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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/arm/swp_emulation.rst')
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diff --git a/Documentation/arm/swp_emulation.rst b/Documentation/arm/swp_emulation.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..6a608a9c3715 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/arm/swp_emulation.rst @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +Software emulation of deprecated SWP instruction (CONFIG_SWP_EMULATE) +--------------------------------------------------------------------- + +ARMv6 architecture deprecates use of the SWP/SWPB instructions, and recommeds +moving to the load-locked/store-conditional instructions LDREX and STREX. + +ARMv7 multiprocessing extensions introduce the ability to disable these +instructions, triggering an undefined instruction exception when executed. +Trapped instructions are emulated using an LDREX/STREX or LDREXB/STREXB +sequence. If a memory access fault (an abort) occurs, a segmentation fault is +signalled to the triggering process. + +/proc/cpu/swp_emulation holds some statistics/information, including the PID of +the last process to trigger the emulation to be invocated. For example:: + + Emulated SWP: 12 + Emulated SWPB: 0 + Aborted SWP{B}: 1 + Last process: 314 + + +NOTE: + when accessing uncached shared regions, LDREX/STREX rely on an external + transaction monitoring block called a global monitor to maintain update + atomicity. If your system does not implement a global monitor, this option can + cause programs that perform SWP operations to uncached memory to deadlock, as + the STREX operation will always fail. |