU memory barriers:
1053
1054 TYPE MANDATORY SMP CONDITIONAL
1055 =============== ======================= ===========================
1056 GENERAL mb() smp_mb()
1057 WRITE wmb() smp_wmb()
1058 READ rmb() smp_rmb()
1059 DATA DEPENDENCY read_barrier_depends() smp_read_barrier_depends()
1060
1061
Nick Piggin73f10282008-05-14 06:35:11 +02001062All memory barriers except the data dependency barriers imply a compiler
1063barrier. Data dependencies do not impose any additional compiler ordering.
1064
1065Aside: In the case of data dependencies, the compiler would be expected to
1066issue the loads in the correct order (eg. `a[b]` would have to load the value
1067of b before loading a[b]), however there is no guarantee in the C specification
1068that the compiler may not speculate the value of b (eg. is equal to 1) and load
1069a before b (eg. tmp = a[1]; if (b != 1) tmp = a[b]; ). There is also the
1070problem of a compiler reloading b after having loaded a[b], thus having a newer
1071copy of b than a[b]. A consensus has not yet been reached about these problems,
1072however the ACCESS_ONCE macro is a good place to start looking.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001073
1074SMP memory barriers are reduced to compiler barriers on uniprocessor compiled
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001075systems because it is assumed that a CPU will appear to be self-consistent,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001076and will order overlapping accesses correctly with respect to itself.
1077
1078[!] Note that SMP memory barriers _must_ be used to control the ordering of
1079references to shared memory on SMP systems, though the use of locking instead
1080is sufficient.
1081
1082Mandatory barriers should not be used to control SMP effects, since mandatory
1083barriers unnecessarily impose overhead on UP systems. They may, however, be
1084used to control MMIO effects on accesses through relaxed memory I/O windows.
1085These are required even on non-SMP systems as they affect the order in which
1086memory operations appear to a device by prohibiting both the compiler and the
1087CPU from reordering them.
1088
1089
1090There are some more advanced barrier functions:
1091
1092 (*) set_mb(var, value)
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001093
Oleg Nesterov75b2bd52006-11-08 17:44:38 -08001094 This assigns the value to the variable and then inserts a full memory
Steven Rostedtf92213b2006-07-14 16:05:01 -04001095 barrier after it, depending on the function. It isn't guaranteed to
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001096 insert anything more than a compiler barrier in a UP compilation.
1097
1098
1099 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1100 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_dec();
1101 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_inc();
1102 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_inc();
1103
1104 These are for use with atomic add, subtract, increment and decrement
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001105 functions that don't return a value, especially when used for reference
1106 counting. These functions do not imply memory barriers.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001107
1108 As an example, consider a piece of code that marks an object as being dead
1109 and then decrements the object's reference count:
1110
1111 obj->dead = 1;
1112 smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1113 atomic_dec(&obj->ref_count);
1114
1115 This makes sure that the death mark on the object is perceived to be set
1116 *before* the reference counter is decremented.
1117
1118 See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1119 operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1120
1121
1122 (*) smp_mb__before_clear_bit(void);
1123 (*) smp_mb__after_clear_bit(void);
1124
1125 These are for use similar to the atomic inc/dec barriers. These are
1126 typically used for bitwise unlocking operations, so care must be taken as
1127 there are no implicit memory barriers here either.
1128
1129 Consider implementing an unlock operation of some nature by clearing a
1130 locking bit. The clear_bit() would then need to be barriered like this:
1131
1132 smp_mb__before_clear_bit();
1133 clear_bit( ... );
1134
1135 This prevents memory operations before the clear leaking to after it. See
1136 the subsection on "Locking Functions" with reference to UNLOCK operation
1137 implications.
1138
1139 See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1140 operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1141
1142
1143MMIO WRITE BARRIER
1144------------------
1145
1146The Linux kernel also has a special barrier for use with memory-mapped I/O
1147writes:
1148
1149 mmiowb();
1150
1151This is a variation on the mandatory write barrier that causes writes to weakly
1152ordered I/O regions to be partially ordered. Its effects may go beyond the
1153CPU->Hardware interface and actually affect the hardware at some level.
1154
1155See the subsection "Locks vs I/O accesses" for more information.
1156
1157
1158===============================
1159IMPLICIT KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
1160===============================
1161
1162Some of the other functions in the linux kernel imply memory barriers, amongst
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -07001163which are locking and scheduling functions.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001164
1165This specification is a _minimum_ guarantee; any particular architecture may
1166provide more substantial guarantees, but these may not be relied upon outside
1167of arch specific code.
1168
1169
1170LOCKING FUNCTIONS
1171-----------------
1172
1173The Linux kernel has a number of locking constructs:
1174
1175 (*) spin locks
1176 (*) R/W spin locks
1177 (*) mutexes
1178 (*) semaphores
1179 (*) R/W semaphores
1180 (*) RCU
1181
1182In all cases there are variants on "LOCK" operations and "UNLOCK" operations
1183for each construct. These operations all imply certain barriers:
1184
1185 (1) LOCK operation implication:
1186
1187 Memory operations issued after the LOCK will be completed after the LOCK
1188 operation has completed.
1189
1190 Memory operations issued before the LOCK may be completed after the LOCK
1191 operation has completed.
1192
1193 (2) UNLOCK operation implication:
1194
1195 Memory operations issued before the UNLOCK will be completed before the
1196 UNLOCK operation has completed.
1197
1198 Memory operations issued after the UNLOCK may be completed before the
1199 UNLOCK operation has completed.
1200
1201 (3) LOCK vs LOCK implication:
1202
1203 All LOCK operations issued before another LOCK operation will be completed
1204 before that LOCK operation.
1205
1206 (4) LOCK vs UNLOCK implication:
1207
1208 All LOCK operations issued before an UNLOCK operation will be completed
1209 before the UNLOCK operation.
