Re: [patch] linux 2.4.17: The second mb() rework (final)

["Kevin D. Kissell" <kevink@mips.com>]

From: "Atsushi Nemoto" <nemoto@toshiba-tops.co.jp>:
> Note that SYNC on TX39/H and TX39/H2 does not flush a write buffer.
> Some operation (for example, bc0f loop) are required to flush a write
> buffer.

That is, I would say, a bug in the TX39 implementation of SYNC.
The specification is states that all stores prior to the SYNC must 
complete before any memory ops after the sync, and that the 
definition of a store completing is that all stored values be 
"visible to every other processor in the system", which pretty 
clearly implies that the write buffers must be flushed.

So I think that the Linux code was perfectly correct in considering
the TX39 to be without SYNC, just as a Vr4101 must be
consdered to be without LL/SC.  They decode the instructions,
but they don't actually implement them as specified.

            Kevin K.