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From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor•com>
To: David Laight <David.Laight@ACULAB•COM>
Cc: Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare•com>,
	Benjamin LaHaise <bcrl@kvack•org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation•org>,
	David Miller <davem@davemloft•net>,
	tglx@linutronix•de, mingo@redhat•com, netdev@vger•kernel.org,
	linux-net-drivers@solarflare•com, x86@kernel•org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/3] x86_64: Define 128-bit memory-mapped I/O operations
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:49:41 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5034FF95.9070108@zytor.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <AE90C24D6B3A694183C094C60CF0A2F6026B6FC1@saturn3.aculab.com>

On 08/22/2012 08:27 AM, David Laight wrote:
>> Your architecture sounds similar to one I once worked on (Orion
>> Microsystems CNIC/OPA-2).  That architecture had a descriptor ring in
>> device memory, and a single trigger bit would move the head pointer.
>>
>> We used write combining to write out a set of descriptors, and then
>> used
>> a non-write-combining write to do the final write which bumps the head
>> pointer.  The UC write flushes the write combiners ahead of it, so it
>> ends up with two transactions (one for the WC data and one for the UC
>> trigger) but it could frequently push quite a few descriptors in that
>> operation.
>
> The code actually looks more like a normal ethernet ring interface
> with an 'owner' bit in each entry.
> So it is important to write the owner bit last.
>
> It might be possibly to set multiple ring entries in two TLPs
> by first writing all of them (maybe with write combining)
> but without changing the ownership of the first entry.
> Then doing a second transfer to update the owner bit it
> the first entry.
> The order of the writes in the first transfer would then not
> matter.
>
> FWIW can you even guarantee to do an atomic 64bit PCIe transfer
> on many systems (without resorting to a dma unit).
>

On many systems, perhaps, but I suspect that 32 bits is the maximum you 
can truly guarantee.

	-hpa


-- 
H. Peter Anvin, Intel Open Source Technology Center
I work for Intel.  I don't speak on their behalf.

  reply	other threads:[~2012-08-22 15:50 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 56+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2012-08-22  1:17 [PATCH 0/3] x86_64, sfc: 128-bit memory-mapped I/O Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  1:20 ` [PATCH 1/3] x86_64: Define 128-bit types for kernel code only Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  1:23 ` [PATCH 2/3] x86_64: Define 128-bit memory-mapped I/O operations Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  1:37   ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  2:04     ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  2:34       ` David Miller
2012-08-22  3:24         ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  3:29           ` David Miller
2012-08-22  3:49             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  3:52           ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22  3:59             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  4:14               ` David Miller
2012-08-22 21:14                 ` David Miller
2012-08-22 21:28                   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 21:38                     ` David Miller
2012-08-22  4:35               ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22  5:00                 ` David Miller
2012-08-22 14:06                   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22  4:42             ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 13:26             ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 14:20               ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 14:24                 ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 14:30                   ` Benjamin LaHaise
2012-08-22 14:58                     ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 15:13                       ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 15:27                         ` David Laight
2012-08-22 15:49                           ` H. Peter Anvin [this message]
2012-08-22 15:51                           ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 15:54                             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 16:44                               ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 16:49                                 ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 16:55                                 ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 17:09                                   ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 17:12                                     ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 17:27                                       ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 17:54                                         ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 18:11                                           ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 18:18                                             ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 18:28                                             ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 19:01                                               ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 17:26                                     ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 16:51                               ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 16:59                                 ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 15:51                           ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22 14:50                   ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 14:56                     ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 15:05                       ` David Laight
2012-08-22 15:16                         ` Linus Torvalds
2012-08-22 15:41                     ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22 14:42                 ` David Laight
2012-08-22  1:26 ` [PATCH 3/3] sfc: Use __raw_writeo() to perform TX descriptor push where possible Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  1:38 ` [PATCH 0/3] x86_64, sfc: 128-bit memory-mapped I/O H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  1:43   ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  1:59     ` H. Peter Anvin
2012-08-22  2:10       ` Ben Hutchings
2012-08-22  2:31         ` H. Peter Anvin

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