[PATCH 03/16] ARM: b.L: introduce helpers for platform coherency exit/setup

[Catalin Marinas]

On 10 January 2013 17:59, Nicolas Pitre <nicolas.pitre at linaro.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Catalin Marinas wrote:
>
>> On 10 January 2013 00:20, Nicolas Pitre <nicolas.pitre at linaro.org> wrote:
>> > --- a/arch/arm/common/bL_entry.c
>> > +++ b/arch/arm/common/bL_entry.c
>> > @@ -116,3 +116,163 @@ int bL_cpu_powered_up(void)
>> >                 platform_ops->powered_up();
>> >         return 0;
>> >  }
>> > +
>> > +struct bL_sync_struct bL_sync;
>> > +
>> > +static void __sync_range(volatile void *p, size_t size)
>> > +{
>> > +       char *_p = (char *)p;
>> > +
>> > +       __cpuc_flush_dcache_area(_p, size);
>> > +       outer_flush_range(__pa(_p), __pa(_p + size));
>> > +       outer_sync();
...
>> However, on the same CPU you can get a speculative load into L1 after
>> the L1 flush but before the L2 flush, so the reader case can fail.
>>
>> The sequence for readers is (note *L2* inval first):
>>
>> L2 inval
>> L1 inval
>
> As you noted below and as I explained above, this can't be an inval
> operation as that could discard a concurrent writer's update.
>
>> The sequence for writers is:
>>
>> L1 clean
>> L2 clean
>>
>> The bi-directional sequence (that's what you need) is:
>>
>> L1 clean
>> L2 clean+inval
>> L1 clean+inval
>>
>> The last L1 op must be clean+inval in case another CPU writes to this
>> location to avoid discarding the write.
>>
>> If you don't have an L2, you just end up with two L1 clean ops, so you
>> can probably put some checks.
>
> In fact, since this is only used on A7/A15 right now, there is no outer
> cache and the outer calls are effectively no-ops.  I'm wondering if
> those should simply be removed until/unless there is some system showing
> up with a need for them.

You could. I expect multi-cluster systems to have integrated L2 cache
and avoid explicit outer cache maintenance. But is there a chance that
your patches could be generalised to existing systems with A9 (not b.L
configuration but just hotplug or cpuidle support)? I haven't finished
reading all the patches, so maybe that's not the case at all.

Anyway, my point is that if L1 is inner and L2 outer, the correct
bi-derectional flushing sequence is slightly different.

-- 
Catalin