On Thu, 2 Jun 2011 16:29:44 -0700, Edward Jaffe wrote: > >Not pre-zeroed per se, but the pages are in first-reference state. > Is this a hardware feature? (I haven't a PoOp (PrOp) handy.)
If not, I could envision doing it in software: point the page table entry at a physical page containing zeroes; widely shared, and entirely write-protected. Then a protection exception could be handled as if it were a page fault. Is it worth the cost of implementation, whether done in hardware or in software? It's merely coddling programmers who perform a fetch long before they store to the same location. They deserve to be treated according to the second definition of "coddle" rather than the first. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html

