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authorBrandon Potter <brandon.potter@amd.com>2015-07-20 09:15:21 -0500
committerBrandon Potter <brandon.potter@amd.com>2015-07-20 09:15:21 -0500
commita5802c823f4f6ec2bd97c953494551e31faa2cf8 (patch)
treeb150d317b84b2168c09381d304919e86efcc9ab6 /src/cpu/o3/mem_dep_unit.hh
parenta7a0fd2c58cbd0e8e7e83ad8e7f7729a32527c02 (diff)
downloadgem5-a5802c823f4f6ec2bd97c953494551e31faa2cf8.tar.xz
syscall_emul: [patch 13/22] add system call retry capability
This changeset adds functionality that allows system calls to retry without affecting thread context state such as the program counter or register values for the associated thread context (when system calls return with a retry fault). This functionality is needed to solve problems with blocking system calls in multi-process or multi-threaded simulations where information is passed between processes/threads. Blocking system calls can cause deadlock because the simulator itself is single threaded. There is only a single thread servicing the event queue which can cause deadlock if the thread hits a blocking system call instruction. To illustrate the problem, consider two processes using the producer/consumer sharing model. The processes can use file descriptors and the read and write calls to pass information to one another. If the consumer calls the blocking read system call before the producer has produced anything, the call will block the event queue (while executing the system call instruction) and deadlock the simulation. The solution implemented in this changeset is to recognize that the system calls will block and then generate a special retry fault. The fault will be sent back up through the function call chain until it is exposed to the cpu model's pipeline where the fault becomes visible. The fault will trigger the cpu model to replay the instruction at a future tick where the call has a chance to succeed without actually going into a blocking state. In subsequent patches, we recognize that a syscall will block by calling a non-blocking poll (from inside the system call implementation) and checking for events. When events show up during the poll, it signifies that the call would not have blocked and the syscall is allowed to proceed (calling an underlying host system call if necessary). If no events are returned from the poll, we generate the fault and try the instruction for the thread context at a distant tick. Note that retrying every tick is not efficient. As an aside, the simulator has some multi-threading support for the event queue, but it is not used by default and needs work. Even if the event queue was completely multi-threaded, meaning that there is a hardware thread on the host servicing a single simulator thread contexts with a 1:1 mapping between them, it's still possible to run into deadlock due to the event queue barriers on quantum boundaries. The solution of replaying at a later tick is the simplest solution and solves the problem generally.
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