RE: Linux Kernel Microcode Question

[Tigran Aivazian]

Hi David,

Yes, now I agree with you. Earlier I thought you were saying:

a) without microcode all operations are done "in hardware", i.e. faster

b) applying microcode somehow switches CPU to "software" mode and thus
makes it slower apriori (i.e. regardless of the actual _content_ of
microcode data).

Now you see that you meant something different and so there is no
disagreement there.

Kind regards
Tigran

On Fri, 19 Mar 2004, David Schwartz wrote:

>
>
> > On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, David Schwartz wrote:
> > > 	It is at least theoeretically possible that a microcode
> > > update might cause
> > > an operation that's normally done very quickly (in dedicated
> > > hardware) to be
> > > done by a slower path (microcode operations) to fix a bug in
> > > the dedicated
> > > hardware
>
> > Did you dream that up or did you read it somewhere? If the latter, where?
>
> 	Since you agree with me, I'm not sure I understand why it matters.
>
> > All operations are done by "dedicated hardware" and microcode DOES modify
> > that hardware, or rather the way instructions are "digested". So, applying
> > microcode doesn't make anything slower per se, it's just replacing one
> > code sequence with another code sequence. If a new code happens to be
> > slower than the old one then of course the result will be slower, but the
> > reverse is also true. When you fix a bug in a particular software why
> > should a bugfix be apriori slower than the original code? Think about it.
>
> 	I didn't say it would have to be slower. I said it might force an operation
> to be done by a slower path. You seem to agree with me that the new code
> could happen to be slower than the old one.
>
> 	As for why a bugfix would be likely to be slower than the original code,
> it's because of the limitations of the microcode update. The microcode
> update can't change wiring, so if the problem is in wiring, then the
> microcode would have to bypass that wiring. One would presume the wiring was
> there for a reason -- to accelerate something.
>
> > So please do not spread misinformation that applying microcode makes
> > something slower. If anything, it should make things faster, as long as
> > the guys at Intel are writing the correct (micro)code.
>
> 	I'm simply saying that it's at least theoretically possible that a
> microcode update might increase correctness at the expense of performance.
> The only contrary position would be that such a thing is impossible. The
> position I'm refuting is that there is not, even in theory, any downside to
> performing a microcode update.
>
> 	By the way, there is reason to believe that microcode updates can redirect
> into microcode operations normally performed in hardware (though I know for
> sure only that certain exceptions can be handled this way on at least one
> Intel processor); however, I think it would be rather foolish to prefer
> speed over correctness. I have also heard of microcode updates that
> supposedly fixed performance problems.
>
> 	DS
>
>
>
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