Re: Spinlocks, yet again: analysis and proposed patches

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: "Min Xu (Hsu)" <xu@cs.wisc.edu>
Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Date: 2005-09-14T02:42:59Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
"Min Xu (Hsu)" <xu@cs.wisc.edu> writes:
> ...If this were the case, perhaps first fetch the spin lock with read-only
> permission should have helped.

But the cmpb instruction in the 8.0 version of TAS would have done that,
and I think we've already established that the cmpb is a loss on most
machines (except maybe single-physical-CPU Xeons).  I suggested in my
other message that it might help to grab write permission on the cache
line before actually trying to acquire the spin lock --- but I don't see
how getting read-only permission first will help.

			regards, tom lane