Make util function arguments consistent

include/util.h

@@ -7,14 +7,23 @@
 
 typedef uint8_t page_t[PAGE_SIZE];
 
-// Forces a memory read of the byte at address p. This will result in the byte
-// being loaded into cache.
-void force_read(const void *p);
+/**
+ * Forces a memory read of the byte at the given address.
+ * This will load the byte at the address into the cache.
+ */
+void force_read(const void *address);
 
-// Flushes the cache line containing the provided address
-void flush_cache_line(const void *memory);
+/**
+ * Evicts any cache line currently storing the given address.
+ * This ensures that the byte at the address is no longer in the cache.
+ */
+void flush_cache_line(const void *address);
 
-// Returns the number of clocks taken to read the provided byte of memory.
-uint64_t time_read(const void *memory);
+/**
+ * Counts the number of processor clocks elapsed when reading a byte at the given address.
+ * Note that the number of clocks can be quite large
+ * if the process happens to be interrupted in this function.
+ */
+uint64_t time_read(const void *address);
 
 #endif /* _UTIL_H */

lib/util.c

@@ -2,20 +2,20 @@
 
 #include "util.h"
 
-void force_read(const void *p) {
-    *(volatile char *) p;
+void force_read(const void *address) {
+    *(volatile uint8_t *) address;
 }
 
-void flush_cache_line(const void *memory) {
-    _mm_clflush(memory);
+void flush_cache_line(const void *address) {
+    _mm_clflush(address);
     _mm_mfence();
     for (volatile int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {}
 }
 
-uint64_t time_read(const void *memory) {
+uint64_t time_read(const void *address) {
     uint64_t start = __rdtsc();
     _mm_lfence();
-    force_read(memory);
+    force_read(address);
     _mm_mfence();
     _mm_lfence();
     uint64_t result = __rdtsc() - start;