[PATCH 1/4] ARM: Change the mandatory barriers implementation

[Jamie Lokier]

Catalin Marinas wrote:
> A better implementation would be this:
> 
> #ifndef CONFIG_SMP
> #define smp_mb()	barrier()
> #define smp_rmb()	barrier()
> #define smp_wmb()	barrier()
> #else
> #define smp_mb()	dsb()
> #define smp_rmb()	mb()
> #define smp_wmb()	dsb()
> #endif
> 
> Since the mb() may have other effects like draining the L2 write buffer
> which is definitely not needed for the SMP barriers.
> 
> Anyway, the above change to smp_*mb() would probably have a performance
> impact especially with spinlocks.
> 
> I can see that the driver situation you described appears in other
> drivers as well. Whether this is a correct usage model I can't tell. It
> may be worth going with this on linux-arch. PowerPC for example uses a
> light barrier for the smp_wmb() case which doesn't ensure ordering
> between accesses to normal vs I/O memory.

I agree, it looks like some confusion about the meaning of smp_wmb()
for ordering w.r.t. I/O, DMA and interrupts has crept in.
It would be good to clarify it.

-- Jamie