[MUD-Dev] Two threads forced to one CPU? (was: Collecting ideas for a MUD server...)

[cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA]

[Hans-Henrik Staerfeldt:]

> Yes, or keep assuming the worst possible. Assume that the thread can be 
> interrupted, after you have written down 16 of 32 bit of any long word 
> in the memory, making the 32-bit value non-valid, which is why you need
> thread-safe system calls :-) I actually had this error, though on older 
> hardware.

As far as I know, that shouldn't be a problem on a 32 bit CPU. The
instructions, if done properly aligned, should be single, atomic instructions.

The rule is likely something like: do not assume atomicity of operations
for any operations which operate on values larger than the word-size of
the machine, or on *any* struct/class values. So, on a 16 bit MC68000,
watch out for 32 bit values - they may not be atomic on memory accesses.
On a 32 bit IA32 (e.g. Pentium) machine, watch out for operations on 64
bit values - they may not be atomic with respect to memory. On a 64 bit
machine, e.g. an Alpha, watch out for 128 bit operations, etc.

There are of course exceptions. I believe newer Pentia have some explicit
64 bit special instructions, and since their off-chip bus width is
sometimes > 32 bits, these can work atomically. Unless you know the
specifics, however, and want your software to not be readily portable to
other CPU variants (even other I32's!), don't assume anything.

--
Don't design inefficiency in - it'll happen in the implementation.

Chris Gray     cg at ami-cg.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA
               http://www.GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA/cg/



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