On Sat, Aug 12, 2006 at 06:06:02PM +0200, Thomas Koeller wrote: > > > + while (1) continue; > > > > cpu_relax(); > > I tried to find out about the purpose of cpu_relax(). On MIPS, at least, > it maps to barrier(). I do not quite understand why I would need a > barrier() in this place. Would you, or someone else, care to > enlighten me? Busy wait loops are meant to be filled with cpu_relax() in Linux. On processors like the Pentium 4 this expands into something that keeps the CPU from consuming excessive amounts of energy for just twiddling thumbs and probably also CPU dependant. On MIPS cpu_relax() so far is meaningless and therfore just defined as barrier(). Ralf
