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authorRajithaY <rajithax.yerrumsetty@intel.com>2017-04-25 03:31:15 -0700
committerRajitha Yerrumchetty <rajithax.yerrumsetty@intel.com>2017-05-22 06:48:08 +0000
commitbb756eebdac6fd24e8919e2c43f7d2c8c4091f59 (patch)
treeca11e03542edf2d8f631efeca5e1626d211107e3 /qemu/docs/atomics.txt
parenta14b48d18a9ed03ec191cf16b162206998a895ce (diff)
Adding qemu as a submodule of KVMFORNFV
This Patch includes the changes to add qemu as a submodule to kvmfornfv repo and make use of the updated latest qemu for the execution of all testcase Change-Id: I1280af507a857675c7f81d30c95255635667bdd7 Signed-off-by:RajithaY<rajithax.yerrumsetty@intel.com>
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-CPUs perform independent memory operations effectively in random order.
-but this can be a problem for CPU-CPU interaction (including interactions
-between QEMU and the guest). Multi-threaded programs use various tools
-to instruct the compiler and the CPU to restrict the order to something
-that is consistent with the expectations of the programmer.
-
-The most basic tool is locking. Mutexes, condition variables and
-semaphores are used in QEMU, and should be the default approach to
-synchronization. Anything else is considerably harder, but it's
-also justified more often than one would like. The two tools that
-are provided by qemu/atomic.h are memory barriers and atomic operations.
-
-Macros defined by qemu/atomic.h fall in three camps:
-
-- compiler barriers: barrier();
-
-- weak atomic access and manual memory barriers: atomic_read(),
- atomic_set(), smp_rmb(), smp_wmb(), smp_mb(), smp_read_barrier_depends();
-
-- sequentially consistent atomic access: everything else.
-
-
-COMPILER MEMORY BARRIER
-=======================
-
-barrier() prevents the compiler from moving the memory accesses either
-side of it to the other side. The compiler barrier has no direct effect
-on the CPU, which may then reorder things however it wishes.
-
-barrier() is mostly used within qemu/atomic.h itself. On some
-architectures, CPU guarantees are strong enough that blocking compiler
-optimizations already ensures the correct order of execution. In this
-case, qemu/atomic.h will reduce stronger memory barriers to simple
-compiler barriers.
-
-Still, barrier() can be useful when writing code that can be interrupted
-by signal handlers.
-
-
-SEQUENTIALLY CONSISTENT ATOMIC ACCESS
-=====================================
-
-Most of the operations in the qemu/atomic.h header ensure *sequential
-consistency*, where "the result of any execution is the same as if the
-operations of all the processors were executed in some sequential order,
-and the operations of each individual processor appear in this sequence
-in the order specified by its program".
-
-qemu/atomic.h provides the following set of atomic read-modify-write
-operations:
-
- void atomic_inc(ptr)
- void atomic_dec(ptr)
- void atomic_add(ptr, val)
- void atomic_sub(ptr, val)
- void atomic_and(ptr, val)
- void atomic_or(ptr, val)
-
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_inc(ptr)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_dec(ptr)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_add(ptr, val)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_sub(ptr, val)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_and(ptr, val)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_fetch_or(ptr, val)
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_xchg(ptr, val
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_cmpxchg(ptr, old, new)
-
-all of which return the old value of *ptr. These operations are
-polymorphic; they operate on any type that is as wide as an int.
-
-Sequentially consistent loads and stores can be done using:
-
- atomic_fetch_add(ptr, 0) for loads
- atomic_xchg(ptr, val) for stores
-
-However, they are quite expensive on some platforms, notably POWER and
-ARM. Therefore, qemu/atomic.h provides two primitives with slightly
-weaker constraints:
-
- typeof(*ptr) atomic_mb_read(ptr)
- void atomic_mb_set(ptr, val)
-
-The semantics of these primitives map to Java volatile variables,
-and are strongly related to memory barriers as used in the Linux
-kernel (see below).
-
-As long as you use atomic_mb_read and atomic_mb_set, accesses cannot
-be reordered with each other, and it is also not possible to reorder
-"normal" accesses around them.
-
-However, and this is the important difference between
-atomic_mb_read/atomic_mb_set and sequential consistency, it is important
-for both threads to access the same volatile variable. It is not the
-case that everything visible to thread A when it writes volatile field f
-becomes visible to thread B after it reads volatile field g. The store
-and load have to "match" (i.e., be performed on the same volatile
-field) to achieve the right semantics.
-
-
-These operations operate on any type that is as wide as an int or smaller.
