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Date:      Fri, 23 Jan 1998 23:19:35 +1030
From:      Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>
To:        Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
Cc:        daniel_sobral@voga.com.br, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: uiomove() 
Message-ID:  <199801231249.XAA00630@word.smith.net.au>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 23 Jan 1998 11:47:42 BST." <199801231047.LAA02217@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> 

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> > Yeah (well, kind of yeah), but... What about SMP? What about a process in
> > one processor calling read() while a process in another processor calls
> > write()?
> 
> not sure, but I think in our SMP implementation only one process
> can be in the kernel at each time, isn't it ? Too much of the
> existing code assumes that, and it would have been impossible to
> fix everything to have SMP running.

This is no longer true.  The SMP people started with a single "monster 
lock" as you describe.  This is the traditional starting point, as it 
reduces the amount of work required to begin with.

>From there, there have been several rounds of lock "push downs", where 
parts of the kernel are made SMP-aware.  At this point in time, drivers 
are still below a single lock, and are likely to remain there for some 
time. 8)

-- 
\\  Sometimes you're ahead,       \\  Mike Smith
\\  sometimes you're behind.      \\  mike@smith.net.au
\\  The race is long, and in the  \\  msmith@freebsd.org
\\  end it's only with yourself.  \\ 





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