1210
1211 All UNLOCK operations issued before a LOCK operation will be completed
1212 before the LOCK operation.
1213
1214 (5) Failed conditional LOCK implication:
1215
1216 Certain variants of the LOCK operation may fail, either due to being
1217 unable to get the lock immediately, or due to receiving an unblocked
1218 signal whilst asleep waiting for the lock to become available. Failed
1219 locks do not imply any sort of barrier.
1220
1221Therefore, from (1), (2) and (4) an UNLOCK followed by an unconditional LOCK is
1222equivalent to a full barrier, but a LOCK followed by an UNLOCK is not.
1223
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001224[!] Note: one of the consequences of LOCKs and UNLOCKs being only one-way
1225 barriers is that the effects of instructions outside of a critical section
1226 may seep into the inside of the critical section.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001227
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -07001228A LOCK followed by an UNLOCK may not be assumed to be full memory barrier
1229because it is possible for an access preceding the LOCK to happen after the
1230LOCK, and an access following the UNLOCK to happen before the UNLOCK, and the
1231two accesses can themselves then cross:
1232
1233 *A = a;
1234 LOCK
1235 UNLOCK
1236 *B = b;
1237
1238may occur as:
1239
1240 LOCK, STORE *B, STORE *A, UNLOCK
1241
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001242Locks and semaphores may not provide any guarantee of ordering on UP compiled
1243systems, and so cannot be counted on in such a situation to actually achieve
1244anything at all - especially with respect to I/O accesses - unless combined
1245with interrupt disabling operations.
1246
1247See also the section on "Inter-CPU locking barrier effects".
1248
1249
1250As an example, consider the following:
1251
1252 *A = a;
1253 *B = b;
1254 LOCK
1255 *C = c;
1256 *D = d;
1257 UNLOCK
1258 *E = e;
1259 *F = f;
1260
1261The following sequence of events is acceptable:
1262
1263 LOCK, {*F,*A}, *E, {*C,*D}, *B, UNLOCK
1264
1265 [+] Note that {*F,*A} indicates a combined access.
1266
1267But none of the following are:
1268
1269 {*F,*A}, *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, *E
1270 *A, *B, *C, LOCK, *D, UNLOCK, *E, *F
1271 *A, *B, LOCK, *C, UNLOCK, *D, *E, *F
1272 *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, {*F,*A}, *E
1273
1274
1275
1276INTERRUPT DISABLING FUNCTIONS
1277-----------------------------
1278
1279Functions that disable interrupts (LOCK equivalent) and enable interrupts
1280(UNLOCK equivalent) will act as compiler barriers only. So if memory or I/O
1281barriers are required in such a situation, they must be provided from some
1282other means.
1283
1284
David Howells50fa6102009-04-28 15:01:38 +01001285SLEEP AND WAKE-UP FUNCTIONS
1286---------------------------
1287
1288Sleeping and waking on an event flagged in global data can be viewed as an
1289interaction between two pieces of data: the task state of the task waiting for
1290the event and the global data used to indicate the event. To make sure that
1291these appear to happen in the right order, the primitives to begin the process
1292of going to sleep, and the primitives to initiate a wake up imply certain
1293barriers.
1294
1295Firstly, the sleeper normally follows something like this sequence of events:
1296
1297 for (;;) {
1298 set_current_state(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
1299 if (event_indicated)
1300 break;
1301 schedule();
1302 }
1303
1304A general memory barrier is interpolated automatically by set_current_state()
1305after it has altered the task state:
1306
1307 CPU 1
1308 ===============================
1309 set_current_state();
1310 set_mb();
1311 STORE current->state
1312 <general barrier>
1313 LOAD event_indicated
1314
1315set_current_state() may be wrapped by:
1316
1317 prepare_to_wait();
1318 prepare_to_wait_exclusive();
1319
1320which therefore also imply a general memory barrier after setting the state.
1321The whole sequence above is available in various canned forms, all of which
1322interpolate the memory barrier in the right place:
1323
1324 wait_event();
1325 wait_event_interruptible();
1326 wait_event_interruptible_exclusive();
1327 wait_event_interruptible_timeout();
1328 wait_event_killable();
1329 wait_event_timeout();
1330 wait_on_bit();
1331 wait_on_bit_lock();
1332
1333
1334Secondly, code that performs a wake up normally follows something like this:
1335
1336 event_indicated = 1;
1337 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1338
1339or:
1340
1341 event_indicated = 1;
1342 wake_up_process(event_daemon);
1343
1344A write memory barrier is implied by wake_up() and co. if and only if they wake
1345something up. The barrier occurs before the task state is cleared, and so sits
1346between the STORE to indicate the event and the STORE to set TASK_RUNNING:
1347
1348 CPU 1 CPU 2
1349 =============================== ===============================
1350 set_current_state(); STORE event_indicated
1351 set_mb(); wake_up();
1352 STORE current->state <write barrier>
1353 <general barrier> STORE current->state
1354 LOAD event_indicated
1355
1356The available waker functions include:
1357
1358 complete();
1359 wake_up();
1360 wake_up_all();
1361 wake_up_bit();
1362 wake_up_interruptible();
1363 wake_up_interruptible_all();
1364 wake_up_interruptible_nr();
1365 wake_up_interruptible_poll();
1366 wake_up_interruptible_sync();
1367 wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll();
1368 wake_up_locked();
1369 wake_up_locked_poll();
1370 wake_up_nr();
1371 wake_up_poll();
1372 wake_up_process();
1373
1374
1375[!] Note that the memory barriers implied by the sleeper and the waker do _not_
1376order multiple stores before the wake-up with respect to loads of those stored
1377values after the sleeper has called set_current_state(). For instance, if the
1378sleeper does:
1379
1380 set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1381 if (event_indicated)
1382 break;
1383 __set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
1384 do_something(my_data);
1385
1386and the waker does:
1387
1388 my_data = value;
1389 event_indicated = 1;
1390 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1391
1392there's no guarantee that the change to event_indicated will be perceived by
1393the sleeper as coming after the change to my_data. In such a circumstance, the
1394code on both sides must interpolate its own memory barriers between the
1395separate data accesses. Thus the above sleeper ought to do:
1396
1397 set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1398 if (event_indicated) {
1399 smp_rmb();
1400 do_something(my_data);
1401 }
1402
1403and the waker should do:
1404
1405 my_data = value;
1406 smp_wmb();
1407 event_indicated = 1;
1408 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1409
1410
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001411MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS
1412-----------------------
1413
1414Other functions that imply barriers:
1415
1416 (*) schedule() and similar imply full memory barriers.
