[linux-pm] [patch] Re: using long instead of atomic_t when only set/read is required

[Linus Torvalds]

On Mon, 3 Mar 2008, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> 
> Well something like this could happen, in theory, on a "32-bit" architecture
> with a 16-bit bus.

No it couldn't.

That would only be true if there is no cache, and no cache coherency.

Basically, Linux requires a cache-coherent architecture to work in SMP. 
Anything else is insane (except as a cluster).

So there is no way we can see partial updates, except with terminally 
broken hardware that we would never support anyway for tons of other 
reasons.

		Linus