-
-
-WEAK ATOMIC ACCESS AND MANUAL MEMORY BARRIERS
-=============================================
-
-Compared to sequentially consistent atomic access, programming with
-weaker consistency models can be considerably more complicated.
-In general, if the algorithm you are writing includes both writes
-and reads on the same side, it is generally simpler to use sequentially
-consistent primitives.
-
-When using this model, variables are accessed with atomic_read() and
-atomic_set(), and restrictions to the ordering of accesses is enforced
-using the smp_rmb(), smp_wmb(), smp_mb() and smp_read_barrier_depends()
-memory barriers.
-
-atomic_read() and atomic_set() prevents the compiler from using
-optimizations that might otherwise optimize accesses out of existence
-on the one hand, or that might create unsolicited accesses on the other.
-In general this should not have any effect, because the same compiler
-barriers are already implied by memory barriers. However, it is useful
-to do so, because it tells readers which variables are shared with
-other threads, and which are local to the current thread or protected
-by other, more mundane means.
-
-Memory barriers control the order of references to shared memory.
-They come in four kinds:
-
-- smp_rmb() guarantees that all the LOAD operations specified before
- the barrier will appear to happen before all the LOAD operations
- specified after the barrier with respect to the other components of
- the system.
-
- In other words, smp_rmb() puts a partial ordering on loads, but is not
- required to have any effect on stores.
-
-- smp_wmb() guarantees that all the STORE operations specified before
- the barrier will appear to happen before all the STORE operations
- specified after the barrier with respect to the other components of
- the system.
-
- In other words, smp_wmb() puts a partial ordering on stores, but is not
- required to have any effect on loads.
-
-- smp_mb() guarantees that all the LOAD and STORE operations specified
- before the barrier will appear to happen before all the LOAD and
- STORE operations specified after the barrier with respect to the other
- components of the system.
-
- smp_mb() puts a partial ordering on both loads and stores. It is
- stronger than both a read and a write memory barrier; it implies both
- smp_rmb() and smp_wmb(), but it also prevents STOREs coming before the
- barrier from overtaking LOADs coming after the barrier and vice versa.
-
-- smp_read_barrier_depends() is a weaker kind of read barrier. On
- most processors, whenever two loads are performed such that the
- second depends on the result of the first (e.g., the first load
- retrieves the address to which the second load will be directed),
- the processor will guarantee that the first LOAD will appear to happen
- before the second with respect to the other components of the system.
- However, this is not always true---for example, it was not true on
- Alpha processors. Whenever this kind of access happens to shared
- memory (that is not protected by a lock), a read barrier is needed,
- and smp_read_barrier_depends() can be used instead of smp_rmb().
-
- Note that the first load really has to have a _data_ dependency and not
- a control dependency. If the address for the second load is dependent
- on the first load, but the dependency is through a conditional rather
- than actually loading the address itself, then it's a _control_
- dependency and a full read barrier or better is required.
-
-
-This is the set of barriers that is required *between* two atomic_read()
-and atomic_set() operations to achieve sequential consistency:
-
- | 2nd operation |
- |-----------------------------------------|
- 1st operation | (after last) | atomic_read | atomic_set |
- ---------------+--------------+-------------+------------|
- (before first) | | none | smp_wmb() |
- ---------------+--------------+-------------+------------|
- atomic_read | smp_rmb() | smp_rmb()* | ** |
- ---------------+--------------+-------------+------------|
- atomic_set | none | smp_mb()*** | smp_wmb() |
- ---------------+--------------+-------------+------------|
-
- * Or smp_read_barrier_depends().
-
- ** This requires a load-store barrier. How to achieve this varies
- depending on the machine, but in practice smp_rmb()+smp_wmb()
- should have the desired effect. For example, on PowerPC the
- lwsync instruction is a combined load-load, load-store and
- store-store barrier.
-
- *** This requires a store-load barrier. On most machines, the only
- way to achieve this is a full barrier.
-
-
-You can see that the two possible definitions of atomic_mb_read()
-and atomic_mb_set() are the following:
-
- 1) atomic_mb_read(p) = atomic_read(p); smp_rmb()
- atomic_mb_set(p, v) = smp_wmb(); atomic_set(p, v); smp_mb()
-
- 2) atomic_mb_read(p) = smp_mb() atomic_read(p); smp_rmb()
- atomic_mb_set(p, v) = smp_wmb(); atomic_set(p, v);
-
-Usually the former is used, because smp_mb() is expensive and a program
-normally has more reads than writes. Therefore it makes more sense to
-make atomic_mb_set() the more expensive operation.
