Research on SPINLOCK

Some useful resources:

http://www.makelinux.net/books/lkd2/?u=ch09lev1sec2

Introduce the basic knowlodge of SPIN_LOCK

http://h21007.www2.hp.com/portal/download/files/unprot/ddk/DDG/chap3.pdf

This paper introduce the spin_lock of hp_unix

and introduce some basic terminology such as: Driver's upper half and Driver's lower half

The classic illustration of a deadlock

Therefore, the core rule that applies to spinlocks is that any code must, while holding a spinlock, be atomic. It cannot sleep; in fact, it cannot relinquish the processor for any reason except to service interrupts (and sometimes not even then).

上述代码关键在于LDREX和STREX指令的应用。DREX和STREX指令是在V6以后才出现的，代替了V6以前的swp指令。可以让bus监控LDREX和STREX指令之间有无其它CPU和DMA来存取过这个地址，若有的话STREX指令的第一个寄存器里设置为1（动作失败），若没有，指令的第一个寄存器里设置为0（动作成功）。

不仅是自旋锁用到LDREX和STREX指令，信号量的实现也是利用LDREX和STREX指令来实现的。

09/23

Linux config difference

(1) origin config

CONFIG_PREEMPT

CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOICK is not defined

CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC is not defined

CONFIG_SMP is not defined