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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;
Paul E. McKenney45c8a362013-07-02 15:24:09 -0700534 if (p) {
535 <data dependency barrier>
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100536 q = &b;
Paul E. McKenney45c8a362013-07-02 15:24:09 -0700537 }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100538 x = *q;
539
540This will not have the desired effect because there is no actual data
541dependency, but rather a control dependency that the CPU may short-circuit by
542attempting to predict the outcome in advance. In such a case what's actually
543required is:
544
545 q = &a;
Paul E. McKenney45c8a362013-07-02 15:24:09 -0700546 if (p) {
547 <read barrier>
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100548 q = &b;
Paul E. McKenney45c8a362013-07-02 15:24:09 -0700549 }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100550 x = *q;
551
552
553SMP BARRIER PAIRING
554-------------------
555
556When dealing with CPU-CPU interactions, certain types of memory barrier should
557always be paired. A lack of appropriate pairing is almost certainly an error.
558
559A write barrier should always be paired with a data dependency barrier or read
560barrier, though a general barrier would also be viable. Similarly a read
561barrier or a data dependency barrier should always be paired with at least an
562write barrier, though, again, a general barrier is viable:
563
564 CPU 1 CPU 2
565 =============== ===============
566 a = 1;
567 <write barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700568 b = 2; x = b;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100569 <read barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700570 y = a;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100571
572Or:
573
574 CPU 1 CPU 2
575 =============== ===============================
576 a = 1;
577 <write barrier>
578 b = &a; x = b;
579 <data dependency barrier>
580 y = *x;
581
582Basically, the read barrier always has to be there, even though it can be of
583the "weaker" type.
584
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700585[!] Note that the stores before the write barrier would normally be expected to
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700586match the loads after the read barrier or the data dependency barrier, and vice
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700587versa:
588
589 CPU 1 CPU 2
590 =============== ===============
591 a = 1; }---- --->{ v = c
592 b = 2; } \ / { w = d
593 <write barrier> \ <read barrier>
594 c = 3; } / \ { x = a;
595 d = 4; }---- --->{ y = b;
596
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100597
598EXAMPLES OF MEMORY BARRIER SEQUENCES
599------------------------------------
600
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700601Firstly, write barriers act as partial orderings on store operations.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100602Consider the following sequence of events:
603
604 CPU 1
605 =======================
606 STORE A = 1
607 STORE B = 2
608 STORE C = 3
609 <write barrier>
610 STORE D = 4
611 STORE E = 5
612
613This sequence of events is committed to the memory coherence system in an order
614that the rest of the system might perceive as the unordered set of { STORE A,
Adrian Bunk80f72282006-06-30 18:27:16 +0200615STORE B, STORE C } all occurring before the unordered set of { STORE D, STORE E
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100616}:
617
618 +-------+ : :
619 | | +------+
620 | |------>| C=3 | } /\
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700621 | | : +------+ }----- \ -----> Events perceptible to
622 | | : | A=1 | } \/ the rest of the system
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100623 | | : +------+ }
624 | CPU 1 | : | B=2 | }
625 | | +------+ }
626 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww } <--- At this point the write barrier
627 | | +------+ } requires all stores prior to the
628 | | : | E=5 | } barrier to be committed before
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700629 | | : +------+ } further stores may take place
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100630 | |------>| D=4 | }
631 | | +------+
632 +-------+ : :
633 |
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700634 | Sequence in which stores are committed to the
635 | memory system by CPU 1
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100636 V
637
638
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -0700639Secondly, data dependency barriers act as partial orderings on data-dependent
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100640loads. Consider the following sequence of events:
641
642 CPU 1 CPU 2
643 ======================= =======================
David Howellsc14038c2006-04-10 22:54:24 -0700644 { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100645 STORE A = 1
646 STORE B = 2
647 <write barrier>
648 STORE C = &B LOAD X
649 STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
650 LOAD *C (reads B)
651
652Without intervention, CPU 2 may perceive the events on CPU 1 in some
653effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
654
655 +-------+ : : : :
656 | | +------+ +-------+ | Sequence of update
657 | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 | | of perception on
658 | | : +------+ \ +-------+ | CPU 2
659 | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y | V
660 | | +------+ | +-------+
661 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
662 | | +------+ | : :
663 | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
664 | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
665 | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
666 | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
667 +-------+ : : | : : | |
668 | : : | |
669 | : : | CPU 2 |
670 | +-------+ | |
671 Apparently incorrect ---> | | B->7 |------>| |
672 perception of B (!) | +-------+ | |
673 | : : | |
674 | +-------+ | |
675 The load of X holds ---> \ | X->9 |------>| |
676 up the maintenance \ +-------+ | |
677 of coherence of B ----->| B->2 | +-------+
678 +-------+
679 : :
680
681
682In the above example, CPU 2 perceives that B is 7, despite the load of *C
Paolo Ornati670e9f32006-10-03 22:57:56 +0200683(which would be B) coming after the LOAD of C.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100684
685If, however, a data dependency barrier were to be placed between the load of C
David Howellsc14038c2006-04-10 22:54:24 -0700686and the load of *C (ie: B) on CPU 2:
687
688 CPU 1 CPU 2
689 ======================= =======================
690 { B = 7; X = 9; Y = 8; C = &Y }
691 STORE A = 1
692 STORE B = 2
693 <write barrier>
694 STORE C = &B LOAD X
695 STORE D = 4 LOAD C (gets &B)
696 <data dependency barrier>
697 LOAD *C (reads B)
698
699then the following will occur:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100700
701 +-------+ : : : :
702 | | +------+ +-------+
703 | |------>| B=2 |----- --->| Y->8 |
704 | | : +------+ \ +-------+
705 | CPU 1 | : | A=1 | \ --->| C->&Y |
706 | | +------+ | +-------+
707 | | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww | : :
708 | | +------+ | : :
709 | | : | C=&B |--- | : : +-------+
710 | | : +------+ \ | +-------+ | |
711 | |------>| D=4 | ----------->| C->&B |------>| |
712 | | +------+ | +-------+ | |
713 +-------+ : : | : : | |
714 | : : | |
715 | : : | CPU 2 |
716 | +-------+ | |
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700717 | | X->9 |------>| |
718 | +-------+ | |
719 Makes sure all effects ---> \ ddddddddddddddddd | |
720 prior to the store of C \ +-------+ | |
721 are perceptible to ----->| B->2 |------>| |
722 subsequent loads +-------+ | |
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100723 : : +-------+
724
725
726And thirdly, a read barrier acts as a partial order on loads. Consider the
727following sequence of events:
728
729 CPU 1 CPU 2
730 ======================= =======================
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700731 { A = 0, B = 9 }
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100732 STORE A=1
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100733 <write barrier>
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700734 STORE B=2
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100735 LOAD B
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700736 LOAD A
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100737
738Without intervention, CPU 2 may then choose to perceive the events on CPU 1 in
739some effectively random order, despite the write barrier issued by CPU 1:
740
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700741 +-------+ : : : :
742 | | +------+ +-------+
743 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
744 | | +------+ \ +-------+
745 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
746 | | +------+ | +-------+
747 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
748 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
749 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
750 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
751 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
752 | | A->0 |------>| |
753 | +-------+ | |
754 | : : +-------+
755 \ : :
756 \ +-------+
757 ---->| A->1 |
758 +-------+
759 : :
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100760
761
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -0700762If, however, a read barrier were to be placed between the load of B and the
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700763load of A on CPU 2:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100764
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -0700765 CPU 1 CPU 2
766 ======================= =======================
767 { A = 0, B = 9 }
768 STORE A=1
769 <write barrier>
770 STORE B=2
771 LOAD B
772 <read barrier>
773 LOAD A
774
775then the partial ordering imposed by CPU 1 will be perceived correctly by CPU
7762:
777
778 +-------+ : : : :
779 | | +------+ +-------+
780 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
781 | | +------+ \ +-------+
782 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
783 | | +------+ | +-------+
784 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
785 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
786 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
787 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
788 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
789 | : : | |
790 | : : | |
791 At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
792 barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
793 prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| |
794 to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
795 : : +-------+
796
797
798To illustrate this more completely, consider what could happen if the code
799contained a load of A either side of the read barrier:
800
801 CPU 1 CPU 2
802 ======================= =======================
803 { A = 0, B = 9 }
804 STORE A=1
805 <write barrier>
806 STORE B=2
807 LOAD B
808 LOAD A [first load of A]
809 <read barrier>
810 LOAD A [second load of A]
811
812Even though the two loads of A both occur after the load of B, they may both
813come up with different values:
814
815 +-------+ : : : :
816 | | +------+ +-------+
817 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
818 | | +------+ \ +-------+
819 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
820 | | +------+ | +-------+
821 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
822 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
823 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
824 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
825 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
826 | : : | |
827 | : : | |
828 | +-------+ | |
829 | | A->0 |------>| 1st |
830 | +-------+ | |
831 At this point the read ----> \ rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
832 barrier causes all effects \ +-------+ | |
833 prior to the storage of B ---->| A->1 |------>| 2nd |
834 to be perceptible to CPU 2 +-------+ | |
835 : : +-------+
836
837
838But it may be that the update to A from CPU 1 becomes perceptible to CPU 2
839before the read barrier completes anyway:
840
841 +-------+ : : : :
842 | | +------+ +-------+
843 | |------>| A=1 |------ --->| A->0 |
844 | | +------+ \ +-------+
845 | CPU 1 | wwwwwwwwwwwwwwww \ --->| B->9 |
846 | | +------+ | +-------+
847 | |------>| B=2 |--- | : :
848 | | +------+ \ | : : +-------+
849 +-------+ : : \ | +-------+ | |
850 ---------->| B->2 |------>| |
851 | +-------+ | CPU 2 |
852 | : : | |
853 \ : : | |
854 \ +-------+ | |
855 ---->| A->1 |------>| 1st |
856 +-------+ | |
857 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
858 +-------+ | |
859 | A->1 |------>| 2nd |
860 +-------+ | |
861 : : +-------+
862
863
864The guarantee is that the second load will always come up with A == 1 if the
865load of B came up with B == 2. No such guarantee exists for the first load of
866A; that may come up with either A == 0 or A == 1.