1417
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001418
1419=================================
1420INTER-CPU LOCKING BARRIER EFFECTS
1421=================================
1422
1423On SMP systems locking primitives give a more substantial form of barrier: one
1424that does affect memory access ordering on other CPUs, within the context of
1425conflict on any particular lock.
1426
1427
1428LOCKS VS MEMORY ACCESSES
1429------------------------
1430
Aneesh Kumar79afecf2006-05-15 09:44:36 -07001431Consider the following: the system has a pair of spinlocks (M) and (Q), and
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001432three CPUs; then should the following sequence of events occur:
1433
1434 CPU 1 CPU 2
1435 =============================== ===============================
1436 *A = a; *E = e;
1437 LOCK M LOCK Q
1438 *B = b; *F = f;
1439 *C = c; *G = g;
1440 UNLOCK M UNLOCK Q
1441 *D = d; *H = h;
1442
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001443Then there is no guarantee as to what order CPU 3 will see the accesses to *A
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001444through *H occur in, other than the constraints imposed by the separate locks
1445on the separate CPUs. It might, for example, see:
1446
1447 *E, LOCK M, LOCK Q, *G, *C, *F, *A, *B, UNLOCK Q, *D, *H, UNLOCK M
1448
1449But it won't see any of:
1450
1451 *B, *C or *D preceding LOCK M
1452 *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M
1453 *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK Q
1454 *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK Q
1455
1456
1457However, if the following occurs:
1458
1459 CPU 1 CPU 2
1460 =============================== ===============================
1461 *A = a;
1462 LOCK M [1]
1463 *B = b;
1464 *C = c;
1465 UNLOCK M [1]
1466 *D = d; *E = e;
1467 LOCK M [2]
1468 *F = f;
1469 *G = g;
1470 UNLOCK M [2]
1471 *H = h;
1472
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001473CPU 3 might see:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001474
1475 *E, LOCK M [1], *C, *B, *A, UNLOCK M [1],
1476 LOCK M [2], *H, *F, *G, UNLOCK M [2], *D
1477
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001478But assuming CPU 1 gets the lock first, CPU 3 won't see any of:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001479
1480 *B, *C, *D, *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [1]
1481 *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M [1]
1482 *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [2]
1483 *A, *B, *C, *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK M [2]
1484
1485
1486LOCKS VS I/O ACCESSES
1487---------------------
1488
1489Under certain circumstances (especially involving NUMA), I/O accesses within
1490two spinlocked sections on two different CPUs may be seen as interleaved by the
1491PCI bridge, because the PCI bridge does not necessarily participate in the
1492cache-coherence protocol, and is therefore incapable of issuing the required
1493read memory barriers.
1494
1495For example:
1496
1497 CPU 1 CPU 2
1498 =============================== ===============================
1499 spin_lock(Q)
1500 writel(0, ADDR)
1501 writel(1, DATA);
1502 spin_unlock(Q);
1503 spin_lock(Q);
1504 writel(4, ADDR);
1505 writel(5, DATA);
1506 spin_unlock(Q);
1507
1508may be seen by the PCI bridge as follows:
1509
1510 STORE *ADDR = 0, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = 1, STORE *DATA = 5
1511
1512which would probably cause the hardware to malfunction.
1513
1514
1515What is necessary here is to intervene with an mmiowb() before dropping the
1516spinlock, for example:
1517
1518 CPU 1 CPU 2
1519 =============================== ===============================
1520 spin_lock(Q)
1521 writel(0, ADDR)
1522 writel(1, DATA);
1523 mmiowb();
1524 spin_unlock(Q);
1525 spin_lock(Q);
1526 writel(4, ADDR);
1527 writel(5, DATA);
1528 mmiowb();
1529 spin_unlock(Q);
1530
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001531this will ensure that the two stores issued on CPU 1 appear at the PCI bridge
1532before either of the stores issued on CPU 2.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001533
1534
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001535Furthermore, following a store by a load from the same device obviates the need
1536for the mmiowb(), because the load forces the store to complete before the load
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001537is performed:
1538
1539 CPU 1 CPU 2
1540 =============================== ===============================
1541 spin_lock(Q)
1542 writel(0, ADDR)
1543 a = readl(DATA);
1544 spin_unlock(Q);
1545 spin_lock(Q);
1546 writel(4, ADDR);
1547 b = readl(DATA);
1548 spin_unlock(Q);
1549
1550
1551See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1552
1553
1554=================================
1555WHERE ARE MEMORY BARRIERS NEEDED?
1556=================================
1557
1558Under normal operation, memory operation reordering is generally not going to
1559be a problem as a single-threaded linear piece of code will still appear to
David Howells50fa6102009-04-28 15:01:38 +01001560work correctly, even if it's in an SMP kernel. There are, however, four
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001561circumstances in which reordering definitely _could_ be a problem:
1562
1563 (*) Interprocessor interaction.
1564
1565 (*) Atomic operations.
1566
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001567 (*) Accessing devices.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001568
1569 (*) Interrupts.
