cpu: Fix the usage of const DynInstPtr

Summary: Usage of const DynInstPtr& when possible and introduction of
move operators to RefCountingPtr.

In many places, scoped references to dynamic instructions do a copy of
the DynInstPtr when a reference would do. This is detrimental to
performance. On top of that, in case there is a need for reference
tracking for debugging, the redundant copies make the process much more
painful than it already is.

Also, from the theoretical point of view, a function/method that
defines a convenience name to access an instruction should not be
considered an owner of the data, i.e., doing a copy and not a reference
is not justified.

On a related topic, C++11 introduces move semantics, and those are
useful when, for example, there is a class modelling a HW structure that
contains a list, and has a getHeadOfList function, to prevent doing a
copy to an internal variable -> update pointer, remove from the list ->
update pointer, return value making a copy to the assined variable ->
update pointer, destroy the returned value -> update pointer.

Change-Id: I3bb46c20ef23b6873b469fd22befb251ac44d2f6
Signed-off-by: Giacomo Gabrielli <giacomo.gabrielli@arm.com>
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/13105
Reviewed-by: Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>
Maintainer: Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>
Maintainer: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/src/cpu/o3/lsq.hh b/src/cpu/o3/lsq.hh
index 7c78156d5..175821e69 100644
--- a/src/cpu/o3/lsq.hh
+++ b/src/cpu/o3/lsq.hh
@@ -106,15 +106,15 @@ class LSQ {
     { thread[tid].tick(); }
 
     /** Inserts a load into the LSQ. */
-    void insertLoad(DynInstPtr &load_inst);
+    void insertLoad(const DynInstPtr &load_inst);
     /** Inserts a store into the LSQ. */
-    void insertStore(DynInstPtr &store_inst);
+    void insertStore(const DynInstPtr &store_inst);
 
     /** Executes a load. */
-    Fault executeLoad(DynInstPtr &inst);
+    Fault executeLoad(const DynInstPtr &inst);
 
     /** Executes a store. */
-    Fault executeStore(DynInstPtr &inst);
+    Fault executeStore(const DynInstPtr &inst);
 
     /**
      * Commits loads up until the given sequence number for a specific thread.