The Scourge of x86 Emulation

x86 processors use a strict Total Store Ordering (TSO) memory model that guarantees immediate visibility of memory writes across all processors, while ARM uses a weaker memory model that allows optimizations by not requiring strict coherency by default. Emulating x86-TSO on ARM's weak ordering architecture creates significant challenges that affect all emulated x86 applications, requiring workarounds to bridge the gap between these two fundamentally different approaches to memory consistency.