Posted on March 02, 2016 at 02:16 Hello everybody.
I can't understand the
LdrEx, StrEx, ClrEx
synchronization mechanism.
Error in documentation?
Let's look at the:
PM0056 Programming Manual.
STM32F10xxx/20xxx/21xxx/L1xxxx
Cortex-M3 programming manual
DocID15491 Rev 5 May 2013
On the page 32 we have:
''......
The processor removes its exclusive access tag if:
�a It executes a CLREX instruction
�b It executes a Store-Exclusive instruction, regardless of whether the write succeeds.
�c
An exception occurs. This means the processor
can resolve semaphore conflicts
between different threads.
......''
Let's focus on point ''c � An exception occurs''.
This is what I expect according to my common sense.
So I put:
LdrEx, ..some code..., StrEx pair
and I trust that if other process drops between them via interrupt, processor removes the tag. Of course I will have to loop this sequence again but the exclusive access works well as the processor is responsible to remove the tag. Other words, there is no risk of mismatch between LdrEx/StrEx pair in main thread and LdrEx/StrEx pair in the exception code as processor automatically removes the tag hence safely separates them.
But I am a little afraid as
at page 71 (about ClrEx instruction) we have:
''..... ClrEx is useful in exception handler code to force the failure
of the store exclusive if the exception occurs between a load exclusive instruction and the matching store exclusive instruction in a synchronization operation.
..... ''
Hmmm....
So it is necessary to put ClrEx instruction into exception code to remove the tag?
But it was promised (page 32) that the processor do it if an exception occurs...
So how is it?
It is important because ones may have this exception within the compiled library so there is no possibility to add the ClrEx inside.
Thank you for help.
Robert
#ldrex #strex #clrex