867
868
869READ MEMORY BARRIERS VS LOAD SPECULATION
870----------------------------------------
871
872Many CPUs speculate with loads: that is they see that they will need to load an
873item from memory, and they find a time where they're not using the bus for any
874other loads, and so do the load in advance - even though they haven't actually
875got to that point in the instruction execution flow yet. This permits the
876actual load instruction to potentially complete immediately because the CPU
877already has the value to hand.
878
879It may turn out that the CPU didn't actually need the value - perhaps because a
880branch circumvented the load - in which case it can discard the value or just
881cache it for later use.
882
883Consider:
884
885 CPU 1 CPU 2
886 ======================= =======================
887 LOAD B
888 DIVIDE } Divide instructions generally
889 DIVIDE } take a long time to perform
890 LOAD A
891
892Which might appear as this:
893
894 : : +-------+
895 +-------+ | |
896 --->| B->2 |------>| |
897 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
898 : :DIVIDE | |
899 +-------+ | |
900 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
901 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
902 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
903 : :DIVIDE | |
904 : : ~ | |
905 Once the divisions are complete --> : : ~-->| |
906 the CPU can then perform the : : | |
907 LOAD with immediate effect : : +-------+
908
909
910Placing a read barrier or a data dependency barrier just before the second
911load:
912
913 CPU 1 CPU 2
914 ======================= =======================
915 LOAD B
916 DIVIDE
917 DIVIDE
918 <read barrier>
919 LOAD A
920
921will force any value speculatively obtained to be reconsidered to an extent
922dependent on the type of barrier used. If there was no change made to the
923speculated memory location, then the speculated value will just be used:
924
925 : : +-------+
926 +-------+ | |
927 --->| B->2 |------>| |
928 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
929 : :DIVIDE | |
930 +-------+ | |
931 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
932 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
933 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
934 : :DIVIDE | |
935 : : ~ | |
936 : : ~ | |
937 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr~ | |
938 : : ~ | |
939 : : ~-->| |
940 : : | |
941 : : +-------+
942
943
944but if there was an update or an invalidation from another CPU pending, then
945the speculation will be cancelled and the value reloaded:
946
947 : : +-------+
948 +-------+ | |
949 --->| B->2 |------>| |
950 +-------+ | CPU 2 |
951 : :DIVIDE | |
952 +-------+ | |
953 The CPU being busy doing a ---> --->| A->0 |~~~~ | |
954 division speculates on the +-------+ ~ | |
955 LOAD of A : : ~ | |
956 : :DIVIDE | |
957 : : ~ | |
958 : : ~ | |
959 rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr | |
960 +-------+ | |
961 The speculation is discarded ---> --->| A->1 |------>| |
962 and an updated value is +-------+ | |
963 retrieved : : +-------+
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +0100964
965
Paul E. McKenney241e6662011-02-10 16:54:50 -0800966TRANSITIVITY
967------------
968
969Transitivity is a deeply intuitive notion about ordering that is not
970always provided by real computer systems. The following example
971demonstrates transitivity (also called "cumulativity"):
972
973 CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3
974 ======================= ======================= =======================
975 { X = 0, Y = 0 }
976 STORE X=1 LOAD X STORE Y=1
977 <general barrier> <general barrier>
978 LOAD Y LOAD X
979
980Suppose that CPU 2's load from X returns 1 and its load from Y returns 0.
981This indicates that CPU 2's load from X in some sense follows CPU 1's
982store to X and that CPU 2's load from Y in some sense preceded CPU 3's
983store to Y. The question is then "Can CPU 3's load from X return 0?"
984
985Because CPU 2's load from X in some sense came after CPU 1's store, it
986is natural to expect that CPU 3's load from X must therefore return 1.
987This expectation is an example of transitivity: if a load executing on
988CPU A follows a load from the same variable executing on CPU B, then
989CPU A's load must either return the same value that CPU B's load did,
990or must return some later value.
991
992In the Linux kernel, use of general memory barriers guarantees
993transitivity. Therefore, in the above example, if CPU 2's load from X
994returns 1 and its load from Y returns 0, then CPU 3's load from X must
995also return 1.
996
997However, transitivity is -not- guaranteed for read or write barriers.
998For example, suppose that CPU 2's general barrier in the above example
999is changed to a read barrier as shown below:
1000
1001 CPU 1 CPU 2 CPU 3
1002 ======================= ======================= =======================
1003 { X = 0, Y = 0 }
1004 STORE X=1 LOAD X STORE Y=1
1005 <read barrier> <general barrier>
1006 LOAD Y LOAD X
1007
1008This substitution destroys transitivity: in this example, it is perfectly
1009legal for CPU 2's load from X to return 1, its load from Y to return 0,
1010and CPU 3's load from X to return 0.
1011
1012The key point is that although CPU 2's read barrier orders its pair
1013of loads, it does not guarantee to order CPU 1's store. Therefore, if
1014this example runs on a system where CPUs 1 and 2 share a store buffer
1015or a level of cache, CPU 2 might have early access to CPU 1's writes.
1016General barriers are therefore required to ensure that all CPUs agree
1017on the combined order of CPU 1's and CPU 2's accesses.
1018
1019To reiterate, if your code requires transitivity, use general barriers
1020throughout.
1021
1022
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001023========================
1024EXPLICIT KERNEL BARRIERS
1025========================
1026
1027The Linux kernel has a variety of different barriers that act at different
1028levels:
1029
1030 (*) Compiler barrier.
1031
1032 (*) CPU memory barriers.
1033
1034 (*) MMIO write barrier.
