On Sun, Aug 19, 2018 at 5:12 PM <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 2018-08-18 19:03, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> > On Sat, Aug 18, 2018 at 12:05 AM Maciej W. Rozycki
> >
> >> A while ago I proposed a set of different MMIO barriers, that some
> >> systems may require, corresponding to the respective regular memory
> >> barriers, but in the I/O context. I never got to implementing that
> >> proposal, but I still think it's the right thing to do and will see if
> >> I
> >> can find some time to try doing that. Right now we have quite a mess
> >> with
> >> that. :(
> >
> > My understanding for mmiowb() is that it should not be implied by
> > writel() itself but that it would be added between a writel() and a
> > spin_unlock(). Putting it into writel() itself would make it completely
> > pointless as an abstraction.
>
> This matches my understanding of mmiowb. In fact, mmiowb is a powerpc
> thing. All other architectures stub out.
There are a few architectures that define mmiowb to something other
than a nop: some ia64, some mips and sh in particular, plus also the
new riscv.
It does make some sense that alpha might need a barrier between
an mmio store and a spin_unlock, but it was decided earlier to make
that barrier implied by the writel() function rather than require an
explicit mmiowb after it.
Arnd
