include:
* Mutual exclusion is used instead of spl*(). See mutex(9). (Note: The
alpha port is still in transition and currently uses both.)
* Per-CPU idle processes.
* Interrupts are run in their own separate kernel threads and can be
preempted (i386 only).
Partially contributed by: BSDi (BSD/OS)
Submissions by (at least): cp, dfr, dillon, grog, jake, jhb, sheldonh
syscall path inward. A system call may select whether it needs the MP
lock or not (the default being that it does need it).
A great deal of conditional SMP code for various deadended experiments
has been removed. 'cil' and 'cml' have been removed entirely, and the
locking around the cpl has been removed. The conditional
separately-locked fast-interrupt code has been removed, meaning that
interrupts must hold the CPL now (but they pretty much had to anyway).
Another reason for doing this is that the original separate-lock for
interrupts just doesn't apply to the interrupt thread mechanism being
contemplated.
Modifications to the cpl may now ONLY occur while holding the MP
lock. For example, if an otherwise MP safe syscall needs to mess with
the cpl, it must hold the MP lock for the duration and must (as usual)
save/restore the cpl in a nested fashion.
This is precursor work for the real meat coming later: avoiding having
to hold the MP lock for common syscalls and I/O's and interrupt threads.
It is expected that the spl mechanisms and new interrupt threading
mechanisms will be able to run in tandem, allowing a slow piecemeal
transition to occur.
This patch should result in a moderate performance improvement due to
the considerable amount of code that has been removed from the critical
path, especially the simplification of the spl*() calls. The real
performance gains will come later.
Approved by: jkh
Reviewed by: current, bde (exception.s)
Some work taken from: luoqi's patch
