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Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 02:51:06 -0400
From: Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com>
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To: Kurt Garloff <garloff@suse.de>
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Subject: Re: SMP spin-locks
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Kurt Garloff wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Jun 14, 2001 at 01:26:05PM -0400, Richard B. Johnson wrote:
> > Question 2: What is the purpose of the code sequence, "repz nop"
> 
> Puts iP4 into low power mode.

Umm, slightly more accurate would be to say that it makes the P4 processor
wait before resuming the loop to give the lock a chance to have been
released.  It makes the code go from a constant busy loop to a check/wait
small amount of time/check again loop.  This in turns keeps your processor
from trying to constantly check the lock itself which is suppossed to have
benefits in terms of inter-processor bus pressure.

-- 

 Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com>  http://people.redhat.com/dledford
      Please check my web site for aic7xxx updates/answers before
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