1035
1036
1037COMPILER BARRIER
1038----------------
1039
1040The Linux kernel has an explicit compiler barrier function that prevents the
1041compiler from moving the memory accesses either side of it to the other side:
1042
1043 barrier();
1044
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001045This is a general barrier - lesser varieties of compiler barrier do not exist.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001046
1047The compiler barrier has no direct effect on the CPU, which may then reorder
1048things however it wishes.
1049
1050
1051CPU MEMORY BARRIERS
1052-------------------
1053
1054The Linux kernel has eight basic CPU memory barriers:
1055
1056 TYPE MANDATORY SMP CONDITIONAL
1057 =============== ======================= ===========================
1058 GENERAL mb() smp_mb()
1059 WRITE wmb() smp_wmb()
1060 READ rmb() smp_rmb()
1061 DATA DEPENDENCY read_barrier_depends() smp_read_barrier_depends()
1062
1063
Nick Piggin73f10282008-05-14 06:35:11 +02001064All memory barriers except the data dependency barriers imply a compiler
1065barrier. Data dependencies do not impose any additional compiler ordering.
1066
1067Aside: In the case of data dependencies, the compiler would be expected to
1068issue the loads in the correct order (eg. `a[b]` would have to load the value
1069of b before loading a[b]), however there is no guarantee in the C specification
1070that the compiler may not speculate the value of b (eg. is equal to 1) and load
1071a before b (eg. tmp = a[1]; if (b != 1) tmp = a[b]; ). There is also the
1072problem of a compiler reloading b after having loaded a[b], thus having a newer
1073copy of b than a[b]. A consensus has not yet been reached about these problems,
1074however the ACCESS_ONCE macro is a good place to start looking.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001075
1076SMP memory barriers are reduced to compiler barriers on uniprocessor compiled
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001077systems because it is assumed that a CPU will appear to be self-consistent,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001078and will order overlapping accesses correctly with respect to itself.
1079
1080[!] Note that SMP memory barriers _must_ be used to control the ordering of
1081references to shared memory on SMP systems, though the use of locking instead
1082is sufficient.
1083
1084Mandatory barriers should not be used to control SMP effects, since mandatory
1085barriers unnecessarily impose overhead on UP systems. They may, however, be
1086used to control MMIO effects on accesses through relaxed memory I/O windows.
1087These are required even on non-SMP systems as they affect the order in which
1088memory operations appear to a device by prohibiting both the compiler and the
1089CPU from reordering them.
1090
1091
1092There are some more advanced barrier functions:
1093
1094 (*) set_mb(var, value)
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001095
Oleg Nesterov75b2bd52006-11-08 17:44:38 -08001096 This assigns the value to the variable and then inserts a full memory
Steven Rostedtf92213b2006-07-14 16:05:01 -04001097 barrier after it, depending on the function. It isn't guaranteed to
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001098 insert anything more than a compiler barrier in a UP compilation.
1099
1100
1101 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1102 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_dec();
1103 (*) smp_mb__before_atomic_inc();
1104 (*) smp_mb__after_atomic_inc();
1105
1106 These are for use with atomic add, subtract, increment and decrement
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001107 functions that don't return a value, especially when used for reference
1108 counting. These functions do not imply memory barriers.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001109
1110 As an example, consider a piece of code that marks an object as being dead
1111 and then decrements the object's reference count:
1112
1113 obj->dead = 1;
1114 smp_mb__before_atomic_dec();
1115 atomic_dec(&obj->ref_count);
1116
1117 This makes sure that the death mark on the object is perceived to be set
1118 *before* the reference counter is decremented.
1119
1120 See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1121 operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1122
1123
1124 (*) smp_mb__before_clear_bit(void);
1125 (*) smp_mb__after_clear_bit(void);
1126
1127 These are for use similar to the atomic inc/dec barriers. These are
1128 typically used for bitwise unlocking operations, so care must be taken as
1129 there are no implicit memory barriers here either.
1130
1131 Consider implementing an unlock operation of some nature by clearing a
1132 locking bit. The clear_bit() would then need to be barriered like this:
1133
1134 smp_mb__before_clear_bit();
1135 clear_bit( ... );
1136
1137 This prevents memory operations before the clear leaking to after it. See
1138 the subsection on "Locking Functions" with reference to UNLOCK operation
1139 implications.
1140
1141 See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information. See the "Atomic
1142 operations" subsection for information on where to use these.
1143
1144
1145MMIO WRITE BARRIER
1146------------------
1147
1148The Linux kernel also has a special barrier for use with memory-mapped I/O
1149writes:
1150
1151 mmiowb();
1152
1153This is a variation on the mandatory write barrier that causes writes to weakly
1154ordered I/O regions to be partially ordered. Its effects may go beyond the
1155CPU->Hardware interface and actually affect the hardware at some level.
1156
1157See the subsection "Locks vs I/O accesses" for more information.
1158
1159
1160===============================
1161IMPLICIT KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
1162===============================
1163
1164Some of the other functions in the linux kernel imply memory barriers, amongst
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -07001165which are locking and scheduling functions.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001166
1167This specification is a _minimum_ guarantee; any particular architecture may
1168provide more substantial guarantees, but these may not be relied upon outside
1169of arch specific code.
1170
1171
1172LOCKING FUNCTIONS
1173-----------------
1174
1175The Linux kernel has a number of locking constructs:
1176
1177 (*) spin locks
1178 (*) R/W spin locks
1179 (*) mutexes
1180 (*) semaphores
1181 (*) R/W semaphores
1182 (*) RCU
1183
1184In all cases there are variants on "LOCK" operations and "UNLOCK" operations
1185for each construct. These operations all imply certain barriers:
1186
1187 (1) LOCK operation implication:
1188
1189 Memory operations issued after the LOCK will be completed after the LOCK
1190 operation has completed.
1191
1192 Memory operations issued before the LOCK may be completed after the LOCK
1193 operation has completed.
1194
1195 (2) UNLOCK operation implication:
1196
1197 Memory operations issued before the UNLOCK will be completed before the
1198 UNLOCK operation has completed.
1199
1200 Memory operations issued after the UNLOCK may be completed before the
1201 UNLOCK operation has completed.
1202
1203 (3) LOCK vs LOCK implication:
1204
1205 All LOCK operations issued before another LOCK operation will be completed
1206 before that LOCK operation.
1207
1208 (4) LOCK vs UNLOCK implication:
1209
1210 All LOCK operations issued before an UNLOCK operation will be completed
1211 before the UNLOCK operation.
1212
1213 All UNLOCK operations issued before a LOCK operation will be completed
1214 before the LOCK operation.
1215
1216 (5) Failed conditional LOCK implication:
1217
1218 Certain variants of the LOCK operation may fail, either due to being
1219 unable to get the lock immediately, or due to receiving an unblocked
1220 signal whilst asleep waiting for the lock to become available. Failed
1221 locks do not imply any sort of barrier.
1222
1223Therefore, from (1), (2) and (4) an UNLOCK followed by an unconditional LOCK is
1224equivalent to a full barrier, but a LOCK followed by an UNLOCK is not.
1225
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001226[!] Note: one of the consequences of LOCKs and UNLOCKs being only one-way
1227 barriers is that the effects of instructions outside of a critical section
1228 may seep into the inside of the critical section.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001229
David Howells670bd952006-06-10 09:54:12 -07001230A LOCK followed by an UNLOCK may not be assumed to be full memory barrier
1231because it is possible for an access preceding the LOCK to happen after the
1232LOCK, and an access following the UNLOCK to happen before the UNLOCK, and the
1233two accesses can themselves then cross:
1234
1235 *A = a;
1236 LOCK
1237 UNLOCK
1238 *B = b;
1239
1240may occur as:
1241
1242 LOCK, STORE *B, STORE *A, UNLOCK
1243
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001244Locks and semaphores may not provide any guarantee of ordering on UP compiled
1245systems, and so cannot be counted on in such a situation to actually achieve
1246anything at all - especially with respect to I/O accesses - unless combined
1247with interrupt disabling operations.
1248
1249See also the section on "Inter-CPU locking barrier effects".
