Re: [RFT/PATCH v2 2/6] x86-64: Optimize vread_tsc's barriers

Andrew Lutomirski
2011-04-08T17:59:52Z

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 5:26 PM, Andrew Lutomirski <luto@mit.edu> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 2:30 PM, Linus Torvalds
> <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 11:15 AM, Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I would prefer to be safe than sorry.
>>
>> There's a difference between "safe" and "making up theoretical
>> arguments for the sake of an argument".
>>
>> If Intel _documented_ the "barriers on each side", I think you'd have a point.
>>
>> As it is, we're not doing the "safe" thing, we're doing the "extra
>> crap that costs us and nobody has ever shown is actually worth it".
>
> Speaking as both a userspace programmer who wants to use clock_gettime
> and as the sucker who has to test this thing, I'd like to agree on
> what clock_gettime is *supposed* to do.  I propose:
>
> For the purposes of ordering, clock_gettime acts as though there is a
> volatile variable that contains the time and is kept up-to-date by
> some thread.  clock_gettime reads that variable.  This means that
> clock_gettime is not a barrier but is ordered at least as strongly* as
> a read to a volatile variable.  If code that calls clock_gettime needs
> stronger ordering, it should add additional barriers as appropriate.
>
> * Modulo errata, BIOS bugs, implementation bugs, etc.

As far as I can tell, on Sandy Bridge and Bloomfield, I can't get the
sequence lfence;rdtsc to violate the rule above. That the case even
if I stick random arithmetic and branches right before the lfence. If
I remove the lfence, though, it starts to fail. (This is without the
evil fake barrier.)

However, as expected, I can see stores getting reordered after
lfence;rdtsc and rdtscp but not mfence;rdtsc.

So... do you think that the rule is sensible?

I'll post the test case somewhere when it's a little less ugly. I'd
like to see test results on AMD.

--Andy