Re: [update] [patch] linux: Cache coherency fixes

[Carsten Langgaard <carstenl@mips.com>]

Ralf Baechle wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 01, 2002 at 06:05:17PM +0200, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
>
> >  Huh?  Coherent caching mode can be used for a few processors only, namely
> > R4[04]00MC and presumably SB1 (inferred from the sources), i.e. the ones
> > that support the interprocessor coherency protocol.  If you know of any
> > other processor that supports the protocol, I'd be pleased to see a
> > reference to a spec -- I hoped someone, possibly you, would fill the
> > missing bits when I proposed the patch a month ago.  Nobody bothered,
> > though, sigh...
>
> R10000.
>
> >  I see your changes are broken conceptually, as the caching mode for the
> > TLB should be inferred from the CPU configuration in the first place and
> > not the system selection (actually it should be best selected ath the run
> > time).  Hence I'd invert the flag, since most systems are non-coherent,
> > and only permit it for certain processors.
>
> Back in time I prefered CONFIG_NONCOHERENT_IO over CONFIG_COHERENT_IO
> because the noncoherent case needs additional code and in general I'm
> trying to reduce the number of the #if !defined conditionals for easier
> readability.
>
> The R10000 is our standard example why looking at the processor type doesn't
> work.  It's used in coherent mode in IP27 but in coherent mode but in
> coherent mode in IP28 or IP32.  Otoh I don't know of any system that
> supports coherency but also is being used with non-coherent processors.
>
> >  Using a non-coherent
> > configuration for an UP system that supports coherency (do SGI IP27 and
> > SiByte SB1250 have another agent in the chipset that may issue coherent
> > requests regardless of the number of processors started?)
>
> Yes.  That's how coherency is working - all agents have to support coherent
> requests or coherency simply won't work.  So basically we'd be trully
> picky we'd have to verify that all agents, processor and other support
> coherency but just using the system type seems to be sufficient.
>

The Malta board is a system that both run coherent and non-coherent, so I would
prefer, that we either make the coherency a configuration option or make it
possible to determine at run time.


>
> > results in a
> > performance hit only due to superfluous invalidations, but using a
> > coherent configuration for a processor/system that doesn't support it may
> > lead to a hard to debug hang with no apparent reason (as I wrote
> > previously, even NMI/Reset stopped working on my system -- I had to hit
> > the power switch).
>
> Using a non-coherent mode on IP27 may result in nice, hard to trackdown bus
> errors.
>
>   Ralf

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