2–34 Internal Architecture
21264/EV68A Hardware Reference Manual
I/O Write Buffer and the WMB Instruction
c. When a probe response has been sent to the system for the marked probe queue
entry, the Cbox considers the WMB to be satisfied.
• If Cbox CSR SYSBUS_MB_ENABLE is set, the Cbox performs the following
actions:
a. Stalls further MAF and IOWB processing.
b. Sends the MB command to the system port.
c. Waits until the MB command is acknowledged by the system with a SysDc
MBDone command, then sends acknowledge and marks the youngest entry in
the probe queue.
d. When a probe response has been sent to the system for the marked probe queue
entry, the Cbox considers the WMB to be satisfied.
2.12.1.3 TB Fill Flow
Load instructions (HW_LDs) to a virtual page table entry (VPTE) are processed by the
21264/EV68A to avoid litmus test problems associated with the ordering of memory
transactions from another processor against loading of a page table entry and the subse-
quent virtual-mode load from this processor.
Consider the sequence shown in Table 2–12. The data could be in the Bcache. Pj should
fetch datai if it is using PTEi.
Also consider the related sequence shown in Table 2–13. In this case, the data could be
cached in the Bcache; Pj should fetch datai if it is using PTEi.
The 21264/EV68A processes Dstream loads to the PTE by injecting, in hardware, some
memory barrier processing between the PTE transaction and any subsequent load or
store instruction. This is accomplished by the following mechanism:
1. The integer queue issues a HW_LD instruction with VPTE.
Table 2–12 TB Fill Flow Example Sequence 1
Pi Pj
Write Datai Load/Store datai
MB <TB miss>
Write PTEi Load-PTE
<write TB>
Load/Store (restart)
Table 2–13 TB Fill Flow Example Sequence 2
Pi Pj
Write Datai Istream read datai
MB <TB miss>
Write PTEi Load-PTE
<write TB>
Istream read (restart) - will miss the Icache