cpu: fixed how O3 CPU executes an exit system call

When a thread executed an exit syscall in SE mode, the thread context
was removed immediately in the same cycle, which left inflight squash
operations and trap event incomplete. The problem happened when a new
thread was assigned to the CPU later. The new thread started with some
incomplete transactions of the previous thread (e.g., squashing). This
problem could cause incorrect execution flow for the new thread (i.e.,
pc was not reset properly at the exit point), deadlock (i.e., some
stage-to-stage signals were not reset) and incorrect rename map between
logical and physical registers.

This patch adds a new state called 'Halting' to the thread context and
defers removing thread context from a CPU until a trap event initiated
by an exit syscall execution is processed. This patch also makes sure
that the removal of a thread context happens after all inflight
transactions of the to-be-removed thread in the pipeline complete.

Change-Id: If7ef1462fb8864e22b45371ee7ae67e2a5ad38b8
Reviewed-on: https://gem5-review.googlesource.com/c/8184
Reviewed-by: Giacomo Gabrielli <giacomo.gabrielli@arm.com>
Maintainer: Jason Lowe-Power <jason@lowepower.com>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/cpu/thread_context.hh b/src/cpu/thread_context.hh
index a570b9a00..6b9ff1a12 100644
--- a/src/cpu/thread_context.hh
+++ b/src/cpu/thread_context.hh
@@ -111,6 +111,10 @@ class ThreadContext
         /// synchronization, etc.
         Suspended,
 
+        /// Trying to exit and waiting for an event to completely exit.
+        /// Entered when target executes an exit syscall.
+        Halting,
+
         /// Permanently shut down.  Entered when target executes
         /// m5exit pseudo-instruction.  When all contexts enter
         /// this state, the simulation will terminate.