Intel® Fortran Compiler 16.0 User and Reference Guide

ATOMIC

OpenMP* Fortran Compiler Directive: Ensures that a specific memory location is updated atomically; this prevents the possibility of multiple threads simultaneously reading and writing the specific memory location.

!$OMP ATOMIC [type-clause[[,] clause]] -or- !$OMP ATOMIC [clause[[,] type-clause]]

   block

!$OMP END ATOMIC

type-clause

(Optional) Is one of the following:

  • CAPTURE

    If !$OMP ATOMIC CAPTURE is specified, block is either one update-statement and one capture-statement in either order, or one capture-statement followed by one write-statement in that order.

  • READ

    If !$OMP ATOMIC READ is specified, block is a capture-statement.

  • WRITE

    If !$OMP ATOMIC WRITE is specified, block is a write-statement.

  • UPDATE

    If !$OMP ATOMIC UPDATE is specified, block is an update-statement.

For details on the effects of these clauses, see the table in the Description section.

clause

(Optional) Is the following:

  • SEQ_CST

    Forces the atomically performed operation to include an implicit flush operation without a list. For details on the effects of this clause, see the table in the Description section.

capture-statement

Is an expression in the form v = x.

write-statement

Is an expression in the form x = expr.

update-statement

Is an expression with one of the following forms:

  x = x operator expr
  x = expr operator x
  x = intrinsic (x, expr-list)
  x = intrinsic (expr-list, x)

The following rules apply:

  • Operators in expr must have precedence equal to or greater than the precedence of operator.

  • x operator expr must be mathematically equivalent to x operator (expr). This requirement is satisfied if the operators in expr have precedence greater than operator, or by using parentheses around expr or subexpressions of expr.

  • expr operator x must be mathematically equivalent to (expr) operator x. This requirement is satisfied if the operators in expr have precedence equal to or greater than operator, or by using parentheses around expr or subexpressions of expr.

  • All assignments must be intrinsic assignments.

x, v

Are scalar variables of intrinsic type. During execution of an atomic region, all references to storage location x must specify the same storage location.

v must not access the same storage location as x.

expr, expr-list

The expr is a scalar expression. The expr-list is a comma-separated, non-empty list of scalar expressions. They must not access the same storage location as x.

If intrinsic is IAND, IOR, or IEOR, only one expression can appear in expr-list.

operator

Is one of the following intrinsic operators: +, *, -, /, ,AND., ,OR., .EQV., or .NEQV..

intrinsic

Is one of the following intrinsic procedures: MAX, MIN, IAND, IOR, or IEOR.

The binding thread set for an ATOMIC construct is all threads. Atomic regions enforce exclusive access with respect to other atomic regions that access the same storage location x among all the threads in the program without regard to the teams to which the threads belong.

If !$OMP ATOMIC is specified with no type-clause or no clause, it is the same as specifying !$OMP ATOMIC UPDATE.

If !$OMP ATOMIC CAPTURE is specified, you must include an !$OMP END ATOMIC directive following the block. Otherwise, the !$OMP END ATOMIC directive is optional.

Note that the following restriction applies to the ATOMIC directive:

The following table describes what happens when you specify one of the clauses in an ATOMIC construct.

Clause Result
CAPTURE

Causes an atomic update of the location designated by x using the designated operator or intrinsic while also capturing the original or final value of the location designated by x in v. The following rules also apply:

  • The original or final value of the location designated by x is written in the location designated by v, depending on the form of the ATOMIC construct, structured block, or statements, following the usual language semantics.

  • Only the read and write of the location designated by x are performed mutually atomically.

  • The evaluation of expr or expr-list, and the write to the location designated by v do not need to be atomic with respect to the read or write of the location designated by x.

No task scheduling points are allowed between the read and the write of the location designated by x.

READ

Causes an atomic read of the location designated by x regardless of the native machine word size.

SEQ_CST

Causes the atomically performed operation to include an implicit flush operation without a list.

If this clause is specified, the construct is a sequentially consistent atomic construct.

Unlike non-sequentially consistent atomic constructs, sequentially consistent atomic constructs preserve the interleaving (sequentially consistent) behavior of correct, data-race-free programs.

However, they are not designed to replace the FLUSH directive as a mechanism to enforce ordering for non-sequentially consistent atomic constructs, and attempts to do so require extreme caution.

For example, a sequentially consistent atomic write construct may appear to be reordered with a subsequent non-sequentially consistent atomic write construct, since such reordering would not be observable by a correct program if the second write were outside an ATOMIC directive.

UPDATE

Causes an atomic update of the location designated by x using the designated operator or intrinsic. The following rules also apply:

  • The evaluation of expr or expr-list need not be atomic with respect to the read or write of the location designated by x.

  • No task scheduling points are allowed between the read and the write of the location designated by x.

WRITE

Causes an atomic write of the location designated by x regardless of the native machine word size.

Any combination of two or more of these atomic constructs enforces mutually exclusive access to the locations designated by x.

A race condition exists when two unsynchronized threads access the same shared variable with at least one thread modifying the variable; this can cause unpredictable results. To avoid race conditions, all accesses of the locations designated by x that could potentially occur in parallel must be protected with an ATOMIC construct.

Atomic regions do not guarantee exclusive access with respect to any accesses outside of atomic regions to the same storage location x even if those accesses occur during a CRITICAL or ORDERED region, while an OpenMP lock is owned by the executing task, or during the execution of a REDUCTION clause.

However, other OpenMP* synchronization can ensure the desired exclusive access. For example, a BARRIER directive following a series of atomic updates to x guarantees that subsequent accesses do not form a race condition with the atomic accesses.

Example

The following example shows a way to avoid race conditions by using ATOMIC to protect all simultaneous updates of the location by multiple threads.

Since the ATOMIC directive below applies only to the statement immediately following it, elements of Y are not updated atomically.

   REAL FUNCTION FOO1(I)
      INTEGER I
      FOO1 = 1.0 * I
      RETURN
   END FUNCTION FOO1

   REAL FUNCTION FOO2(I)
      INTEGER I
      FOO2 = 2.0 * I 
      RETURN
   END FUNCTION FOO2

   SUBROUTINE SUB(X, Y, INDEX, N)
      REAL X(*), Y(*)
      INTEGER INDEX(*), N
      INTEGER I
!$OMP PARALLEL DO SHARED(X, Y, INDEX, N)
      DO I=1,N
!$OMP ATOMIC UPDATE
         X(INDEX(I)) = X(INDEX(I)) + FOO1(I)
         Y(I) = Y(I) + FOO2(I)
      ENDDO
   END SUBROUTINE SUB

   PROGRAM ATOMIC_DEMO
      REAL X(1000), Y(10000)
      INTEGER INDEX(10000)
      INTEGER I
      DO I=1,10000 
         INDEX(I) = MOD(I, 1000) + 1
         Y(I) = 0.0
      ENDDO
      DO I = 1,1000
         X(I) = 0.0
      ENDDO
      CALL SUB(X, Y, INDEX, 10000)
   END PROGRAM ATOMIC_DEMO

The following non-conforming example demonstrates the restriction on the ATOMIC construct:

   SUBROUTINE ATOMIC_INCORRECT()
      INTEGER:: I
      REAL:: R
      EQUIVALENCE(I,R)
!$OMP PARALLEL
!$OMP ATOMIC UPDATE
      I = I + 1
!$OMP ATOMIC UPDATE
      R = R + 1.0
! The above is incorrect because I and R reference the same location
! but have different types
!$OMP END PARALLEL
   END SUBROUTINE ATOMIC_INCORRECT

See Also