docs/atomics: update comparison with Linux

Over time, some differences between QEMU and Linux atomics are getting
smoothed.  In particular, Linux grew atomic_fetch_or (and in general
the differences regarding RMW operations were not described accurately)
and smp_load_acquire/smp_store_release.  Also, set_mb was renamed to
smp_store_mb().  Include these changes in the documentation.

Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
This commit is contained in:
Paolo Bonzini 2016-05-25 14:23:27 +02:00
parent 15487aa132
commit a4a0e4b258
1 changed files with 15 additions and 5 deletions

View File

@ -340,17 +340,27 @@ and memory barriers, and the equivalents in QEMU:
properly aligned.
No barriers are implied by atomic_read/set in either Linux or QEMU.
- most atomic read-modify-write operations in Linux return void;
in QEMU, all of them return the old value of the variable.
- atomic read-modify-write operations in Linux are of three kinds:
atomic_OP returns void
atomic_OP_return returns new value of the variable
atomic_fetch_OP returns the old value of the variable
atomic_cmpxchg returns the old value of the variable
In QEMU, the second kind does not exist. Currently Linux has
atomic_fetch_or only. QEMU provides and, or, inc, dec, add, sub.
- different atomic read-modify-write operations in Linux imply
a different set of memory barriers; in QEMU, all of them enforce
sequential consistency, which means they imply full memory barriers
before and after the operation.
- Linux does not have an equivalent of atomic_mb_read() and
atomic_mb_set(). In particular, note that set_mb() is a little
weaker than atomic_mb_set().
- Linux does not have an equivalent of atomic_mb_set(). In particular,
note that smp_store_mb() is a little weaker than atomic_mb_set().
atomic_mb_read() compiles to the same instructions as Linux's
smp_load_acquire(), but this should be treated as an implementation
detail. If required, QEMU might later add atomic_load_acquire() and
atomic_store_release() macros.
SOURCES