On 2003-Jul-05 18:55:43 -0400, Chuck Swiger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Farid Hajji wrote: >[ ... ] >>Shouldn't such counters be at least 64 bit wide? > >You betcha. :-) The problem is that a 32-bit CPU, like the Intel x86 >family, can't increment a 64-bit counter atomicly.
This isn't absolutely true. You _can_ perform atomic 64-bit operations on an x86 (for x>=5), they are just extremely expensive. There are regular threads on this sort of problem and I don't believe anyone has come up with a solution that did not involve overheads that were considered unacceptable in the general case. Peter _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
