tree 38a8e93881ad150a482020a1fd706d664ee0c061
parent 165a7dab558c8118622a387683521bea1ebf2e6c
author Tuan Ta <qtt2@cornell.edu> 1516644770 -0500
committer Tuan Ta <qtt2@cornell.edu> 1549639624 +0000

cpu: support atomic memory request type with AtomicOpFunctor

This patch enables all 4 CPU models (AtomicSimpleCPU, TimingSimpleCPU,
MinorCPU and DerivO3CPU) to issue atomic memory (AMO) requests to memory
system.

Atomic memory instruction is treated as a special store instruction in
all CPU models.

In simple CPUs, an AMO request with an associated AtomicOpFunctor is
simply sent to L1 dcache.

In MinorCPU, an AMO request bypasses store buffer and waits for any
conflicting store request(s) currently in the store buffer to retire
before the AMO request is sent to the cache. AMO requests are not buffered
in the store buffer, so their effects appear immediately in the cache.

In DerivO3CPU, an AMO request is inserted in the store buffer so that it
is delivered to the cache only after all previous stores are issued to
the cache. Data forwarding between between an outstanding AMO in the
store buffer and a subsequent load is not allowed since the AMO request
does not hold valid data until it's executed in the cache.

This implementation assumes that a target ISA implementation must insert
enough memory fences as micro-ops around an atomic instruction to
enforce a correct order of memory instructions with respect to its
memory consistency model. Without extra memory fences, this implementation
can allow AMOs and other memory instructions that do not conflict
(i.e., not target the same address) to reorder.

This implementation also assumes that atomic instructions execute within
a cache line boundary since the cache for now is not able to execute an
operation on two different cache lines in one single step. Therefore,
ISAs like x86 that require multi-cache-line atomic instructions need to
either use a pair of locking load and unlocking store or change the
cache implementation to guarantee the atomicity of an atomic
instruction.

Change-Id: Ib8a7c81868ac05b98d73afc7d16eb88486f8cf9a
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/8188
Reviewed-by: Giacomo Travaglini <giacomo.travaglini@arm.com>
Maintainer: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>