Carsten Langgaard (carstenl@mips.com) writes:
> I think we have a problem with the PREF instructions spread out in the
> memcpy function.
Not really. The MIPS32 manual (for example):
"PREF does not cause addressing-related exceptions. If it does happen
to raise an exception condition, the exception condition is
ignored. If an addressing-related exception condition is raised and
ignored, no data movement occurs."
PREF never generates a memory operation for a location with an
uncached memory access type."
For a Linux user program, at least, memory pages are "memory-like":
reads are guaranteed to be side-effect free, so any outlying
prefetches are harmless. It's hard to see any circumstance where an
accessible cacheable location would lead to bad side-effects on read.
--
Dominic Sweetman,
MIPS Technologies (UK) - formerly Algorithmics
The Fruit Farm, Ely Road, Chittering, CAMBS CB5 9PH, ENGLAND
phone: +44 1223 706200 / fax: +44 1223 706250 / direct: +44 1223 706205
http://www.algor.co.uk
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