1570
1571
1572INTERPROCESSOR INTERACTION
1573--------------------------
1574
1575When there's a system with more than one processor, more than one CPU in the
1576system may be working on the same data set at the same time. This can cause
1577synchronisation problems, and the usual way of dealing with them is to use
1578locks. Locks, however, are quite expensive, and so it may be preferable to
1579operate without the use of a lock if at all possible. In such a case
1580operations that affect both CPUs may have to be carefully ordered to prevent
1581a malfunction.
1582
1583Consider, for example, the R/W semaphore slow path. Here a waiting process is
1584queued on the semaphore, by virtue of it having a piece of its stack linked to
1585the semaphore's list of waiting processes:
1586
1587 struct rw_semaphore {
1588 ...
1589 spinlock_t lock;
1590 struct list_head waiters;
1591 };
1592
1593 struct rwsem_waiter {
1594 struct list_head list;
1595 struct task_struct *task;
1596 };
1597
1598To wake up a particular waiter, the up_read() or up_write() functions have to:
1599
1600 (1) read the next pointer from this waiter's record to know as to where the
1601 next waiter record is;
1602
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001603 (2) read the pointer to the waiter's task structure;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001604
1605 (3) clear the task pointer to tell the waiter it has been given the semaphore;
1606
1607 (4) call wake_up_process() on the task; and
1608
1609 (5) release the reference held on the waiter's task struct.
1610
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001611In other words, it has to perform this sequence of events:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001612
1613 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1614 LOAD waiter->task;
1615 STORE waiter->task;
1616 CALL wakeup
1617 RELEASE task
1618
1619and if any of these steps occur out of order, then the whole thing may
1620malfunction.
1621
1622Once it has queued itself and dropped the semaphore lock, the waiter does not
1623get the lock again; it instead just waits for its task pointer to be cleared
1624before proceeding. Since the record is on the waiter's stack, this means that
1625if the task pointer is cleared _before_ the next pointer in the list is read,
1626another CPU might start processing the waiter and might clobber the waiter's
1627stack before the up*() function has a chance to read the next pointer.
1628
1629Consider then what might happen to the above sequence of events:
1630
1631 CPU 1 CPU 2
1632 =============================== ===============================
1633 down_xxx()
1634 Queue waiter
1635 Sleep
1636 up_yyy()
1637 LOAD waiter->task;
1638 STORE waiter->task;
1639 Woken up by other event
1640 <preempt>
1641 Resume processing
1642 down_xxx() returns
1643 call foo()
1644 foo() clobbers *waiter
1645 </preempt>
1646 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1647 --- OOPS ---
1648
1649This could be dealt with using the semaphore lock, but then the down_xxx()
1650function has to needlessly get the spinlock again after being woken up.
1651
1652The way to deal with this is to insert a general SMP memory barrier:
1653
1654 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1655 LOAD waiter->task;
1656 smp_mb();
1657 STORE waiter->task;
1658 CALL wakeup
1659 RELEASE task
1660
1661In this case, the barrier makes a guarantee that all memory accesses before the
1662barrier will appear to happen before all the memory accesses after the barrier
1663with respect to the other CPUs on the system. It does _not_ guarantee that all
1664the memory accesses before the barrier will be complete by the time the barrier
1665instruction itself is complete.
1666
1667On a UP system - where this wouldn't be a problem - the smp_mb() is just a
1668compiler barrier, thus making sure the compiler emits the instructions in the
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -07001669right order without actually intervening in the CPU. Since there's only one
1670CPU, that CPU's dependency ordering logic will take care of everything else.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001671
1672
1673ATOMIC OPERATIONS
1674-----------------
1675
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001676Whilst they are technically interprocessor interaction considerations, atomic
1677operations are noted specially as some of them imply full memory barriers and
1678some don't, but they're very heavily relied on as a group throughout the
1679kernel.
1680
1681Any atomic operation that modifies some state in memory and returns information
1682about the state (old or new) implies an SMP-conditional general memory barrier
Nick Piggin26333572007-10-18 03:06:39 -07001683(smp_mb()) on each side of the actual operation (with the exception of
1684explicit lock operations, described later). These include:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001685
1686 xchg();
1687 cmpxchg();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001688 atomic_cmpxchg();
1689 atomic_inc_return();
1690 atomic_dec_return();
1691 atomic_add_return();
1692 atomic_sub_return();
1693 atomic_inc_and_test();
1694 atomic_dec_and_test();
1695 atomic_sub_and_test();
1696 atomic_add_negative();
Oleg Nesterov02c608c2008-02-24 00:03:29 +03001697 atomic_add_unless(); /* when succeeds (returns 1) */
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001698 test_and_set_bit();
1699 test_and_clear_bit();
1700 test_and_change_bit();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001701
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001702These are used for such things as implementing LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class
1703operations and adjusting reference counters towards object destruction, and as
1704such the implicit memory barrier effects are necessary.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001705
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001706
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001707The following operations are potential problems as they do _not_ imply memory
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001708barriers, but might be used for implementing such things as UNLOCK-class
1709operations:
1710
1711 atomic_set();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001712 set_bit();
1713 clear_bit();
1714 change_bit();
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001715
1716With these the appropriate explicit memory barrier should be used if necessary
1717(smp_mb__before_clear_bit() for instance).
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001718
1719
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001720The following also do _not_ imply memory barriers, and so may require explicit
1721memory barriers under some circumstances (smp_mb__before_atomic_dec() for
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001722instance):
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001723
1724 atomic_add();
1725 atomic_sub();
1726 atomic_inc();
1727 atomic_dec();
1728
1729If they're used for statistics generation, then they probably don't need memory
1730barriers, unless there's a coupling between statistical data.
