9.44.3.3 Constants

Several Sparc instructions take an immediate operand field for which mnemonic names exist. Two such examples are ‘membar’ and ‘prefetch’. Another example are the set of V9 memory access instruction that allow specification of an address space identifier.

The ‘membar’ instruction specifies a memory barrier that is the defined by the operand which is a bitmask. The supported mask mnemonics are:

• ‘#Sync’ requests that all operations (including nonmemory reference operations) appearing prior to the membar must have been performed and the effects of any exceptions become visible before any instructions after the membar may be initiated. This corresponds to membar cmask field bit 2.
• ‘#MemIssue’ requests that all memory reference operations appearing prior to the membar must have been performed before any memory operation after the membar may be initiated. This corresponds to membar cmask field bit 1.
• ‘#Lookaside’ requests that a store appearing prior to the membar must complete before any load following the membar referencing the same address can be initiated. This corresponds to membar cmask field bit 0.
• ‘#StoreStore’ defines that the effects of all stores appearing prior to the membar instruction must be visible to all processors before the effect of any stores following the membar. Equivalent to the deprecated stbar instruction. This corresponds to membar mmask field bit 3.
• ‘#LoadStore’ defines all loads appearing prior to the membar instruction must have been performed before the effect of any stores following the membar is visible to any other processor. This corresponds to membar mmask field bit 2.
• ‘#StoreLoad’ defines that the effects of all stores appearing prior to the membar instruction must be visible to all processors before loads following the membar may be performed. This corresponds to membar mmask field bit 1.
• ‘#LoadLoad’ defines that all loads appearing prior to the membar instruction must have been performed before any loads following the membar may be performed. This corresponds to membar mmask field bit 0.

These values can be ored together, for example:

membar #Sync
membar #StoreLoad | #LoadLoad
membar #StoreLoad | #StoreStore

The prefetch and prefetcha instructions take a prefetch function code. The following prefetch function code constant mnemonics are available:

• ‘#n_reads’ requests a prefetch for several reads, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 0.

  ‘#one_read’ requests a prefetch for one read, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 1.

  ‘#n_writes’ requests a prefetch for several writes (and possibly reads), and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 2.

  ‘#one_write’ requests a prefetch for one write, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 3.

  ‘#page’ requests a prefetch page, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 4.

  ‘#invalidate’ requests a prefetch invalidate, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 16.

  ‘#unified’ requests a prefetch to the nearest unified cache, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 17.

  ‘#n_reads_strong’ requests a strong prefetch for several reads, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 20.

  ‘#one_read_strong’ requests a strong prefetch for one read, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 21.

  ‘#n_writes_strong’ requests a strong prefetch for several writes, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 22.

  ‘#one_write_strong’ requests a strong prefetch for one write, and corresponds to a prefetch function code of 23.

  Onle one prefetch code may be specified. Here are some examples:

  prefetch  [%l0 + %l2], #one_read
  prefetch  [%g2 + 8], #n_writes
  prefetcha [%g1] 0x8, #unified
  prefetcha [%o0 + 0x10] %asi, #n_reads
  

  The actual behavior of a given prefetch function code is processor specific. If a processor does not implement a given prefetch function code, it will treat the prefetch instruction as a nop.

  For instructions that accept an immediate address space identifier, as provides many mnemonics corresponding to V9 defined as well as UltraSPARC and Niagara extended values. For example, ‘#ASI_P’ and ‘#ASI_BLK_INIT_QUAD_LDD_AIUS’. See the V9 and processor specific manuals for details.