LOCK prefix on uni processor has its use (was Re: [BUG FIX] Make x86_32 uni-processor Atomic ops, Atomic)

[Harald Welte <HaraldWelte@viatech.com>]

Hi hpa and others,

On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 04:44:08PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
 
> It looks like there might be a problem with the C7-M ... Michael reports
> that if he sets LOCK_PREFIX to "lock;" it works, but that shouldn't be
> necessary for a uniprocessor.

It seems, they are neccessary.

Here are some statements from the CPU logic guys at VIA/Centaur:

* A read-modify-write sequence cannot be interupted.
* All X86 instructions except rep-strings are atomic wrt interrupts.
* The lock prefix has uses on a UP processor: It keeps DMA devices from
  interfering with a read-modify-write sequence

Furthermore, they have done some experimentation in the past, making the
CPU simply ignore the LOCK prefix on uni-processor (running a certain popular
proprietary operating system): It doesn't work, presumably of the abovementioned
DMA related conflict.

Also, the engineers believe that it is only a matter of time until different
CPU/chipset combination would expose the same bug.  Since the in-order
single-retire C7-M is more vulnerable than out-of-order, multiple-retire CPU's,
they are not surprised that the issue shows first on the C7-M.

The recommendation from the CPU engineers, unsurprisingly, thus is to put the
LOCK prefixes back where they were.

Hope this helps you.

Now if I understand the issues correctly, it would mean that there is some
driver code that modifies a certain chunk of memory, while DMA of some
peripheral is also accessing that memory.  I suppose it would not have to be
the same actual address, but probably being within the same cache line is
already sufficient.

Now the question is: Is this a valid operation of a driver?  Should the driver
do such things, or is such a driver broken?  When would that occur?  I'm trying
to come up with a case, but typically you e.g. allocate some DMA buffer and
then don't touch it until the hardware has processed it.

Regards,
-- 
- Harald Welte <HaraldWelte@viatech.com>	    http://linux.via.com.tw/
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VIA Free and Open Source Software Liaison