1731
1732If they're used for reference counting on an object to control its lifetime,
1733they probably don't need memory barriers because either the reference count
1734will be adjusted inside a locked section, or the caller will already hold
1735sufficient references to make the lock, and thus a memory barrier unnecessary.
1736
1737If they're used for constructing a lock of some description, then they probably
1738do need memory barriers as a lock primitive generally has to do things in a
1739specific order.
1740
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001741Basically, each usage case has to be carefully considered as to whether memory
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001742barriers are needed or not.
1743
Nick Piggin26333572007-10-18 03:06:39 -07001744The following operations are special locking primitives:
1745
1746 test_and_set_bit_lock();
1747 clear_bit_unlock();
1748 __clear_bit_unlock();
1749
1750These implement LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class operations. These should be used in
1751preference to other operations when implementing locking primitives, because
1752their implementations can be optimised on many architectures.
1753
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001754[!] Note that special memory barrier primitives are available for these
1755situations because on some CPUs the atomic instructions used imply full memory
1756barriers, and so barrier instructions are superfluous in conjunction with them,
1757and in such cases the special barrier primitives will be no-ops.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001758
1759See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information.
1760
1761
1762ACCESSING DEVICES
1763-----------------
1764
1765Many devices can be memory mapped, and so appear to the CPU as if they're just
1766a set of memory locations. To control such a device, the driver usually has to
1767make the right memory accesses in exactly the right order.
1768
1769However, having a clever CPU or a clever compiler creates a potential problem
1770in that the carefully sequenced accesses in the driver code won't reach the
1771device in the requisite order if the CPU or the compiler thinks it is more
1772efficient to reorder, combine or merge accesses - something that would cause
1773the device to malfunction.
1774
1775Inside of the Linux kernel, I/O should be done through the appropriate accessor
1776routines - such as inb() or writel() - which know how to make such accesses
1777appropriately sequential. Whilst this, for the most part, renders the explicit
1778use of memory barriers unnecessary, there are a couple of situations where they
1779might be needed:
1780
1781 (1) On some systems, I/O stores are not strongly ordered across all CPUs, and
1782 so for _all_ general drivers locks should be used and mmiowb() must be
1783 issued prior to unlocking the critical section.
1784
1785 (2) If the accessor functions are used to refer to an I/O memory window with
1786 relaxed memory access properties, then _mandatory_ memory barriers are
1787 required to enforce ordering.
1788
1789See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1790
1791
1792INTERRUPTS
1793----------
1794
1795A driver may be interrupted by its own interrupt service routine, and thus the
1796two parts of the driver may interfere with each other's attempts to control or
1797access the device.
1798
1799This may be alleviated - at least in part - by disabling local interrupts (a
1800form of locking), such that the critical operations are all contained within
1801the interrupt-disabled section in the driver. Whilst the driver's interrupt
1802routine is executing, the driver's core may not run on the same CPU, and its
1803interrupt is not permitted to happen again until the current interrupt has been
1804handled, thus the interrupt handler does not need to lock against that.
1805
1806However, consider a driver that was talking to an ethernet card that sports an
1807address register and a data register. If that driver's core talks to the card
1808under interrupt-disablement and then the driver's interrupt handler is invoked:
1809
1810 LOCAL IRQ DISABLE
1811 writew(ADDR, 3);
1812 writew(DATA, y);
1813 LOCAL IRQ ENABLE
1814 <interrupt>
1815 writew(ADDR, 4);
1816 q = readw(DATA);
1817 </interrupt>
1818
1819The store to the data register might happen after the second store to the
1820address register if ordering rules are sufficiently relaxed:
1821
1822 STORE *ADDR = 3, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = y, q = LOAD *DATA
1823
1824
1825If ordering rules are relaxed, it must be assumed that accesses done inside an
1826interrupt disabled section may leak outside of it and may interleave with
1827accesses performed in an interrupt - and vice versa - unless implicit or
1828explicit barriers are used.
1829
1830Normally this won't be a problem because the I/O accesses done inside such
1831sections will include synchronous load operations on strictly ordered I/O
1832registers that form implicit I/O barriers. If this isn't sufficient then an
1833mmiowb() may need to be used explicitly.
1834
1835
1836A similar situation may occur between an interrupt routine and two routines
1837running on separate CPUs that communicate with each other. If such a case is
1838likely, then interrupt-disabling locks should be used to guarantee ordering.
1839
1840
1841==========================
1842KERNEL I/O BARRIER EFFECTS
1843==========================
1844
1845When accessing I/O memory, drivers should use the appropriate accessor
1846functions:
1847
1848 (*) inX(), outX():
1849
1850 These are intended to talk to I/O space rather than memory space, but
1851 that's primarily a CPU-specific concept. The i386 and x86_64 processors do
1852 indeed have special I/O space access cycles and instructions, but many
1853 CPUs don't have such a concept.
1854
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001855 The PCI bus, amongst others, defines an I/O space concept which - on such
1856 CPUs as i386 and x86_64 - readily maps to the CPU's concept of I/O
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -07001857 space. However, it may also be mapped as a virtual I/O space in the CPU's
1858 memory map, particularly on those CPUs that don't support alternate I/O
1859 spaces.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001860
1861 Accesses to this space may be fully synchronous (as on i386), but
1862 intermediary bridges (such as the PCI host bridge) may not fully honour
1863 that.
1864
1865 They are guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to each other.
1866
1867 They are not guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to other types of
1868 memory and I/O operation.
1869
1870 (*) readX(), writeX():
1871
1872 Whether these are guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined with
1873 respect to each other on the issuing CPU depends on the characteristics
1874 defined for the memory window through which they're accessing. On later
1875 i386 architecture machines, for example, this is controlled by way of the
1876 MTRR registers.
1877
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001878 Ordinarily, these will be guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001879 provided they're not accessing a prefetchable device.