-
-There are two common cases in which atomic_mb_read and atomic_mb_set
-generate too many memory barriers, and thus it can be useful to manually
-place barriers instead:
-
-- when a data structure has one thread that is always a writer
- and one thread that is always a reader, manual placement of
- memory barriers makes the write side faster. Furthermore,
- correctness is easy to check for in this case using the "pairing"
- trick that is explained below:
-
- thread 1 thread 1
- ------------------------- ------------------------
- (other writes)
- smp_wmb()
- atomic_mb_set(&a, x) atomic_set(&a, x)
- smp_wmb()
- atomic_mb_set(&b, y) atomic_set(&b, y)
-
- =>
- thread 2 thread 2
- ------------------------- ------------------------
- y = atomic_mb_read(&b) y = atomic_read(&b)
- smp_rmb()
- x = atomic_mb_read(&a) x = atomic_read(&a)
- smp_rmb()
-
-- sometimes, a thread is accessing many variables that are otherwise
- unrelated to each other (for example because, apart from the current
- thread, exactly one other thread will read or write each of these
- variables). In this case, it is possible to "hoist" the implicit
- barriers provided by atomic_mb_read() and atomic_mb_set() outside
- a loop. For example, the above definition atomic_mb_read() gives
- the following transformation:
-
- n = 0; n = 0;
- for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) => for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
- n += atomic_mb_read(&a[i]); n += atomic_read(&a[i]);
- smp_rmb();
-
- Similarly, atomic_mb_set() can be transformed as follows:
- smp_mb():
-
- smp_wmb();
- for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) => for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
- atomic_mb_set(&a[i], false); atomic_set(&a[i], false);
- smp_mb();
-
-
-The two tricks can be combined. In this case, splitting a loop in
-two lets you hoist the barriers out of the loops _and_ eliminate the
-expensive smp_mb():
-
- smp_wmb();
- for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) { => for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
- atomic_mb_set(&a[i], false); atomic_set(&a[i], false);
- atomic_mb_set(&b[i], false); smb_wmb();
- } for (i = 0; i < 10; i++)
- atomic_set(&a[i], false);
- smp_mb();
-
- The other thread can still use atomic_mb_read()/atomic_mb_set()
-
-
-Memory barrier pairing
-----------------------
-
-A useful rule of thumb is that memory barriers should always, or almost
-always, be paired with another barrier. In the case of QEMU, however,
-note that the other barrier may actually be in a driver that runs in
-the guest!
-
-For the purposes of pairing, smp_read_barrier_depends() and smp_rmb()
-both count as read barriers. A read barrier shall pair with a write
-barrier or a full barrier; a write barrier shall pair with a read
-barrier or a full barrier. A full barrier can pair with anything.
-For example:
-
- thread 1 thread 2
- =============== ===============
- a = 1;
- smp_wmb();
- b = 2; x = b;
- smp_rmb();
- y = a;
-
-Note that the "writing" thread is accessing the variables in the
-opposite order as the "reading" thread. This is expected: stores
-before the write barrier will normally match the loads after the
-read barrier, and vice versa. The same is true for more than 2
-access and for data dependency barriers:
-
- thread 1 thread 2
- =============== ===============
- b[2] = 1;
- smp_wmb();
- x->i = 2;
- smp_wmb();
- a = x; x = a;
- smp_read_barrier_depends();
- y = x->i;
- smp_read_barrier_depends();
- z = b[y];
-
-smp_wmb() also pairs with atomic_mb_read(), and smp_rmb() also pairs
-with atomic_mb_set().
-
-
-COMPARISON WITH LINUX KERNEL MEMORY BARRIERS
-============================================
-
-Here is a list of differences between Linux kernel atomic operations
-and memory barriers, and the equivalents in QEMU:
-
-- atomic operations in Linux are always on a 32-bit int type and
- use a boxed atomic_t type; atomic operations in QEMU are polymorphic
- and use normal C types.
-
-- atomic_read and atomic_set in Linux give no guarantee at all;
- atomic_read and atomic_set in QEMU include a compiler barrier
- (similar to the ACCESS_ONCE macro in Linux).
-
-- most atomic read-modify-write operations in Linux return void;
- in QEMU, all of them return the old value of the variable.
-
-- different atomic read-modify-write operations in Linux imply
- a different set of memory barriers; in QEMU, all of them enforce
- sequential consistency, which means they imply full memory barriers
- before and after the operation.
-
-- Linux does not have an equivalent of atomic_mb_read() and
- atomic_mb_set(). In particular, note that set_mb() is a little
- weaker than atomic_mb_set().
-
-
-SOURCES
-=======
-
-* Documentation/memory-barriers.txt from the Linux kernel
-
-* "The JSR-133 Cookbook for Compiler Writers", available at
- http://g.oswego.edu/dl/jmm/cookbook.html