1250
1251
1252As an example, consider the following:
1253
1254 *A = a;
1255 *B = b;
1256 LOCK
1257 *C = c;
1258 *D = d;
1259 UNLOCK
1260 *E = e;
1261 *F = f;
1262
1263The following sequence of events is acceptable:
1264
1265 LOCK, {*F,*A}, *E, {*C,*D}, *B, UNLOCK
1266
1267 [+] Note that {*F,*A} indicates a combined access.
1268
1269But none of the following are:
1270
1271 {*F,*A}, *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, *E
1272 *A, *B, *C, LOCK, *D, UNLOCK, *E, *F
1273 *A, *B, LOCK, *C, UNLOCK, *D, *E, *F
1274 *B, LOCK, *C, *D, UNLOCK, {*F,*A}, *E
1275
1276
1277
1278INTERRUPT DISABLING FUNCTIONS
1279-----------------------------
1280
1281Functions that disable interrupts (LOCK equivalent) and enable interrupts
1282(UNLOCK equivalent) will act as compiler barriers only. So if memory or I/O
1283barriers are required in such a situation, they must be provided from some
1284other means.
1285
1286
David Howells50fa6102009-04-28 15:01:38 +01001287SLEEP AND WAKE-UP FUNCTIONS
1288---------------------------
1289
1290Sleeping and waking on an event flagged in global data can be viewed as an
1291interaction between two pieces of data: the task state of the task waiting for
1292the event and the global data used to indicate the event. To make sure that
1293these appear to happen in the right order, the primitives to begin the process
1294of going to sleep, and the primitives to initiate a wake up imply certain
1295barriers.
1296
1297Firstly, the sleeper normally follows something like this sequence of events:
1298
1299 for (;;) {
1300 set_current_state(TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);
1301 if (event_indicated)
1302 break;
1303 schedule();
1304 }
1305
1306A general memory barrier is interpolated automatically by set_current_state()
1307after it has altered the task state:
1308
1309 CPU 1
1310 ===============================
1311 set_current_state();
1312 set_mb();
1313 STORE current->state
1314 <general barrier>
1315 LOAD event_indicated
1316
1317set_current_state() may be wrapped by:
1318
1319 prepare_to_wait();
1320 prepare_to_wait_exclusive();
1321
1322which therefore also imply a general memory barrier after setting the state.
1323The whole sequence above is available in various canned forms, all of which
1324interpolate the memory barrier in the right place:
1325
1326 wait_event();
1327 wait_event_interruptible();
1328 wait_event_interruptible_exclusive();
1329 wait_event_interruptible_timeout();
1330 wait_event_killable();
1331 wait_event_timeout();
1332 wait_on_bit();
1333 wait_on_bit_lock();
1334
1335
1336Secondly, code that performs a wake up normally follows something like this:
1337
1338 event_indicated = 1;
1339 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1340
1341or:
1342
1343 event_indicated = 1;
1344 wake_up_process(event_daemon);
1345
1346A write memory barrier is implied by wake_up() and co. if and only if they wake
1347something up. The barrier occurs before the task state is cleared, and so sits
1348between the STORE to indicate the event and the STORE to set TASK_RUNNING:
1349
1350 CPU 1 CPU 2
1351 =============================== ===============================
1352 set_current_state(); STORE event_indicated
1353 set_mb(); wake_up();
1354 STORE current->state <write barrier>
1355 <general barrier> STORE current->state
1356 LOAD event_indicated
1357
1358The available waker functions include:
1359
1360 complete();
1361 wake_up();
1362 wake_up_all();
1363 wake_up_bit();
1364 wake_up_interruptible();
1365 wake_up_interruptible_all();
1366 wake_up_interruptible_nr();
1367 wake_up_interruptible_poll();
1368 wake_up_interruptible_sync();
1369 wake_up_interruptible_sync_poll();
1370 wake_up_locked();
1371 wake_up_locked_poll();
1372 wake_up_nr();
1373 wake_up_poll();
1374 wake_up_process();
1375
1376
1377[!] Note that the memory barriers implied by the sleeper and the waker do _not_
1378order multiple stores before the wake-up with respect to loads of those stored
1379values after the sleeper has called set_current_state(). For instance, if the
1380sleeper does:
1381
1382 set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1383 if (event_indicated)
1384 break;
1385 __set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
1386 do_something(my_data);
1387
1388and the waker does:
1389
1390 my_data = value;
1391 event_indicated = 1;
1392 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1393
1394there's no guarantee that the change to event_indicated will be perceived by
1395the sleeper as coming after the change to my_data. In such a circumstance, the
1396code on both sides must interpolate its own memory barriers between the
1397separate data accesses. Thus the above sleeper ought to do:
1398
1399 set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
1400 if (event_indicated) {
1401 smp_rmb();
1402 do_something(my_data);
1403 }
1404
1405and the waker should do:
1406
1407 my_data = value;
1408 smp_wmb();
1409 event_indicated = 1;
1410 wake_up(&event_wait_queue);
1411
1412
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001413MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS
1414-----------------------
1415
1416Other functions that imply barriers:
1417
1418 (*) schedule() and similar imply full memory barriers.
1419
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001420
1421=================================
1422INTER-CPU LOCKING BARRIER EFFECTS
1423=================================
1424
1425On SMP systems locking primitives give a more substantial form of barrier: one
1426that does affect memory access ordering on other CPUs, within the context of
1427conflict on any particular lock.
1428
1429
1430LOCKS VS MEMORY ACCESSES
1431------------------------
1432
Aneesh Kumar79afecf2006-05-15 09:44:36 -07001433Consider the following: the system has a pair of spinlocks (M) and (Q), and
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001434three CPUs; then should the following sequence of events occur:
1435
1436 CPU 1 CPU 2
1437 =============================== ===============================
1438 *A = a; *E = e;
1439 LOCK M LOCK Q
1440 *B = b; *F = f;
1441 *C = c; *G = g;
1442 UNLOCK M UNLOCK Q
1443 *D = d; *H = h;
1444
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001445Then there is no guarantee as to what order CPU 3 will see the accesses to *A
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001446through *H occur in, other than the constraints imposed by the separate locks
1447on the separate CPUs. It might, for example, see:
1448
1449 *E, LOCK M, LOCK Q, *G, *C, *F, *A, *B, UNLOCK Q, *D, *H, UNLOCK M
1450
1451But it won't see any of:
1452
1453 *B, *C or *D preceding LOCK M
1454 *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M
1455 *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK Q
1456 *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK Q
1457
1458
1459However, if the following occurs:
1460
1461 CPU 1 CPU 2
1462 =============================== ===============================
1463 *A = a;
1464 LOCK M [1]
1465 *B = b;
1466 *C = c;
1467 UNLOCK M [1]
1468 *D = d; *E = e;
1469 LOCK M [2]
1470 *F = f;
1471 *G = g;
1472 UNLOCK M [2]
1473 *H = h;
1474
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001475CPU 3 might see:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001476
1477 *E, LOCK M [1], *C, *B, *A, UNLOCK M [1],
1478 LOCK M [2], *H, *F, *G, UNLOCK M [2], *D
1479
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001480But assuming CPU 1 gets the lock first, CPU 3 won't see any of:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001481
1482 *B, *C, *D, *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [1]
1483 *A, *B or *C following UNLOCK M [1]
1484 *F, *G or *H preceding LOCK M [2]
1485 *A, *B, *C, *E, *F or *G following UNLOCK M [2]
1486
1487
1488LOCKS VS I/O ACCESSES
1489---------------------
1490
1491Under certain circumstances (especially involving NUMA), I/O accesses within
1492two spinlocked sections on two different CPUs may be seen as interleaved by the
1493PCI bridge, because the PCI bridge does not necessarily participate in the
1494cache-coherence protocol, and is therefore incapable of issuing the required
1495read memory barriers.
