Review Board 2.0.15


mem, cpu: Add a separate flag for strictly ordered memory

Review Request #2720 - Created March 30, 2015 and submitted - Latest diff uploaded

Information
Andreas Hansson
gem5
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Reviewers
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Changeset 10786:6c0a6bbc8611
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mem, cpu: Add a separate flag for strictly ordered memory

The Request::UNCACHEABLE flag currently has two different
functions. The first, and obvious, function is to prevent the memory
system from caching data in the request. The second function is to
prevent reordering and speculation in CPU models.

This changeset gives the order/speculation requirement a separate flag
(Request::STRICT_ORDER). This flag prevents CPU models from doing the
following optimizations:

    * Speculation: CPU models are not allowed to issue speculative
      loads.

    * Write combining: CPU models and caches are not allowed to merge
      writes to the same cache line.

Note: The memory system may still reorder accesses unless the
UNCACHEABLE flag is set. It is therefore expected that the
STRICT_ORDER flag is combined with the UNCACHEABLE flag to prevent
this behavior.