Abstract
A widely implemented memory consistency model is total store order (TSO). TSO was first introduced by SPARC and, more importantly, appears to match the memory consistency model of the widely used x86 architecture. RISC-V also supports a TSO extension, RVTSO, in part to aid porting of code originally written for x86 or SPARC architectures. This chapter presents this important consistency model using a pattern similar to that in the previous chapter on sequential consistency. We first motivate TSO/x86 (Section 4.1) in part by pointing out limitations of SC. We then present TSO/x86 at an intuitive level (Section 4.2) before describing it more formally (Section 4.3), explaining how systems implement TSO/x86, including atomic instructions and instructions used to enforce ordering between instructions (Section 4.4). We conclude by discussing other resources for learning more about TSO/x86 (Section 4.5) and comparing TSO/x86 and SC (Section 4.6).
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