RE: [PATCH v6 1/9] eal: generic 64 bit counter

["Morten Brørup" <mb@smartsharesystems.com>]

> From: Honnappa Nagarahalli [mailto:Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com]
> Sent: Friday, 17 May 2024 06.27
> 
> + Bruce for feedback on x86 architecture
> 
> > On May 16, 2024, at 10:30 PM, Stephen Hemminger <stephen@networkplumber.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 17 May 2024 02:45:12 +0000
> > Honnappa Nagarahalli <Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com> wrote:
> >
> >>> + * A counter is 64 bit value that is safe from split read/write
> >>> + * on 32 bit platforms. It assumes that only one cpu at a time
> >> If we are defining the counter in this manner, then implementation cannot
> be generic. I think architectures will have constraints if they have to ensure
> the 64b variables are not split.
> >>
> >> I think we at least need the counter to be aligned on 8B boundary to have
> generic code.
> >
> > The C standard has always guaranteed that read and write to unsigned log
> will not be split.
> As I understand, this is true only if the variable is an atomic variable. If
> not, there is no difference between atomic variables and non-atomic variables.
> 
> > Therefore if arch is 64 bit native there is no need for atomics
> At least on ARM architecture, if the variable is not aligned on 8B boundary,
> the load or store are not atomic. I am sure it is the same on other
> architectures.

I guess it depends on the architecture's natural alignment size and the compiler - especially on 32 bit architectures, where the natural alignment size is 4 bytes.

We could play it safe and add alignment to the counter type:

#include <stdalign.h>
#ifdef RTE_ARCH_64
#if alignof(uint64_t) < sizeof(uint64_t)
typedef alignas(8) uint64_t rte_counter64_t;
#else
typedef uint64_t rte_counter64_t;
#endif
#else
#if alignof(RTE_ATOMIC(uint64_t)) < sizeof(uint64_t)
typedef alignas(8) RTE_ATOMIC(uint64_t) rte_counter64_t;
#else
typedef RTE_ATOMIC(uint64_t) rte_counter64_t;
#endif
#endif

This above is intentionally verbose, because some 32 bit architectures can implement 64 bit non-tearing counters without atomics [1], and the new 64 bit counter library should be prepared for accepting such optimizations.
[1]: https://inbox.dpdk.org/dev/98CBD80474FA8B44BF855DF32C47DC35E9F433@smartserver.smartshare.dk/


Picking up on another branch of this discussion:
This 64 bit counter library is *not* an internal API. Applications should use it for their counters too.

> Bruce, any comments for x86?