what's the point of rpython?

[Ross Ridge]

Scott David Daniels  <Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org> wrote:
>The opcode cannot simply talk to its cache, it must either go directly
>to off-chip memory or communicate to other processors that it (and it
>alone) owns the increment target.

In fact all it does simply talk to its cache.  From the "Intel 64 and
IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3A: System
Programming Guide, Part 1":

	For the P6 and more recent processor families, if the area of
	memory being locked during a LOCK operation is cached in the
	processor that is performing the LOCK operation as write-back
	memory and is completely contained in a cache line, the processor
	may not assert the LOCK# signal on the bus. Instead, it will
	modify the memory location internally and allow it's cache
	coherency mechanism to insure that the operation is carried
	out atomically. This operation is called "cache locking." The
	cache coherency mechanism automatically prevents two or more
	processors that have cached the same area of memory from
	simultaneously modifying data in that area.

The same cache coherency mechanism that prevents ordinary "unlocked"
instructions from simulanteously modifying the same cache line on
two different processors also provides the guarantee with "locked"
instructions.  There's no additional hardware locks involved, and no
additional communication required.

				Ross Ridge

-- 
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