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Re: PATCH: Fix ll/sc for mips (take 3)


On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, Ralf Baechle wrote:

> Some of the processor manuals explicitly note that the execution of a
> ll instruction may not be visible at all externally.  That's the case if
> the address is already in a primary cache line in exclusive (ll) or
> dirty (sc) state.  That makes even if a processor supports full coherency
> since there is no reason to indicate the update to any other external
> agent.  Or am I missing something?

 By definition, apart from an ordinary load, an "ll" does only the
following two additional actions:

1. Loads the LLAddr register (it's visible in CP0, at least in certain
implementations) to set up the ll comparator. 

2. Sets the LLbit flip-flop to set the ll state to valid initially.

None of the actions should normally involve externally visible activity. 

-- 
+  Maciej W. Rozycki, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland   +
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+        e-mail: macro@ds2.pg.gda.pl, PGP key available        +


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