Re: Locking comment on shrink_caches()

Alan Cox
2001-09-26T16:36:58Z

> Ahh, that's a cpu bug -- one my athlons don't suffer from.
>
> Your Athlons may handle exclusive cache line acquisition more
> efficiently (due to memory subsystem performance) but it still
> does cost something.

On an exclusive line on Athlon a lock cycle is near enough free, its
just an ordering constraint. Since the line is in E state no other bus
master can hold a copy in cache so the atomicity is there. Ditto for newer
Intel processors