1496
1497For example:
1498
1499 CPU 1 CPU 2
1500 =============================== ===============================
1501 spin_lock(Q)
1502 writel(0, ADDR)
1503 writel(1, DATA);
1504 spin_unlock(Q);
1505 spin_lock(Q);
1506 writel(4, ADDR);
1507 writel(5, DATA);
1508 spin_unlock(Q);
1509
1510may be seen by the PCI bridge as follows:
1511
1512 STORE *ADDR = 0, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = 1, STORE *DATA = 5
1513
1514which would probably cause the hardware to malfunction.
1515
1516
1517What is necessary here is to intervene with an mmiowb() before dropping the
1518spinlock, for example:
1519
1520 CPU 1 CPU 2
1521 =============================== ===============================
1522 spin_lock(Q)
1523 writel(0, ADDR)
1524 writel(1, DATA);
1525 mmiowb();
1526 spin_unlock(Q);
1527 spin_lock(Q);
1528 writel(4, ADDR);
1529 writel(5, DATA);
1530 mmiowb();
1531 spin_unlock(Q);
1532
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001533this will ensure that the two stores issued on CPU 1 appear at the PCI bridge
1534before either of the stores issued on CPU 2.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001535
1536
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001537Furthermore, following a store by a load from the same device obviates the need
1538for the mmiowb(), because the load forces the store to complete before the load
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001539is performed:
1540
1541 CPU 1 CPU 2
1542 =============================== ===============================
1543 spin_lock(Q)
1544 writel(0, ADDR)
1545 a = readl(DATA);
1546 spin_unlock(Q);
1547 spin_lock(Q);
1548 writel(4, ADDR);
1549 b = readl(DATA);
1550 spin_unlock(Q);
1551
1552
1553See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1554
1555
1556=================================
1557WHERE ARE MEMORY BARRIERS NEEDED?
1558=================================
1559
1560Under normal operation, memory operation reordering is generally not going to
1561be a problem as a single-threaded linear piece of code will still appear to
David Howells50fa6102009-04-28 15:01:38 +01001562work correctly, even if it's in an SMP kernel. There are, however, four
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001563circumstances in which reordering definitely _could_ be a problem:
1564
1565 (*) Interprocessor interaction.
1566
1567 (*) Atomic operations.
1568
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001569 (*) Accessing devices.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001570
1571 (*) Interrupts.
1572
1573
1574INTERPROCESSOR INTERACTION
1575--------------------------
1576
1577When there's a system with more than one processor, more than one CPU in the
1578system may be working on the same data set at the same time. This can cause
1579synchronisation problems, and the usual way of dealing with them is to use
1580locks. Locks, however, are quite expensive, and so it may be preferable to
1581operate without the use of a lock if at all possible. In such a case
1582operations that affect both CPUs may have to be carefully ordered to prevent
1583a malfunction.
1584
1585Consider, for example, the R/W semaphore slow path. Here a waiting process is
1586queued on the semaphore, by virtue of it having a piece of its stack linked to
1587the semaphore's list of waiting processes:
1588
1589 struct rw_semaphore {
1590 ...
1591 spinlock_t lock;
1592 struct list_head waiters;
1593 };
1594
1595 struct rwsem_waiter {
1596 struct list_head list;
1597 struct task_struct *task;
1598 };
1599
1600To wake up a particular waiter, the up_read() or up_write() functions have to:
1601
1602 (1) read the next pointer from this waiter's record to know as to where the
1603 next waiter record is;
1604
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001605 (2) read the pointer to the waiter's task structure;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001606
1607 (3) clear the task pointer to tell the waiter it has been given the semaphore;
1608
1609 (4) call wake_up_process() on the task; and
1610
1611 (5) release the reference held on the waiter's task struct.
1612
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001613In other words, it has to perform this sequence of events:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001614
1615 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1616 LOAD waiter->task;
1617 STORE waiter->task;
1618 CALL wakeup
1619 RELEASE task
1620
1621and if any of these steps occur out of order, then the whole thing may
1622malfunction.
1623
1624Once it has queued itself and dropped the semaphore lock, the waiter does not
1625get the lock again; it instead just waits for its task pointer to be cleared
1626before proceeding. Since the record is on the waiter's stack, this means that
1627if the task pointer is cleared _before_ the next pointer in the list is read,
1628another CPU might start processing the waiter and might clobber the waiter's
1629stack before the up*() function has a chance to read the next pointer.
1630
1631Consider then what might happen to the above sequence of events:
1632
1633 CPU 1 CPU 2
1634 =============================== ===============================
1635 down_xxx()
1636 Queue waiter
1637 Sleep
1638 up_yyy()
1639 LOAD waiter->task;
1640 STORE waiter->task;
1641 Woken up by other event
1642 <preempt>
1643 Resume processing
1644 down_xxx() returns
1645 call foo()
1646 foo() clobbers *waiter
1647 </preempt>
1648 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1649 --- OOPS ---
1650
1651This could be dealt with using the semaphore lock, but then the down_xxx()
1652function has to needlessly get the spinlock again after being woken up.
1653
1654The way to deal with this is to insert a general SMP memory barrier:
1655
1656 LOAD waiter->list.next;
1657 LOAD waiter->task;
1658 smp_mb();
1659 STORE waiter->task;
1660 CALL wakeup
1661 RELEASE task
1662
1663In this case, the barrier makes a guarantee that all memory accesses before the
1664barrier will appear to happen before all the memory accesses after the barrier
1665with respect to the other CPUs on the system. It does _not_ guarantee that all
1666the memory accesses before the barrier will be complete by the time the barrier
1667instruction itself is complete.
1668
1669On a UP system - where this wouldn't be a problem - the smp_mb() is just a
1670compiler barrier, thus making sure the compiler emits the instructions in the
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -07001671right order without actually intervening in the CPU. Since there's only one
1672CPU, that CPU's dependency ordering logic will take care of everything else.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001673
1674
1675ATOMIC OPERATIONS
1676-----------------
1677
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001678Whilst they are technically interprocessor interaction considerations, atomic
1679operations are noted specially as some of them imply full memory barriers and
1680some don't, but they're very heavily relied on as a group throughout the
1681kernel.
1682
1683Any atomic operation that modifies some state in memory and returns information
1684about the state (old or new) implies an SMP-conditional general memory barrier
Nick Piggin26333572007-10-18 03:06:39 -07001685(smp_mb()) on each side of the actual operation (with the exception of
1686explicit lock operations, described later). These include:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001687
1688 xchg();
1689 cmpxchg();
Richard Braun7e8b1e72012-12-13 11:07:32 +01001690 atomic_xchg();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001691 atomic_cmpxchg();
1692 atomic_inc_return();
1693 atomic_dec_return();
1694 atomic_add_return();
1695 atomic_sub_return();
1696 atomic_inc_and_test();
1697 atomic_dec_and_test();
1698 atomic_sub_and_test();
1699 atomic_add_negative();
Oleg Nesterov02c608c2008-02-24 00:03:29 +03001700 atomic_add_unless(); /* when succeeds (returns 1) */
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001701 test_and_set_bit();
1702 test_and_clear_bit();
1703 test_and_change_bit();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001704
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001705These are used for such things as implementing LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class
1706operations and adjusting reference counters towards object destruction, and as
1707such the implicit memory barrier effects are necessary.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001708
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001709
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001710The following operations are potential problems as they do _not_ imply memory
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001711barriers, but might be used for implementing such things as UNLOCK-class
1712operations:
1713
1714 atomic_set();
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001715 set_bit();
1716 clear_bit();
1717 change_bit();
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001718
1719With these the appropriate explicit memory barrier should be used if necessary
1720(smp_mb__before_clear_bit() for instance).
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001721
1722
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001723The following also do _not_ imply memory barriers, and so may require explicit
1724memory barriers under some circumstances (smp_mb__before_atomic_dec() for
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001725instance):
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001726
1727 atomic_add();
1728 atomic_sub();
1729 atomic_inc();
1730 atomic_dec();
1731
1732If they're used for statistics generation, then they probably don't need memory
1733barriers, unless there's a coupling between statistical data.
