kernel-fxtec-pro1x/arch/x86/include
Jeremy Fitzhardinge db949bba3c x86-32: use non-lazy io bitmap context switching
Impact: remove 32-bit optimization to prepare unification

x86-32 and -64 differ in the way they context-switch tasks
with io permission bitmaps.  x86-64 simply copies the next
tasks io bitmap into place (if any) on context switch.  x86-32
invalidates the bitmap on context switch, so that the next
IO instruction will fault; at that point it installs the
appropriate IO bitmap.

This makes context switching IO-bitmap-using tasks a bit more
less expensive, at the cost of making the next IO instruction
slower due to the extra fault.  This tradeoff only makes sense
if IO-bitmap-using processes are relatively common, but they
don't actually use IO instructions very often.

However, in a typical desktop system, the only process likely
to be using IO bitmaps is the X server, and nothing at all on
a server.  Therefore the lazy context switch doesn't really win
all that much, and its just a gratuitious difference from
64-bit code.

This patch removes the lazy context switch, with a view to
unifying this code in a later change.

Signed-off-by: Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy.fitzhardinge@citrix.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2009-03-02 12:07:48 +01:00
..
asm x86-32: use non-lazy io bitmap context switching 2009-03-02 12:07:48 +01:00