Re: [PATCH v3 4/4] membarrier: riscv: Provide core serializing command

From: Andrea Parri
Date: Wed Jan 10 2024 - 17:34:52 EST


Hi Stefan,


> "core serialization" is a meaningless sequence of words for RISC-V users,

The expression is inherited from MEMBARRIER(2). Quoting from the RFC
discussion (cf. [3] in the cover letter),

"RISC-V does not have "core serializing instructions", meaning
that there is no occurence of such a term in the RISC-V ISA. The
discussion and git history about the SYNC_CORE command suggested
the implementation below: a FENCE.I instruction [...]"


> The feature seems useful, but it should document what it does using
> terminology actually used in the RISC-V specifications.

In _current RISC-V parlance, it's pretty clear: we are doing FENCE.I.
As Palmer and others mentioned in the RFC, there're proposals for ISA
extensions aiming to "replace" FENCE.I, but those are still WIP. (*)

Andrea

(*) https://github.com/riscv/riscv-j-extension