RFR(S): 8039042: G1: Phantom zeros in cardtable

[Jon Masamitsu]

Per,

Could you use a check on the sparc version to decide
on when to use memset.

VM_Version::is_T4()

in cpu/sparc/vm/vm_version_sparc.hpp

Jon

On 5/13/2014 3:34 AM, Per Liden wrote:
> Summary: We use memset to initialize the cardtable. On Sparc T4 (and 
> later) memset uses some special instructions with the side-effect that 
> the memory can temporarily be filled with zeros before the actual 
> value is set. These phantom zeros can be observed by concurrent 
> readers of this memory, which can trick the G1 post-barrier to 
> incorrectly dirty a card in a young region. Please see the bug for a 
> more details.
>
> A similar memset-problem has been observed and fixed before 
> (JDK-6948537) when using memset on the BlockOffsetTable. Similar to 
> the BlockOffsetTable, I'm using the UseMemSetInBOT flag as an 
> indicator of whether it's safe to use memset or not. UseMemSetInBOT is 
> not a perfect name for this flag as code other than the BOT might want 
> to use it. It's also questionable of this should be a command-line 
> flag at all. I've filed a separate RFE, JDK-8042930, to do a bit of 
> clean up related to this flag.
>
> Bug: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8039042
> Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~pliden/8039042/webrev.0/
>
> Thanks!
> /Per