Hi,
Christoph Lameter wrote:
Introduction of the cmpxchg is one atomic operations that replaces the two spinlock ops typically necessary in an unpatched kernel. Obtaining the spinlock requires an spinlock (which is an atomic operation) and then the release involves a barrier. So there is a net win for all SMP cases as far as I can see.
bye, Roman - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/