1880
1881 However, intermediary hardware (such as a PCI bridge) may indulge in
1882 deferral if it so wishes; to flush a store, a load from the same location
1883 is preferred[*], but a load from the same device or from configuration
1884 space should suffice for PCI.
1885
1886 [*] NOTE! attempting to load from the same location as was written to may
1887 cause a malfunction - consider the 16550 Rx/Tx serial registers for
1888 example.
1889
1890 Used with prefetchable I/O memory, an mmiowb() barrier may be required to
1891 force stores to be ordered.
1892
1893 Please refer to the PCI specification for more information on interactions
1894 between PCI transactions.
1895
1896 (*) readX_relaxed()
1897
1898 These are similar to readX(), but are not guaranteed to be ordered in any
1899 way. Be aware that there is no I/O read barrier available.
1900
1901 (*) ioreadX(), iowriteX()
1902
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001903 These will perform appropriately for the type of access they're actually
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001904 doing, be it inX()/outX() or readX()/writeX().
1905
1906
1907========================================
1908ASSUMED MINIMUM EXECUTION ORDERING MODEL
1909========================================
1910
1911It has to be assumed that the conceptual CPU is weakly-ordered but that it will
1912maintain the appearance of program causality with respect to itself. Some CPUs
1913(such as i386 or x86_64) are more constrained than others (such as powerpc or
1914frv), and so the most relaxed case (namely DEC Alpha) must be assumed outside
1915of arch-specific code.
1916
1917This means that it must be considered that the CPU will execute its instruction
1918stream in any order it feels like - or even in parallel - provided that if an
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001919instruction in the stream depends on an earlier instruction, then that
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001920earlier instruction must be sufficiently complete[*] before the later
1921instruction may proceed; in other words: provided that the appearance of
1922causality is maintained.
1923
1924 [*] Some instructions have more than one effect - such as changing the
1925 condition codes, changing registers or changing memory - and different
1926 instructions may depend on different effects.
1927
1928A CPU may also discard any instruction sequence that winds up having no
1929ultimate effect. For example, if two adjacent instructions both load an
1930immediate value into the same register, the first may be discarded.
1931
1932
1933Similarly, it has to be assumed that compiler might reorder the instruction
1934stream in any way it sees fit, again provided the appearance of causality is
1935maintained.
1936
1937
1938============================
1939THE EFFECTS OF THE CPU CACHE
1940============================
1941
1942The way cached memory operations are perceived across the system is affected to
1943a certain extent by the caches that lie between CPUs and memory, and by the
1944memory coherence system that maintains the consistency of state in the system.
1945
1946As far as the way a CPU interacts with another part of the system through the
1947caches goes, the memory system has to include the CPU's caches, and memory
1948barriers for the most part act at the interface between the CPU and its cache
1949(memory barriers logically act on the dotted line in the following diagram):
1950
1951 <--- CPU ---> : <----------- Memory ----------->
1952 :
1953 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1954 | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1955 | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | | | |
1956 | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1957 | | | Queue | : | | | |--->| Memory |
1958 | | | | : | | | | | |
1959 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1960 : | Cache | +--------+
1961 : | Coherency |
1962 : | Mechanism | +--------+
1963 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1964 | | | | : | | | | | |
1965 | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | |--->| Device |
1966 | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1967 | | | Queue | : | | | | | |
1968 | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1969 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1970 :
1971 :
1972
1973Although any particular load or store may not actually appear outside of the
1974CPU that issued it since it may have been satisfied within the CPU's own cache,
1975it will still appear as if the full memory access had taken place as far as the
1976other CPUs are concerned since the cache coherency mechanisms will migrate the
1977cacheline over to the accessing CPU and propagate the effects upon conflict.
1978
1979The CPU core may execute instructions in any order it deems fit, provided the
1980expected program causality appears to be maintained. Some of the instructions
1981generate load and store operations which then go into the queue of memory
1982accesses to be performed. The core may place these in the queue in any order
1983it wishes, and continue execution until it is forced to wait for an instruction
1984to complete.
1985
1986What memory barriers are concerned with is controlling the order in which
1987accesses cross from the CPU side of things to the memory side of things, and
1988the order in which the effects are perceived to happen by the other observers
1989in the system.
1990
1991[!] Memory barriers are _not_ needed within a given CPU, as CPUs always see
1992their own loads and stores as if they had happened in program order.
1993
1994[!] MMIO or other device accesses may bypass the cache system. This depends on
1995the properties of the memory window through which devices are accessed and/or
1996the use of any special device communication instructions the CPU may have.
1997
1998
1999CACHE COHERENCY
2000---------------
2001
2002Life isn't quite as simple as it may appear above, however: for while the
2003caches are expected to be coherent, there's no guarantee that that coherency
2004will be ordered. This means that whilst changes made on one CPU will
2005eventually become visible on all CPUs, there's no guarantee that they will
2006become apparent in the same order on those other CPUs.