1734
1735If they're used for reference counting on an object to control its lifetime,
1736they probably don't need memory barriers because either the reference count
1737will be adjusted inside a locked section, or the caller will already hold
1738sufficient references to make the lock, and thus a memory barrier unnecessary.
1739
1740If they're used for constructing a lock of some description, then they probably
1741do need memory barriers as a lock primitive generally has to do things in a
1742specific order.
1743
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001744Basically, each usage case has to be carefully considered as to whether memory
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001745barriers are needed or not.
1746
Nick Piggin26333572007-10-18 03:06:39 -07001747The following operations are special locking primitives:
1748
1749 test_and_set_bit_lock();
1750 clear_bit_unlock();
1751 __clear_bit_unlock();
1752
1753These implement LOCK-class and UNLOCK-class operations. These should be used in
1754preference to other operations when implementing locking primitives, because
1755their implementations can be optimised on many architectures.
1756
David Howellsdbc87002006-04-10 22:54:23 -07001757[!] Note that special memory barrier primitives are available for these
1758situations because on some CPUs the atomic instructions used imply full memory
1759barriers, and so barrier instructions are superfluous in conjunction with them,
1760and in such cases the special barrier primitives will be no-ops.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001761
1762See Documentation/atomic_ops.txt for more information.
1763
1764
1765ACCESSING DEVICES
1766-----------------
1767
1768Many devices can be memory mapped, and so appear to the CPU as if they're just
1769a set of memory locations. To control such a device, the driver usually has to
1770make the right memory accesses in exactly the right order.
1771
1772However, having a clever CPU or a clever compiler creates a potential problem
1773in that the carefully sequenced accesses in the driver code won't reach the
1774device in the requisite order if the CPU or the compiler thinks it is more
1775efficient to reorder, combine or merge accesses - something that would cause
1776the device to malfunction.
1777
1778Inside of the Linux kernel, I/O should be done through the appropriate accessor
1779routines - such as inb() or writel() - which know how to make such accesses
1780appropriately sequential. Whilst this, for the most part, renders the explicit
1781use of memory barriers unnecessary, there are a couple of situations where they
1782might be needed:
1783
1784 (1) On some systems, I/O stores are not strongly ordered across all CPUs, and
1785 so for _all_ general drivers locks should be used and mmiowb() must be
1786 issued prior to unlocking the critical section.
1787
1788 (2) If the accessor functions are used to refer to an I/O memory window with
1789 relaxed memory access properties, then _mandatory_ memory barriers are
1790 required to enforce ordering.
1791
1792See Documentation/DocBook/deviceiobook.tmpl for more information.
1793
1794
1795INTERRUPTS
1796----------
1797
1798A driver may be interrupted by its own interrupt service routine, and thus the
1799two parts of the driver may interfere with each other's attempts to control or
1800access the device.
1801
1802This may be alleviated - at least in part - by disabling local interrupts (a
1803form of locking), such that the critical operations are all contained within
1804the interrupt-disabled section in the driver. Whilst the driver's interrupt
1805routine is executing, the driver's core may not run on the same CPU, and its
1806interrupt is not permitted to happen again until the current interrupt has been
1807handled, thus the interrupt handler does not need to lock against that.
1808
1809However, consider a driver that was talking to an ethernet card that sports an
1810address register and a data register. If that driver's core talks to the card
1811under interrupt-disablement and then the driver's interrupt handler is invoked:
1812
1813 LOCAL IRQ DISABLE
1814 writew(ADDR, 3);
1815 writew(DATA, y);
1816 LOCAL IRQ ENABLE
1817 <interrupt>
1818 writew(ADDR, 4);
1819 q = readw(DATA);
1820 </interrupt>
1821
1822The store to the data register might happen after the second store to the
1823address register if ordering rules are sufficiently relaxed:
1824
1825 STORE *ADDR = 3, STORE *ADDR = 4, STORE *DATA = y, q = LOAD *DATA
1826
1827
1828If ordering rules are relaxed, it must be assumed that accesses done inside an
1829interrupt disabled section may leak outside of it and may interleave with
1830accesses performed in an interrupt - and vice versa - unless implicit or
1831explicit barriers are used.
1832
1833Normally this won't be a problem because the I/O accesses done inside such
1834sections will include synchronous load operations on strictly ordered I/O
1835registers that form implicit I/O barriers. If this isn't sufficient then an
1836mmiowb() may need to be used explicitly.
1837
1838
1839A similar situation may occur between an interrupt routine and two routines
1840running on separate CPUs that communicate with each other. If such a case is
1841likely, then interrupt-disabling locks should be used to guarantee ordering.
1842
1843
1844==========================
1845KERNEL I/O BARRIER EFFECTS
1846==========================
1847
1848When accessing I/O memory, drivers should use the appropriate accessor
1849functions:
1850
1851 (*) inX(), outX():
1852
1853 These are intended to talk to I/O space rather than memory space, but
1854 that's primarily a CPU-specific concept. The i386 and x86_64 processors do
1855 indeed have special I/O space access cycles and instructions, but many
1856 CPUs don't have such a concept.
1857
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001858 The PCI bus, amongst others, defines an I/O space concept which - on such
1859 CPUs as i386 and x86_64 - readily maps to the CPU's concept of I/O
David Howells6bc39272006-06-25 05:49:22 -07001860 space. However, it may also be mapped as a virtual I/O space in the CPU's
1861 memory map, particularly on those CPUs that don't support alternate I/O
1862 spaces.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001863
1864 Accesses to this space may be fully synchronous (as on i386), but
1865 intermediary bridges (such as the PCI host bridge) may not fully honour
1866 that.
1867
1868 They are guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to each other.
1869
1870 They are not guaranteed to be fully ordered with respect to other types of
1871 memory and I/O operation.
1872
1873 (*) readX(), writeX():
1874
1875 Whether these are guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined with
1876 respect to each other on the issuing CPU depends on the characteristics
1877 defined for the memory window through which they're accessing. On later
1878 i386 architecture machines, for example, this is controlled by way of the
1879 MTRR registers.
1880
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001881 Ordinarily, these will be guaranteed to be fully ordered and uncombined,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001882 provided they're not accessing a prefetchable device.
1883
1884 However, intermediary hardware (such as a PCI bridge) may indulge in
1885 deferral if it so wishes; to flush a store, a load from the same location
1886 is preferred[*], but a load from the same device or from configuration
1887 space should suffice for PCI.
1888
1889 [*] NOTE! attempting to load from the same location as was written to may
1890 cause a malfunction - consider the 16550 Rx/Tx serial registers for
1891 example.
1892
1893 Used with prefetchable I/O memory, an mmiowb() barrier may be required to
1894 force stores to be ordered.
1895
1896 Please refer to the PCI specification for more information on interactions
1897 between PCI transactions.
1898
1899 (*) readX_relaxed()
1900
1901 These are similar to readX(), but are not guaranteed to be ordered in any
1902 way. Be aware that there is no I/O read barrier available.
1903
1904 (*) ioreadX(), iowriteX()
1905
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001906 These will perform appropriately for the type of access they're actually
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001907 doing, be it inX()/outX() or readX()/writeX().
1908
1909
1910========================================
1911ASSUMED MINIMUM EXECUTION ORDERING MODEL
1912========================================
1913
1914It has to be assumed that the conceptual CPU is weakly-ordered but that it will
1915maintain the appearance of program causality with respect to itself. Some CPUs
1916(such as i386 or x86_64) are more constrained than others (such as powerpc or
1917frv), and so the most relaxed case (namely DEC Alpha) must be assumed outside
1918of arch-specific code.
1919
1920This means that it must be considered that the CPU will execute its instruction
1921stream in any order it feels like - or even in parallel - provided that if an
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07001922instruction in the stream depends on an earlier instruction, then that
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01001923earlier instruction must be sufficiently complete[*] before the later
1924instruction may proceed; in other words: provided that the appearance of
1925causality is maintained.
1926
1927 [*] Some instructions have more than one effect - such as changing the
1928 condition codes, changing registers or changing memory - and different
1929 instructions may depend on different effects.
