xref: /plan9/sys/src/9/rb/notes/erratum48 (revision f43f8ee646e2cb29aea7fd7bb5fc7318a3f4921f)
1/*
2 * 24K Erratum 48: Lost Data on Stores During Refill.
3
4  Problem: The FSB (fetch store buffer) acts as an intermediate buffer
5  for the data cache refills and store data. The following describes
6  the scenario where the store data could be lost.
7
8  * A data cache miss, due to either a load or a store, causing fill
9    data to be supplied by the memory subsystem
10  * The first three doublewords of fill data are returned and written
11    into the cache
12  * A sequence of four stores occurs in consecutive cycles around the
13    final doubleword of the fill:
14  * Store A
15  * Store B
16  * Store C
17  * Zero, One or more instructions
18  * Store D
19
20  The four stores A-D must be to different doublewords of the line that
21  is being filled. The fourth instruction in the sequence above permits
22  the fill of the final doubleword to be transferred from the FSB into
23  the cache. In the sequence above, the stores may be either integer
24  (sb, sh, sw, swr, swl, sc) or coprocessor (swc1/swc2, sdc1/sdc2,
25  swxc1, sdxc1, suxc1) stores, as long as the four stores are to
26  different doublewords on the line. If the floating point unit is
27  running in 1:2 mode, it is not possible to create the sequence above
28  using only floating point store instructions.  In this case, the cache
29  line being filled is incorrectly marked invalid, thereby losing the
30  data from any store to the line that occurs between the original miss
31  and the completion of the five cycle sequence shown above.
32
33  * Run the data cache in write-through mode.
34  * Insert a non-store instruction between
35    Store A and Store B or Store B and Store C.
36 */
37