2007
2008
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002009Consider dealing with a system that has a pair of CPUs (1 & 2), each of which
2010has a pair of parallel data caches (CPU 1 has A/B, and CPU 2 has C/D):
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002011
2012 :
2013 : +--------+
2014 : +---------+ | |
2015 +--------+ : +--->| Cache A |<------->| |
2016 | | : | +---------+ | |
2017 | CPU 1 |<---+ | |
2018 | | : | +---------+ | |
2019 +--------+ : +--->| Cache B |<------->| |
2020 : +---------+ | |
2021 : | Memory |
2022 : +---------+ | System |
2023 +--------+ : +--->| Cache C |<------->| |
2024 | | : | +---------+ | |
2025 | CPU 2 |<---+ | |
2026 | | : | +---------+ | |
2027 +--------+ : +--->| Cache D |<------->| |
2028 : +---------+ | |
2029 : +--------+
2030 :
2031
2032Imagine the system has the following properties:
2033
2034 (*) an odd-numbered cache line may be in cache A, cache C or it may still be
2035 resident in memory;
2036
2037 (*) an even-numbered cache line may be in cache B, cache D or it may still be
2038 resident in memory;
2039
2040 (*) whilst the CPU core is interrogating one cache, the other cache may be
2041 making use of the bus to access the rest of the system - perhaps to
2042 displace a dirty cacheline or to do a speculative load;
2043
2044 (*) each cache has a queue of operations that need to be applied to that cache
2045 to maintain coherency with the rest of the system;
2046
2047 (*) the coherency queue is not flushed by normal loads to lines already
2048 present in the cache, even though the contents of the queue may
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002049 potentially affect those loads.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002050
2051Imagine, then, that two writes are made on the first CPU, with a write barrier
2052between them to guarantee that they will appear to reach that CPU's caches in
2053the requisite order:
2054
2055 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2056 =============== =============== =======================================
2057 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2058 v = 2;
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002059 smp_wmb(); Make sure change to v is visible before
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002060 change to p
2061 <A:modify v=2> v is now in cache A exclusively
2062 p = &v;
2063 <B:modify p=&v> p is now in cache B exclusively
2064
2065The write memory barrier forces the other CPUs in the system to perceive that
2066the local CPU's caches have apparently been updated in the correct order. But
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002067now imagine that the second CPU wants to read those values:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002068
2069 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2070 =============== =============== =======================================
2071 ...
2072 q = p;
2073 x = *q;
2074
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002075The above pair of reads may then fail to happen in the expected order, as the
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002076cacheline holding p may get updated in one of the second CPU's caches whilst
2077the update to the cacheline holding v is delayed in the other of the second
2078CPU's caches by some other cache event:
2079
2080 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2081 =============== =============== =======================================
2082 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2083 v = 2;
2084 smp_wmb();
2085 <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2086 <C:queue v=2>
Aneesh Kumar79afecf2006-05-15 09:44:36 -07002087 p = &v; q = p;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002088 <D:request p>
2089 <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2090 <D:read p>
2091 x = *q;
2092 <C:read *q> Reads from v before v updated in cache
2093 <C:unbusy>
2094 <C:commit v=2>
2095
2096Basically, whilst both cachelines will be updated on CPU 2 eventually, there's
2097no guarantee that, without intervention, the order of update will be the same
2098as that committed on CPU 1.
2099
2100
2101To intervene, we need to interpolate a data dependency barrier or a read
2102barrier between the loads. This will force the cache to commit its coherency
2103queue before processing any further requests:
2104
2105 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2106 =============== =============== =======================================
2107 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2108 v = 2;
2109 smp_wmb();
2110 <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2111 <C:queue v=2>
Paolo 'Blaisorblade' Giarrusso3fda9822006-10-19 23:28:19 -07002112 p = &v; q = p;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002113 <D:request p>
2114 <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2115 <D:read p>
2116 smp_read_barrier_depends()
2117 <C:unbusy>
2118 <C:commit v=2>
2119 x = *q;
2120 <C:read *q> Reads from v after v updated in cache
2121
2122
2123This sort of problem can be encountered on DEC Alpha processors as they have a
2124split cache that improves performance by making better use of the data bus.
2125Whilst most CPUs do imply a data dependency barrier on the read when a memory
2126access depends on a read, not all do, so it may not be relied on.
2127
2128Other CPUs may also have split caches, but must coordinate between the various
Matt LaPlante3f6dee92006-10-03 22:45:33 +02002129cachelets for normal memory accesses. The semantics of the Alpha removes the
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002130need for coordination in the absence of memory barriers.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002131
2132
2133CACHE COHERENCY VS DMA
2134----------------------
2135
2136Not all systems maintain cache coherency with respect to devices doing DMA. In
2137such cases, a device attempting DMA may obtain stale data from RAM because
2138dirty cache lines may be resident in the caches of various CPUs, and may not
2139have been written back to RAM yet. To deal with this, the appropriate part of
2140the kernel must flush the overlapping bits of cache on each CPU (and maybe
2141invalidate them as well).
2142
2143In addition, the data DMA'd to RAM by a device may be overwritten by dirty
2144cache lines being written back to RAM from a CPU's cache after the device has
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002145installed its own data, or cache lines present in the CPU's cache may simply
2146obscure the fact that RAM has been updated, until at such time as the cacheline
2147is discarded from the CPU's cache and reloaded. To deal with this, the
2148appropriate part of the kernel must invalidate the overlapping bits of the
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002149cache on each CPU.
2150
2151See Documentation/cachetlb.txt for more information on cache management.
2152
2153
2154CACHE COHERENCY VS MMIO
2155-----------------------
2156
2157Memory mapped I/O usually takes place through memory locations that are part of
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002158a window in the CPU's memory space that has different properties assigned than
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002159the usual RAM directed window.
2160
2161Amongst these properties is usually the fact that such accesses bypass the
2162caching entirely and go directly to the device buses. This means MMIO accesses
2163may, in effect, overtake accesses to cached memory that were emitted earlier.
2164A memory barrier isn't sufficient in such a case, but rather the cache must be
2165flushed between the cached memory write and the MMIO access if the two are in
2166any way dependent.
