Title
Fences in weak memory models
Abstract
We present a class of relaxed memory models, defined in Coq, parameterised by the chosen permitted local reorderings of reads and writes, and the visibility of inter- and intra-processor communications through memory (e.g. store atomicity relaxation) We prove results on the required behaviour and placement of memory fences to restore a given model (such as Sequential Consistency) from a weaker one Based on this class of models we develop a tool, diy, that systematically and automatically generates and runs litmus tests to determine properties of processor implementations We detail the results of our experiments on Power and the model we base on them This work identified a rare implementation error in Power 5 memory barriers (for which IBM is providing a workaround); our results also suggest that Power 6 does not suffer from this problem.
Year
DOI
Venue
2010
10.1007/978-3-642-14295-6_25
CAV
Keywords
Field
DocType
litmus test,memory model,memory barrier,weak memory model,memory fence,required behaviour,store atomicity relaxation,intra-processor communication,sequential consistency,rare implementation error,local reorderings
Extended memory,Computer science,Distributed memory,Algorithm,Theoretical computer science,Memory model,Memory management,Memory map,Overlay,Distributed shared memory,Flat memory model
Conference
Volume
ISSN
ISBN
6174
0302-9743
3-642-14294-X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
36
1.93
15
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jade Alglave160826.53
Luc Maranget280849.83
Susmit Sarkar374430.76
Peter Sewell4144668.16