tree 1b45a9446e471bfdba21e7982c87aef47d2f8313
parent 74d4affde8feb8d5bdebf7fba8e90e4eae3b7b1d
author Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@goop.org> 1215457671 -0700
committer Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> 1216199753 +0200

paravirt: introduce a "lock-byte" spinlock implementation

Implement a version of the old spinlock algorithm, in which everyone
spins waiting for a lock byte.  In order to be compatible with the
ticket-lock's use of a zero initializer, this uses the convention of
'0' for unlocked and '1' for locked.

This algorithm is much better than ticket locks in a virtual
envionment, because it doesn't interact badly with the vcpu scheduler.
If there are multiple vcpus spinning on a lock and the lock is
released, the next vcpu to be scheduled will take the lock, rather
than cycling around until the next ticketed vcpu gets it.

To use this, you must call paravirt_use_bytelocks() very early, before
any spinlocks have been taken.

Signed-off-by: Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy.fitzhardinge@citrix.com>
Cc: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <clameter@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@suse.cz>
Cc: Virtualization <virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Xen devel <xen-devel@lists.xensource.com>
Cc: Thomas Friebel <thomas.friebel@amd.com>
Cc: Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>