2167
2168
2169=========================
2170THE THINGS CPUS GET UP TO
2171=========================
2172
2173A programmer might take it for granted that the CPU will perform memory
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002174operations in exactly the order specified, so that if the CPU is, for example,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002175given the following piece of code to execute:
2176
2177 a = *A;
2178 *B = b;
2179 c = *C;
2180 d = *D;
2181 *E = e;
2182
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002183they would then expect that the CPU will complete the memory operation for each
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002184instruction before moving on to the next one, leading to a definite sequence of
2185operations as seen by external observers in the system:
2186
2187 LOAD *A, STORE *B, LOAD *C, LOAD *D, STORE *E.
2188
2189
2190Reality is, of course, much messier. With many CPUs and compilers, the above
2191assumption doesn't hold because:
2192
2193 (*) loads are more likely to need to be completed immediately to permit
2194 execution progress, whereas stores can often be deferred without a
2195 problem;
2196
2197 (*) loads may be done speculatively, and the result discarded should it prove
2198 to have been unnecessary;
2199
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002200 (*) loads may be done speculatively, leading to the result having been fetched
2201 at the wrong time in the expected sequence of events;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002202
2203 (*) the order of the memory accesses may be rearranged to promote better use
2204 of the CPU buses and caches;
2205
2206 (*) loads and stores may be combined to improve performance when talking to
2207 memory or I/O hardware that can do batched accesses of adjacent locations,
2208 thus cutting down on transaction setup costs (memory and PCI devices may
2209 both be able to do this); and
2210
2211 (*) the CPU's data cache may affect the ordering, and whilst cache-coherency
2212 mechanisms may alleviate this - once the store has actually hit the cache
2213 - there's no guarantee that the coherency management will be propagated in
2214 order to other CPUs.
2215
2216So what another CPU, say, might actually observe from the above piece of code
2217is:
2218
2219 LOAD *A, ..., LOAD {*C,*D}, STORE *E, STORE *B
2220
2221 (Where "LOAD {*C,*D}" is a combined load)
2222
2223
2224However, it is guaranteed that a CPU will be self-consistent: it will see its
2225_own_ accesses appear to be correctly ordered, without the need for a memory
2226barrier. For instance with the following code:
2227
2228 U = *A;
2229 *A = V;
2230 *A = W;
2231 X = *A;
2232 *A = Y;
2233 Z = *A;
2234
2235and assuming no intervention by an external influence, it can be assumed that
2236the final result will appear to be:
2237
2238 U == the original value of *A
2239 X == W
2240 Z == Y
2241 *A == Y
2242
2243The code above may cause the CPU to generate the full sequence of memory
2244accesses:
2245
2246 U=LOAD *A, STORE *A=V, STORE *A=W, X=LOAD *A, STORE *A=Y, Z=LOAD *A
2247
2248in that order, but, without intervention, the sequence may have almost any
2249combination of elements combined or discarded, provided the program's view of
2250the world remains consistent.
2251
2252The compiler may also combine, discard or defer elements of the sequence before
2253the CPU even sees them.
2254
2255For instance:
2256
2257 *A = V;
2258 *A = W;
2259
2260may be reduced to:
2261
2262 *A = W;
2263
2264since, without a write barrier, it can be assumed that the effect of the
2265storage of V to *A is lost. Similarly:
2266
2267 *A = Y;
2268 Z = *A;
2269
2270may, without a memory barrier, be reduced to:
2271
2272 *A = Y;
2273 Z = Y;
2274
2275and the LOAD operation never appear outside of the CPU.
2276
2277
2278AND THEN THERE'S THE ALPHA
2279--------------------------
2280
2281The DEC Alpha CPU is one of the most relaxed CPUs there is. Not only that,
2282some versions of the Alpha CPU have a split data cache, permitting them to have
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002283two semantically-related cache lines updated at separate times. This is where
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002284the data dependency barrier really becomes necessary as this synchronises both
2285caches with the memory coherence system, thus making it seem like pointer
2286changes vs new data occur in the right order.
2287
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002288The Alpha defines the Linux kernel's memory barrier model.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002289
2290See the subsection on "Cache Coherency" above.
2291
2292
David Howells90fddab2010-03-24 09:43:00 +00002293============
2294EXAMPLE USES
2295============
2296
2297CIRCULAR BUFFERS
2298----------------
2299
2300Memory barriers can be used to implement circular buffering without the need
2301of a lock to serialise the producer with the consumer. See:
2302
2303 Documentation/circular-buffers.txt
2304
2305for details.
2306
2307
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002308==========
2309REFERENCES
2310==========
2311
2312Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual, Second Edition (Sites & Witek,
2313Digital Press)
2314 Chapter 5.2: Physical Address Space Characteristics
2315 Chapter 5.4: Caches and Write Buffers
2316 Chapter 5.5: Data Sharing
2317 Chapter 5.6: Read/Write Ordering
2318
2319AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual Volume 2: System Programming
2320 Chapter 7.1: Memory-Access Ordering
2321 Chapter 7.4: Buffering and Combining Memory Writes
2322
2323IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3:
2324System Programming Guide
2325 Chapter 7.1: Locked Atomic Operations
2326 Chapter 7.2: Memory Ordering
2327 Chapter 7.4: Serializing Instructions
2328
2329The SPARC Architecture Manual, Version 9
2330 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2331 Appendix D: Formal Specification of the Memory Models
2332 Appendix J: Programming with the Memory Models
2333
2334UltraSPARC Programmer Reference Manual
2335 Chapter 5: Memory Accesses and Cacheability
2336 Chapter 15: Sparc-V9 Memory Models
2337
2338UltraSPARC III Cu User's Manual
2339 Chapter 9: Memory Models
2340
2341UltraSPARC IIIi Processor User's Manual
2342 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2343
2344UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2345 Chapter 9: Memory
2346 Appendix D: Formal Specifications of the Memory Models
2347
2348UltraSPARC T1 Supplement to the UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2349 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2350 Appendix F: Caches and Cache Coherency
2351
2352Solaris Internals, Core Kernel Architecture, p63-68:
2353 Chapter 3.3: Hardware Considerations for Locks and
2354 Synchronization
2355
2356Unix Systems for Modern Architectures, Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching
2357for Kernel Programmers:
2358 Chapter 13: Other Memory Models
2359
2360Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual: Volume 1:
2361 Section 2.6: Speculation
2362 Section 4.4: Memory Access