On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 5:13 PM, Matt DeVuyst <[email protected]> wrote:
> I don't see how 3 byte stores will work.  The write() functions don't
> take a size argument.  They just template the data argument (and can
> figure out the size by with sizeof(T)).  So, for example, if you want
> to write 2 bytes to memory you just call write((uint16_t)data,
> address, flags, NULL).  But I'm not aware of any data type that's 3
> bytes wide.  Is changing all the write() functions to accept a size
> argument the best thing to do here?

Good point... I hadn't thought that through.  I think the memory
system at the lower level will handle this (i.e., I believe you can
put together a Request object that has size=3 and send that to a
memory object and it will work; it's really just the interface between
the ISA and the CPU model that gets in the way.

>
> Also, I'm trying to picture how these instructions would be
> implemented in a real MIPS processor.  Would you really be able to
> write 3 bytes to memory or would you have to read a full word first
> and then modify the appropriate bytes and write back?

In hardware it's pretty easy to do per-byte enables if you need to;
much simpler than doing a read-modify-write sequence.  The only reason
I can imagine that they wouldn't do it that way is if they already had
to do an RMW for some other instructions and so they piggybacked on
that.  I don't know of any MIPS instructions that would require RMW
though (particularly since MIPS uses LL/SC for atomic ops, which is
the main reason you'd want RMW).

Have we discussed doing 3-byte memory ops on the list before?  It's
clear it would require some new functionality at the read()/write()
ExecContext interface, but that seems like a worthwhile addition to
me.

Steve

>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 3:08 PM, Steve Reinhardt <[email protected]> wrote:
>> My guess is that the instruction definition should be rewritten to do
>> a store of the correct number of bytes and not a read-modify-write.  I
>> don't think there's a reason the store function shouldn't handle a
>> 3-byte store; somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 2:38 PM, Matt DeVuyst <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I'm getting an an assertion failure when executing MIPS code
>>> in the o3 cpu model.  The same program executes correctly in the
>>> atomic cpu model.  The assertion that is failing is
>>> src/cpu/o3/lsq_unit.hh line 489.  It appears that the MIPS
>>> instructions SWL and SWR don't work in o3.
>>>
>>> Here is the relevant portion of the backtrace:
>>>
>>> #3  0xb7a9e5ce in __assert_fail () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
>>>
>>> #4  0x08400914 in LSQUnit<O3CPUImpl>::read<unsigned int>
>>>  (this=0xa695f68, req=0xa7a3a98, da...@0xbffbbb3c, load_idx=8) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/lsq_unit.hh:489
>>>
>>> #5  0x08403745 in LSQ<O3CPUImpl>::read<unsigned int> (this=0xa695f40,
>>>  req=0xa7a3a98, da...@0xbffbbb3c, load_idx=8) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/lsq.hh:376
>>>
>>> #6  0x0840378d in FullO3CPU<O3CPUImpl>::read<unsigned int>
>>>  (this=0xa694bc0, r...@0xbffbbad4, da...@0xbffbbb3c, load_idx=8) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/cpu.hh:708
>>>
>>> #7  0x0840399a in BaseDynInst<O3CPUImpl>::read<unsigned int>
>>>  (this=0xa7dd9a0, addr=5068452, da...@0xbffbbb3c, flags=0) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/base_dyn_inst.hh:884
>>>
>>> #8  0x083bb699 in MipsISAInst::Swr::initiateAcc (this=0xa8d0428,
>>>  xc=0xa7dd9a0, traceData=0x0) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/arch/mips/o3_cpu_exec.cc:25017
>>>
>>> #9  0x08228a27 in BaseO3DynInst<O3CPUImpl>::initiateAcc
>>>  (this=0xa7dd9a0) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/dyn_inst_impl.hh:111
>>>
>>> #10 0x0837b69f in LSQUnit<O3CPUImpl>::executeStore (this=0xa695f68,
>>> #store_in...@0xbffbc1f0) at
>>> #build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/lsq_unit_impl.hh:495
>>>
>>> #11 0x0836747d in LSQ<O3CPUImpl>::executeStore (this=0xa695f40,
>>>  in...@0xbffbc1f0) at build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/lsq_impl.hh:327
>>>
>>> #12 0x0828c0fa in DefaultIEW<O3CPUImpl>::executeInsts (this=0xa6956a0)
>>> #at build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/iew_impl.hh:1232
>>>
>>> #13 0x0829436f in DefaultIEW<O3CPUImpl>::tick (this=0xa6956a0) at
>>> #build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/iew_impl.hh:1458
>>>
>>> #14 0x081b5ae4 in FullO3CPU<O3CPUImpl>::tick (this=0xa694bc0) at
>>> #build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/cpu.cc:514
>>>
>>> #15 0x081b7254 in FullO3CPU<O3CPUImpl>::TickEvent::process
>>> #(this=0xa694d0c) at build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/cpu/o3/cpu.cc:86
>>>
>>> #16 0x0822feda in EventQueue::serviceOne (this=0x8834008) at
>>> #build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/sim/eventq.cc:202
>>>
>>> #17 0x085c238c in simulate (num_cycles=9223372036854775807) at
>>>  build-smt03/build/MIPS_SE/sim/simulate.cc:73
>>>
>>> So the MIPS instruction is an SWR instruction that stores anywhere
>>> from 1 to 4 bytes into an aligned memory word.  The format function
>>> that handles this instruction is StoreUnalignedMemory (in
>>> src/arch/mips/isa/formats/mem.isa).  This specifies that the read()
>>> function of the dynamic instruction (BaseDynInst<O3CPUImpl>::read())
>>> be called to get the whole aligned word from memory.  Then the
>>> appropriate bytes can be changed and the whole word written back to
>>> memory.
>>>
>>> The problem seems to be that this store instructions (and other
>>> unaligned instructions like it) read from memory as well as write
>>> memory, but only a single StoreQueue (and not LoadQueue) LSQ entry was
>>> created for it.
>>>
>>> Should an entry be made on the LoadQueue as well?  Or should a
>>> separate lightweight memory read function be called instead?  It looks
>>> like the latter may have been what was done in the past (if this
>>> instruction ever used to work correctly)...because there's a
>>> commented out line in the format definition of StoreUnalignedMemory
>>> that calls xc->readFunctional().
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Cheers,
>>> Matt
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> m5-dev mailing list
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>>> http://m5sim.org/mailman/listinfo/m5-dev
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Matt
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