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Date:      Tue, 21 Nov 2000 17:19:23 -0800 (PST)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Daniel Eischen <eischen@vigrid.com>
Cc:        Jonathan Lemon <jlemon@flugsvamp.com>, arch@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Thread-specific data and KSEs
Message-ID:  <XFMail.001121171923.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.1001121201152.11654A-100000@pcnet1.pcnet.com>

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On 22-Nov-00 Daniel Eischen wrote:
> On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, John Baldwin wrote:
>> 
>> On 22-Nov-00 Daniel Eischen wrote:
>> > On Tue, 21 Nov 2000, Jonathan Lemon wrote:
>> >> On Tue, Nov 21, 2000 at 06:51:59PM -0500, Daniel Eischen wrote:
>> >> > I'm going to start working on the user-side of the new threads
>> >> > library.  I need to be able to quickly get at the current KSE
>> >> > (or perhaps KSEG).  Can we define a register on each architecture
>> >> > that should not be used by FreeBSD ABI compliant applications?
>> >> > The register doesn't have to be 32 bits or larger, just large
>> >> > enough to hold the maximum number of KSEs (or KSEGs).
>> >> 
>> >> Um.  On a i386 I'm not sure this will be practical, there aren't 
>> >> a whole lot of architecturally visible registers for use by the
>> >> application.
>> > 
>> > Why can't we use a segment register?
>> 
>> %cs = code segment and is taken
>> %ds = data segment and is taken
>> %es = not sure, but bet it isn't safe
>> %ss = stack, taken
>> %fs = per-CPU data
> 
> Isn't this kernel-only?

I think so, but I would prefer that we use %gs if we go this route so that the
same mechanism can be used both in and out of the kernel.  If that makes sense.

>> %gs ?  as I mentioned in my other message, this one might be useful for
>> addressing a structure of thread-local variables much like %fs is used for
>> per-CPU data.  It also has value in that supposedly x86-64 (aka k64) has
>> both
>> %fs and %gs, but no other seg regs.
> 
> All I need is one.

Well, %gs would cover x86 and k64.  I think ia64 has several application
registers that are available for OS use and we could steal one of those.  I'm
not sure about the alpha though.

-- 

John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc
"Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/


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