JavaMemoryModel: Is "memory coherence" necessary in the new JMM?

From: vsarkar@us.ibm.com
Date: Fri Jul 23 1999 - 15:26:36 EDT


Hi,

This note is from Gao and myself. Gao is a professor at U. Delaware,
working on multithreading execution models and architectures
(www.capsl.udel.edu). I'm at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center,
working on the Jalapeno JVM for SMP servers (www.research.ibm.com/jalapeno).

We have been working on the specification of memory models that do not
rely on memory coherence. One such model that we proposed in 1993 is
called Location Consistency (LC). (See www.capsl.udel.edu/LC.shtml
for details.)

> Bill Pugh <pugh@cs.umd.edu> on 07/09/99 11:01:55 AM
>
> So I think we can declare that the existing JMM is dead, and that it
> will need to be replaced, not patched.

Wonderful! Since the JMM is to be replaced from scratch, we would
like to discuss a fundamental question:

   Should memory coherence be part of the new JMM?

1) We agree with the "lower bound" goal proposed by Sarita Adve:

> Sarita Adve <sarita@ece.rice.edu> on 6/30/99 06:05:23 PM
>
> *** Data-race-free programs should be guaranteed sequentially consistent
> results. (Whether a program is data-race-free should be determined by its
> behavior on a sequentially consistent machine.) This is a bound on how weak
> the model can be.

   It is interesting to note that memory coherence is NOT necessary to
   achieve this lower bound. If the program itself is data-race-free,
   then all writes to the same location will be totally ordered by
   synchronizations, even if the underlying memory model does not enforce
   coherence. In other words, removing memory coherence is not in
   conflict with the lower bound goal.

2) We also agree with the "upper bound" goal:

> *** The new specification should not impose "excessive" ordering
constraints
> on current hardware. This means that any constraints not necessary to
ensure
> SC for data-race-free programs should be imposed with "care and
> deliberation." This is a bound on how strong the model can be.

   From 1), it's clear that memory coherence is a constraint not
   necessary to ensure SC for data-race-free programs. As in Bill Pugh's
   Java Grande '99 paper, we've argued in the past that memory coherence
   imposes excessive ordering constraints, which can prevent many
   compiler/software and processor/hardware optimizations (e.g.,
   reordering of potentially aliased load instructions). Therefore,
   memory coherence appears to be in conflict with the upper bound goal.

3) From 1) and 2), our proposal is to get rid of the memory coherence
   assumption in the new JMM!

   Bill reported the usual concerns with removing memory coherence:

> * Some people said "Not having that would be like not guaranteeing
> that reads/writes of integers are atomic. How can you even think of
> _not_ making that safety guarantee?"
>
> Another interesting comment is a confirmation of something I've heard
> from a number of other people: that all Sparc systems run under TSO
> (Total store order); far too much of Sun's software breaks if you use
> a more relaxed memory model.

   We understand these concerns. Note that the proposal for removing
   memory coherence is only for the Java language and the JMM. Legacy
   operating systems and other applications written in native code are
   still free to retain memory coherence. Even if current processors
   enforce TSO, removing coherence from the new JMM will enable many more
   compiler optimizations to be performed on Java programs. In addition,
   the new JMM will be prepared for future processors that do not enforce TSO.

If we are willing to accept the removal of memory coherence from the
new JMM, the next question that arises is: what guarantees should be
made for programs with data races? We believe that the LC model
offers one answer. Are there any other suggestions?

Best,

Gao and Vivek

P.S. -- This note is on the memory coherence aspect of the JMM. There
has been a lot of good discussion on other aspects of the JMM, such as
object initialization. We believe that removing memory coherence from
the JMM will not limit proposals on other aspects of the JMM.

-------------------------------------
EMAIL: vsarkar@us.ibm.com
PHONE: 914-784-7105
FAX: 914-784-6576
POSTAL ADDRESS:
    Vivek Sarkar
    IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
    P.O. Box 704
    Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

URL FOR JALAPEŅO PROJECT: http://www.research.ibm.com/jalapeno

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