============================================== Ordering I/O writes to memory-mapped addresses ============================================== On some platforms, so-called memory-mapped I/O is weakly ordered. On such platforms, driver writers are responsible for ensuring that I/O writes to memory-mapped addresses on their device arrive in the order intended. This is typically done by reading a 'safe' device or bridge register, causing the I/O chipset to flush pending writes to the device before any reads are posted. A driver would usually use this technique immediately prior to the exit of a critical section of code protected by spinlocks. This would ensure that subsequent writes to I/O space arrived only after all prior writes (much like a memory barrier op, mb(), only with respect to I/O). A more concrete example from a hypothetical device driver:: ... CPU A: spin_lock_irqsave(&dev_lock, flags) CPU A: val = readl(my_status); CPU A: ... CPU A: writel(newval, ring_ptr); CPU A: spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev_lock, flags) ... CPU B: spin_lock_irqsave(&dev_lock, flags) CPU B: val = readl(my_status); CPU B: ... CPU B: writel(newval2, ring_ptr); CPU B: spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev_lock, flags) ... In the case above, the device may receive newval2 before it receives newval, which could cause problems. Fixing it is easy enough though:: ... CPU A: spin_lock_irqsave(&dev_lock, flags) CPU A: val = readl(my_status); CPU A: ... CPU A: writel(newval, ring_ptr); CPU A: (void)readl(safe_register); /* maybe a config register? */ CPU A: spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev_lock, flags) ... CPU B: spin_lock_irqsave(&dev_lock, flags) CPU B: val = readl(my_status); CPU B: ... CPU B: writel(newval2, ring_ptr); CPU B: (void)readl(safe_register); /* maybe a config register? */ CPU B: spin_unlock_irqrestore(&dev_lock, flags) Here, the reads from safe_register will cause the I/O chipset to flush any pending writes before actually posting the read to the chipset, preventing possible data corruption.