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Date:      Thu, 25 May 2000 11:32:13 -0700
From:      Peter Wemm <peter@netplex.com.au>
To:        Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>
Cc:        Chuck Paterson <cp@bsdi.com>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>, Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>, arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Preemptive kernel on older X86 hardware 
Message-ID:  <20000525183213.AE08A1CE1@overcee.netplex.com.au>
In-Reply-To: Message from Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com>  of "Thu, 25 May 2000 09:13:59 PDT." <200005251613.JAA82872@apollo.backplane.com> 

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Matthew Dillon wrote:
> 
> :
> :	The good news is that the actual implementation of the
> :mutexs is machine dependent and can change wildly over different
> :architectures with no need for the callers to know.
> :
> :Chuck
> :
> :"Jordan K. Hubbard" wrote on: Thu, 25 May 2000 01:31:23 PDT
> :}>     On intel anyway, subroutine calls are *cheap*, especially compared
> :}>     to the overhead of a locked instruction or even an L1 cache miss.
> :}
> :}I don't believe this is true on all the architectures FreeBSD is
> :}anticipated to run on in the "near future", however.
> :}
> :}- Jordan
> 
>     Lets use subroutines during development at least, it will make
>     things easier.  I don't think anyone can argue with that :-)

Which is also required for binary kld's.  Having two different versions
of kld's - one for SMP and one for UP would be bad.  Although I have strategy
to take care of this when the revamped config/build process is finished.
It will be possible to use kernel config-style build parameters for
modules as well.

For example, building a "GENERIC" module would cause it to make calls to
the mutex subroutines, while some compile option would allow you to make
a tuned SMP-specific kld for your local machine.

Cheers,
-Peter




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