Re: [PATCH v9 4/9] clocksource/drivers/arm_arch_timer: use readq to get 64-bit CNTVCT

[Timur Tabi]

Will Deacon wrote:
> The kernel really needs to support both of those platforms :/
>
> For the memory-mapped counter registers, the architecture says:
>
>    `If the implementation supports 64-bit atomic accesses, then the
>     CNTV_CVAL register must be accessible as an atomic 64-bit value.'
>
> which is borderline tautological. If we take the generous reading that
> this means AArch64 CPUs can use readq (and I'm not completely
> comfortable with that assertion, particularly as you say that it breaks
> the model), then you still need to use readq_relaxed here to avoid a
> DSB. Furthermore, what are you going to do for AArch32? readq doesn't
> exist over there, and if you use the generic implementation then it's
> not atomic. In which case, we end up with the current code, as well as a
> readq_relaxed guarded by a questionable #ifdef that is known to break a
> supported platform for an unknown performance improvement. Hardly a big
> win.

I know Fu dropped this patch, and I don't want to kick a dead horse, but 
I was wondering if it would be okay to do this:

static u64 arch_counter_get_cntvct_mem(void)
{
#ifdef readq_relaxed
	return readq_relaxed(arch_counter_base + CNTVCT_LO);
#else
	u32 vct_lo, vct_hi, tmp_hi;

	do {
		vct_hi = readl_relaxed(arch_counter_base + CNTVCT_HI);
		vct_lo = readl_relaxed(arch_counter_base + CNTVCT_LO);
		tmp_hi = readl_relaxed(arch_counter_base + CNTVCT_HI);
	} while (vct_hi != tmp_hi);

	return ((u64) vct_hi << 32) | vct_lo;
#endif
}

readq and readq_relaxed are defined in arch/arm64/include/asm/io.h.  Why 
would the function exist if AArch64 CPUs can't use it?

Do we need something like ARCH_HAS_64BIT_ATOMIC_READ in order to decide 
whether readq is safe?

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