1930
1931A CPU may also discard any instruction sequence that winds up having no
1932ultimate effect. For example, if two adjacent instructions both load an
1933immediate value into the same register, the first may be discarded.
1934
1935
1936Similarly, it has to be assumed that compiler might reorder the instruction
1937stream in any way it sees fit, again provided the appearance of causality is
1938maintained.
1939
1940
1941============================
1942THE EFFECTS OF THE CPU CACHE
1943============================
1944
1945The way cached memory operations are perceived across the system is affected to
1946a certain extent by the caches that lie between CPUs and memory, and by the
1947memory coherence system that maintains the consistency of state in the system.
1948
1949As far as the way a CPU interacts with another part of the system through the
1950caches goes, the memory system has to include the CPU's caches, and memory
1951barriers for the most part act at the interface between the CPU and its cache
1952(memory barriers logically act on the dotted line in the following diagram):
1953
1954 <--- CPU ---> : <----------- Memory ----------->
1955 :
1956 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1957 | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1958 | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | | | |
1959 | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1960 | | | Queue | : | | | |--->| Memory |
1961 | | | | : | | | | | |
1962 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1963 : | Cache | +--------+
1964 : | Coherency |
1965 : | Mechanism | +--------+
1966 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ | | | |
1967 | | | | : | | | | | |
1968 | CPU | | Memory | : | CPU | | |--->| Device |
1969 | Core |--->| Access |----->| Cache |<-->| | | |
1970 | | | Queue | : | | | | | |
1971 | | | | : | | | | +--------+
1972 +--------+ +--------+ : +--------+ +-----------+
1973 :
1974 :
1975
1976Although any particular load or store may not actually appear outside of the
1977CPU that issued it since it may have been satisfied within the CPU's own cache,
1978it will still appear as if the full memory access had taken place as far as the
1979other CPUs are concerned since the cache coherency mechanisms will migrate the
1980cacheline over to the accessing CPU and propagate the effects upon conflict.
1981
1982The CPU core may execute instructions in any order it deems fit, provided the
1983expected program causality appears to be maintained. Some of the instructions
1984generate load and store operations which then go into the queue of memory
1985accesses to be performed. The core may place these in the queue in any order
1986it wishes, and continue execution until it is forced to wait for an instruction
1987to complete.
1988
1989What memory barriers are concerned with is controlling the order in which
1990accesses cross from the CPU side of things to the memory side of things, and
1991the order in which the effects are perceived to happen by the other observers
1992in the system.
1993
1994[!] Memory barriers are _not_ needed within a given CPU, as CPUs always see
1995their own loads and stores as if they had happened in program order.
1996
1997[!] MMIO or other device accesses may bypass the cache system. This depends on
1998the properties of the memory window through which devices are accessed and/or
1999the use of any special device communication instructions the CPU may have.
2000
2001
2002CACHE COHERENCY
2003---------------
2004
2005Life isn't quite as simple as it may appear above, however: for while the
2006caches are expected to be coherent, there's no guarantee that that coherency
2007will be ordered. This means that whilst changes made on one CPU will
2008eventually become visible on all CPUs, there's no guarantee that they will
2009become apparent in the same order on those other CPUs.
2010
2011
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002012Consider dealing with a system that has a pair of CPUs (1 & 2), each of which
2013has a pair of parallel data caches (CPU 1 has A/B, and CPU 2 has C/D):
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002014
2015 :
2016 : +--------+
2017 : +---------+ | |
2018 +--------+ : +--->| Cache A |<------->| |
2019 | | : | +---------+ | |
2020 | CPU 1 |<---+ | |
2021 | | : | +---------+ | |
2022 +--------+ : +--->| Cache B |<------->| |
2023 : +---------+ | |
2024 : | Memory |
2025 : +---------+ | System |
2026 +--------+ : +--->| Cache C |<------->| |
2027 | | : | +---------+ | |
2028 | CPU 2 |<---+ | |
2029 | | : | +---------+ | |
2030 +--------+ : +--->| Cache D |<------->| |
2031 : +---------+ | |
2032 : +--------+
2033 :
2034
2035Imagine the system has the following properties:
2036
2037 (*) an odd-numbered cache line may be in cache A, cache C or it may still be
2038 resident in memory;
2039
2040 (*) an even-numbered cache line may be in cache B, cache D or it may still be
2041 resident in memory;
2042
2043 (*) whilst the CPU core is interrogating one cache, the other cache may be
2044 making use of the bus to access the rest of the system - perhaps to
2045 displace a dirty cacheline or to do a speculative load;
2046
2047 (*) each cache has a queue of operations that need to be applied to that cache
2048 to maintain coherency with the rest of the system;
2049
2050 (*) the coherency queue is not flushed by normal loads to lines already
2051 present in the cache, even though the contents of the queue may
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002052 potentially affect those loads.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002053
2054Imagine, then, that two writes are made on the first CPU, with a write barrier
2055between them to guarantee that they will appear to reach that CPU's caches in
2056the requisite order:
2057
2058 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2059 =============== =============== =======================================
2060 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2061 v = 2;
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002062 smp_wmb(); Make sure change to v is visible before
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002063 change to p
2064 <A:modify v=2> v is now in cache A exclusively
2065 p = &v;
2066 <B:modify p=&v> p is now in cache B exclusively
2067
2068The write memory barrier forces the other CPUs in the system to perceive that
2069the local CPU's caches have apparently been updated in the correct order. But
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002070now imagine that the second CPU wants to read those values:
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002071
2072 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2073 =============== =============== =======================================
2074 ...
2075 q = p;
2076 x = *q;
2077
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002078The above pair of reads may then fail to happen in the expected order, as the
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002079cacheline holding p may get updated in one of the second CPU's caches whilst
2080the update to the cacheline holding v is delayed in the other of the second
2081CPU's caches by some other cache event:
2082
2083 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2084 =============== =============== =======================================
2085 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2086 v = 2;
2087 smp_wmb();
2088 <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2089 <C:queue v=2>
Aneesh Kumar79afecf2006-05-15 09:44:36 -07002090 p = &v; q = p;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002091 <D:request p>
2092 <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2093 <D:read p>
2094 x = *q;
2095 <C:read *q> Reads from v before v updated in cache
2096 <C:unbusy>
2097 <C:commit v=2>
2098
2099Basically, whilst both cachelines will be updated on CPU 2 eventually, there's
2100no guarantee that, without intervention, the order of update will be the same
2101as that committed on CPU 1.
2102
2103
2104To intervene, we need to interpolate a data dependency barrier or a read
2105barrier between the loads. This will force the cache to commit its coherency
2106queue before processing any further requests:
2107
2108 CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT
2109 =============== =============== =======================================
2110 u == 0, v == 1 and p == &u, q == &u
2111 v = 2;
2112 smp_wmb();
2113 <A:modify v=2> <C:busy>
2114 <C:queue v=2>
Paolo 'Blaisorblade' Giarrusso3fda9822006-10-19 23:28:19 -07002115 p = &v; q = p;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002116 <D:request p>
2117 <B:modify p=&v> <D:commit p=&v>
2118 <D:read p>
2119 smp_read_barrier_depends()
2120 <C:unbusy>
2121 <C:commit v=2>
2122 x = *q;
2123 <C:read *q> Reads from v after v updated in cache
2124
2125
2126This sort of problem can be encountered on DEC Alpha processors as they have a
2127split cache that improves performance by making better use of the data bus.
2128Whilst most CPUs do imply a data dependency barrier on the read when a memory
2129access depends on a read, not all do, so it may not be relied on.
2130
2131Other CPUs may also have split caches, but must coordinate between the various
Matt LaPlante3f6dee92006-10-03 22:45:33 +02002132cachelets for normal memory accesses. The semantics of the Alpha removes the
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002133need for coordination in the absence of memory barriers.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002134
2135
2136CACHE COHERENCY VS DMA
2137----------------------
2138
2139Not all systems maintain cache coherency with respect to devices doing DMA. In
2140such cases, a device attempting DMA may obtain stale data from RAM because
2141dirty cache lines may be resident in the caches of various CPUs, and may not
2142have been written back to RAM yet. To deal with this, the appropriate part of
2143the kernel must flush the overlapping bits of cache on each CPU (and maybe
2144invalidate them as well).
