Plan 9 from Bell Labs’s /usr/web/sources/plan9/sys/src/9/rb/notes/erratum48

Copyright © 2021 Plan 9 Foundation.
Distributed under the MIT License.
Download the Plan 9 distribution.


/*
 * 24K Erratum 48: Lost Data on Stores During Refill.

  Problem: The FSB (fetch store buffer) acts as an intermediate buffer
  for the data cache refills and store data. The following describes
  the scenario where the store data could be lost.

  * A data cache miss, due to either a load or a store, causing fill
    data to be supplied by the memory subsystem
  * The first three doublewords of fill data are returned and written
    into the cache
  * A sequence of four stores occurs in consecutive cycles around the
    final doubleword of the fill:
  * Store A
  * Store B
  * Store C
  * Zero, One or more instructions
  * Store D

  The four stores A-D must be to different doublewords of the line that
  is being filled. The fourth instruction in the sequence above permits
  the fill of the final doubleword to be transferred from the FSB into
  the cache. In the sequence above, the stores may be either integer
  (sb, sh, sw, swr, swl, sc) or coprocessor (swc1/swc2, sdc1/sdc2,
  swxc1, sdxc1, suxc1) stores, as long as the four stores are to
  different doublewords on the line. If the floating point unit is
  running in 1:2 mode, it is not possible to create the sequence above
  using only floating point store instructions.  In this case, the cache
  line being filled is incorrectly marked invalid, thereby losing the
  data from any store to the line that occurs between the original miss
  and the completion of the five cycle sequence shown above.

  * Run the data cache in write-through mode.
  * Insert a non-store instruction between
    Store A and Store B or Store B and Store C.
 */

Bell Labs OSI certified Powered by Plan 9

(Return to Plan 9 Home Page)

Copyright © 2021 Plan 9 Foundation. All Rights Reserved.
Comments to webmaster@9p.io.