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Date:      Mon, 3 Jun 2013 20:57:45 -0700
From:      Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org>
To:        Juli Mallett <jmallett@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Ed Schouten <ed@80386.nl>, "freebsd-mips@FreeBSD.org" <freebsd-mips@freebsd.org>, FreeBSD-arch <freebsd-arch@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Kernelspace C11 atomics for MIPS
Message-ID:  <CAJ-Vmo=5%2BmWk4EWBuTdpF6vKx-%2BK=g1euJvZuRDF%2BvFkJNZZ4A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <CACVs6=_X5vOfR%2BQOgvz6P-j3jUoNoK9hCFvz80fGRL3-PgBf5g@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAJOYFBD502MYbkVR2hnVDTYWOvOUr15=OPyjotNvv%2BZ09vQ1OQ@mail.gmail.com> <D02AF210-5129-40AB-9481-3F0A44575E98@bsdimp.com> <CAJ-Vmo=vNbT9majPCZ8ugzPsNzh46DTD4mMDX-cuxx9Og91ptw@mail.gmail.com> <CACVs6=_X5vOfR%2BQOgvz6P-j3jUoNoK9hCFvz80fGRL3-PgBf5g@mail.gmail.com>

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On 3 June 2013 20:55, Juli Mallett <jmallett@freebsd.org> wrote:

> To drain the pipeline on certain deficient (and mostly older) CPUs by way of
> guesswork and a little vague magic.  Most CPUs we support, I would guess, do
> not need this, and it continues to exist solely for hysterical reasons.

How can I turn it off for my compiles?

> I've certainly gotten rid of them and some other cargo cult synchronization
> on Octeon for testing and had it survive under considerable load, and
> occasionally with some slight speedups (for some more commonly-used or
> slower things than Just a Bunch Of NOPs.)

Right. Well, since it's happening on every inlined lock, it's a bit silly.

> The trouble is that proving they aren't necessary requires being rigorous
> and careful in understanding documentation and errata, and FUD about their
> possible necessity is somewhat-intimidating.  It's not an easy kind of
> corruption/unreliability/etc., to prove the lack of empirically.

I've checked the diassembly from gcc-4.mumble on linux; it doesn't
include NOPs like this as far as I can tell.



Adrian



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