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Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 08:42:55 +1200
From: Michael Cree <mcree@orcon.net.nz>
To: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Subject: Re: bit fields && data tearing
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On Fri, Sep 05, 2014 at 01:34:52PM -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 09/05/2014 01:14 PM, Peter Hurley wrote:
> > 
> > Here's how I read the two statements.
> > 
> > First, the commit message:
> > 
> > "It [this commit] documents that CPUs [supported by the Linux kernel]
> > _must provide_ atomic one-byte and two-byte naturally aligned loads and stores."
> > 
> > Second, in the body of the document:
> > 
> > "The Linux kernel no longer supports pre-EV56 Alpha CPUs, because these
> > older CPUs _do not provide_ atomic one-byte and two-byte loads and stores."
> > 
> 
> Does this apply in general or only to SMP configurations?  I guess
> non-SMP configurations would still have problems if interrupted in the
> wrong place...

Yes.

Cheers
Michael.