Re: [PATCH RFC 0/3] x86: Full support of PAT

From: Juergen Gross
Date: Wed Aug 20 2014 - 08:35:40 EST


On 08/20/2014 02:05 PM, One Thousand Gnomes wrote:
The Linux kernel currently supports only 4 different cache modes. The PAT MSR
is set up in a way that the setting of _PAGE_PAT in a pte doesn't matter: the
top 4 entries in the PAT MSR are the same as the 4 lower entries.

This results in the kernel not supporting e.g. write-through mode. Especially
this cache mode would speed up drivers of video cards which now have to use
uncached accesses.


Pentium II erratum A52 (and similar on quite a few other processors)

Problem: The Page Attribute Table (PAT) contains eight entries, which
must all be initialized and considered when setting up memory types for
the Pentium II processor. However, in Mode B or Mode C paging, the upper
four entries do not function correctly for 4-Kbyte pages. Specifically,
bit seven of page table entries that translate addresses to 4-Kbyte pages
should be used as the upper bit of a three-bit index to determine the PAT
entry that specifies the memory type for the page. When Mode B (CR4.PSE =
1) and/or Mode C (CR4.PAE) are enabled, the processor forces this bit to
zero when determining the memory type regardless of the value in the page
table entry. The upper four entries of the PAT function correctly for
2-Mbyte and 4-Mbyte large pages (specified by bit 12 of the page
directory entry for those translations). Implication: Only the lower four
PAT entries are useful for 4 KB translations when Mode B or C paging is
used. In Mode A paging (4-Kbyte pages only), all eight entries may be
used. All eight entries may be used for large pages in Mode B or C paging.



Doing this stuff for Xen also IMHO makes no sense at all. We shouldn't
have a kernel full of crap to deal with Xen-isms. IFF it means the
changes can also implement a mix of four PAT entries on Pentium-M or
earlier CPUs with PAT errata, and the full PAT on processors without
errata then IMHO it becomes a whole world more interesting.

This is the case.

The patches as posted don't change PAT MSR settings at all. Using all 8
PAT MSR entries on processors without errata is easy while limit usage
to only 4 entries is possible as well. It is possible to make the
decision dynamically while booting the system. The only difference is
the value written to the PAT MSR, as this value is used to modify the
tables used for translating between cache modes and pte bits. If a
driver wants to set write-through mode on a processor with the PAT
erratum, the translation will result in uncached mode which is okay.

Regarding Xen: The patches don't introduce further Xen-isms. They reduce
the Xen specialties by being able to use the same translation mechanisms
on a native system as on a Xen based system. The only differences are
the values in the translation tables, as Xen is using a different PAT
configuration as native Linux (with my patches Linux could use the same
PAT configuration as Xen, of course).

Juergen

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