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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/memory-barriers.txt | 16 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt index fb2dd35a823a..8b11e54238bf 100644 --- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt +++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt @@ -19,6 +19,22 @@ in case of any doubt (and there are many) please ask. To repeat, this document is not a specification of what Linux expects from hardware. +The purpose of this document is twofold: + + (1) to specify the minimum functionality that one can rely on for any + particular barrier, and + + (2) to provide a guide as to how to use the barriers that are available. + +Note that an architecture can provide more than the minimum requirement +for any particular barrier, but if the architecure provides less than +that, that architecture is incorrect. + +Note also that it is possible that a barrier may be a no-op for an +architecture because the way that arch works renders an explicit barrier +unnecessary in that case. + + ======== CONTENTS ======== |