x86 specific memory model extensions for transactional memory - Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)
Description: Using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

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### 6.53 x86 specific memory model extensions for transactional memory

The i386 architecture supports additional memory ordering flags to mark lock critical sections for hardware lock elision. These must be specified in addition to an existing memory model to atomic intrinsics.

`__ATOMIC_HLE_ACQUIRE`
  Start lock elision on a lock variable. Memory model must be `__ATOMIC_ACQUIRE` or stronger.
`__ATOMIC_HLE_RELEASE`
  End lock elision on a lock variable. Memory model must be `__ATOMIC_RELEASE` or stronger.

When a lock acquire fails it is required for good performance to abort the transaction quickly. This can be done with a `_mm_pause`

         #include <immintrin.h> // For _mm_pause

         int lockvar;

         /* Acquire lock with lock elision */
         while (__atomic_exchange_n(&lockvar, 1, __ATOMIC_ACQUIRE|__ATOMIC_HLE_ACQUIRE))
             _mm_pause(); /* Abort failed transaction */
         ...
         /* Free lock with lock elision */
         __atomic_store_n(&lockvar, 0, __ATOMIC_RELEASE|__ATOMIC_HLE_RELEASE);