Date: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 08:28:15 -0700 (PST) From: John Polstra <jdp@polstra.com> To: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com> Cc: arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Threads models and FreeBSD. (Next Step) Message-ID: <XFMail.991103082815.jdp@polstra.com> In-Reply-To: <199911031503.IAA08453@mt.sri.com>
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Nate Williams wrote: >> >> I've just been looking at the paper, and I don't think they modified >> the compiler or the assembler. What they say is: >> >> We do this by delimiting, with special assembler labels, each >> critical section in the C source code for the user-level thread >> package; we then post-process the compiler-generated assembly >> code to make the copy. > > Correct, but right after that, they stated that instead of having to > specially annotate critical sections with assembler labels, it could be > picked up automatically with the use of a modified compiler/assembler. It could be done that way, but it doesn't need to be. > Also, either way requires that the program be written in C/C++, > which is unacceptable to me (and you I suspect), since some of my > 'threaded' programs won't be written in C (Java) and you (Modula-3). > These 'critical sections' will exist in Java, and I don't want to > re-write the JVM to go figure out what sections are critical and > have it build assembly versions. No, they say "each critical section in the C source code -->>> for the user-level thread package <<<--". They don't do anything special to application programs. They only mess with the threads kernel (src/lib/libc_r/uthread/uthread_kern.c) itself. It boils down to surrounding certain small sections of code in libc_r with __pthread_begin_critical(); [...] __pthread_end_critical(); (Pick your favorite name for the macros.) John --- John Polstra jdp@polstra.com John D. Polstra & Co., Inc. Seattle, Washington USA "No matter how cynical I get, I just can't keep up." -- Nora Ephron To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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