2145
2146In addition, the data DMA'd to RAM by a device may be overwritten by dirty
2147cache lines being written back to RAM from a CPU's cache after the device has
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002148installed its own data, or cache lines present in the CPU's cache may simply
2149obscure the fact that RAM has been updated, until at such time as the cacheline
2150is discarded from the CPU's cache and reloaded. To deal with this, the
2151appropriate part of the kernel must invalidate the overlapping bits of the
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002152cache on each CPU.
2153
2154See Documentation/cachetlb.txt for more information on cache management.
2155
2156
2157CACHE COHERENCY VS MMIO
2158-----------------------
2159
2160Memory mapped I/O usually takes place through memory locations that are part of
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002161a window in the CPU's memory space that has different properties assigned than
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002162the usual RAM directed window.
2163
2164Amongst these properties is usually the fact that such accesses bypass the
2165caching entirely and go directly to the device buses. This means MMIO accesses
2166may, in effect, overtake accesses to cached memory that were emitted earlier.
2167A memory barrier isn't sufficient in such a case, but rather the cache must be
2168flushed between the cached memory write and the MMIO access if the two are in
2169any way dependent.
2170
2171
2172=========================
2173THE THINGS CPUS GET UP TO
2174=========================
2175
2176A programmer might take it for granted that the CPU will perform memory
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002177operations in exactly the order specified, so that if the CPU is, for example,
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002178given the following piece of code to execute:
2179
2180 a = *A;
2181 *B = b;
2182 c = *C;
2183 d = *D;
2184 *E = e;
2185
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002186they would then expect that the CPU will complete the memory operation for each
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002187instruction before moving on to the next one, leading to a definite sequence of
2188operations as seen by external observers in the system:
2189
2190 LOAD *A, STORE *B, LOAD *C, LOAD *D, STORE *E.
2191
2192
2193Reality is, of course, much messier. With many CPUs and compilers, the above
2194assumption doesn't hold because:
2195
2196 (*) loads are more likely to need to be completed immediately to permit
2197 execution progress, whereas stores can often be deferred without a
2198 problem;
2199
2200 (*) loads may be done speculatively, and the result discarded should it prove
2201 to have been unnecessary;
2202
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002203 (*) loads may be done speculatively, leading to the result having been fetched
2204 at the wrong time in the expected sequence of events;
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002205
2206 (*) the order of the memory accesses may be rearranged to promote better use
2207 of the CPU buses and caches;
2208
2209 (*) loads and stores may be combined to improve performance when talking to
2210 memory or I/O hardware that can do batched accesses of adjacent locations,
2211 thus cutting down on transaction setup costs (memory and PCI devices may
2212 both be able to do this); and
2213
2214 (*) the CPU's data cache may affect the ordering, and whilst cache-coherency
2215 mechanisms may alleviate this - once the store has actually hit the cache
2216 - there's no guarantee that the coherency management will be propagated in
2217 order to other CPUs.
2218
2219So what another CPU, say, might actually observe from the above piece of code
2220is:
2221
2222 LOAD *A, ..., LOAD {*C,*D}, STORE *E, STORE *B
2223
2224 (Where "LOAD {*C,*D}" is a combined load)
2225
2226
2227However, it is guaranteed that a CPU will be self-consistent: it will see its
2228_own_ accesses appear to be correctly ordered, without the need for a memory
2229barrier. For instance with the following code:
2230
2231 U = *A;
2232 *A = V;
2233 *A = W;
2234 X = *A;
2235 *A = Y;
2236 Z = *A;
2237
2238and assuming no intervention by an external influence, it can be assumed that
2239the final result will appear to be:
2240
2241 U == the original value of *A
2242 X == W
2243 Z == Y
2244 *A == Y
2245
2246The code above may cause the CPU to generate the full sequence of memory
2247accesses:
2248
2249 U=LOAD *A, STORE *A=V, STORE *A=W, X=LOAD *A, STORE *A=Y, Z=LOAD *A
2250
2251in that order, but, without intervention, the sequence may have almost any
2252combination of elements combined or discarded, provided the program's view of
2253the world remains consistent.
2254
2255The compiler may also combine, discard or defer elements of the sequence before
2256the CPU even sees them.
2257
2258For instance:
2259
2260 *A = V;
2261 *A = W;
2262
2263may be reduced to:
2264
2265 *A = W;
2266
2267since, without a write barrier, it can be assumed that the effect of the
2268storage of V to *A is lost. Similarly:
2269
2270 *A = Y;
2271 Z = *A;
2272
2273may, without a memory barrier, be reduced to:
2274
2275 *A = Y;
2276 Z = Y;
2277
2278and the LOAD operation never appear outside of the CPU.
2279
2280
2281AND THEN THERE'S THE ALPHA
2282--------------------------
2283
2284The DEC Alpha CPU is one of the most relaxed CPUs there is. Not only that,
2285some versions of the Alpha CPU have a split data cache, permitting them to have
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002286two semantically-related cache lines updated at separate times. This is where
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002287the data dependency barrier really becomes necessary as this synchronises both
2288caches with the memory coherence system, thus making it seem like pointer
2289changes vs new data occur in the right order.
2290
Jarek Poplawski81fc6322007-05-23 13:58:20 -07002291The Alpha defines the Linux kernel's memory barrier model.
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002292
2293See the subsection on "Cache Coherency" above.
2294
2295
David Howells90fddab2010-03-24 09:43:00 +00002296============
2297EXAMPLE USES
2298============
2299
2300CIRCULAR BUFFERS
2301----------------
2302
2303Memory barriers can be used to implement circular buffering without the need
2304of a lock to serialise the producer with the consumer. See:
2305
2306 Documentation/circular-buffers.txt
2307
2308for details.
2309
2310
David Howells108b42b2006-03-31 16:00:29 +01002311==========
2312REFERENCES
2313==========
2314
2315Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual, Second Edition (Sites & Witek,
2316Digital Press)
2317 Chapter 5.2: Physical Address Space Characteristics
2318 Chapter 5.4: Caches and Write Buffers
2319 Chapter 5.5: Data Sharing
2320 Chapter 5.6: Read/Write Ordering
2321
2322AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual Volume 2: System Programming
2323 Chapter 7.1: Memory-Access Ordering
2324 Chapter 7.4: Buffering and Combining Memory Writes
2325
2326IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3:
2327System Programming Guide
2328 Chapter 7.1: Locked Atomic Operations
2329 Chapter 7.2: Memory Ordering
2330 Chapter 7.4: Serializing Instructions
2331
2332The SPARC Architecture Manual, Version 9
2333 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2334 Appendix D: Formal Specification of the Memory Models
2335 Appendix J: Programming with the Memory Models
2336
2337UltraSPARC Programmer Reference Manual
2338 Chapter 5: Memory Accesses and Cacheability
2339 Chapter 15: Sparc-V9 Memory Models
2340
2341UltraSPARC III Cu User's Manual
2342 Chapter 9: Memory Models
2343
2344UltraSPARC IIIi Processor User's Manual
2345 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2346
2347UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2348 Chapter 9: Memory
2349 Appendix D: Formal Specifications of the Memory Models
2350
2351UltraSPARC T1 Supplement to the UltraSPARC Architecture 2005
2352 Chapter 8: Memory Models
2353 Appendix F: Caches and Cache Coherency
2354
2355Solaris Internals, Core Kernel Architecture, p63-68:
2356 Chapter 3.3: Hardware Considerations for Locks and
2357 Synchronization
2358
2359Unix Systems for Modern Architectures, Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching
2360for Kernel Programmers:
2361 Chapter 13: Other Memory Models
2362
2363Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual: Volume 1:
2364 Section 2.6: Speculation
2365 Section 4.4: Memory Access