Re: [PATCH] ACPI/PPTT: Handle architecturally unknown cache types

From: Jeffrey Hugo
Date: Wed Sep 12 2018 - 12:06:53 EST


On 9/12/2018 9:39 AM, Jeremy Linton wrote:
Hi,


On 09/12/2018 09:41 AM, Jeffrey Hugo wrote:
The HW designers have indicated that there is no sane way to provide sets/ways information to software, even on an informational basis (ie not for cache maintenance, but for performance optimizations). Therefore the firmware will not provide this information because it will be wrong.

So, therefore, we should still be able to tell the user that a cache exists at the relevant level, and what size it is. On the concerned system, we cannot do that currently.

Ok, so set the fields to zero in firmware node, and mark them valid.

Is that what the PPTT spec says to do?

That logically says that there isn't any set/way information for the cache (which implies direct mapped).

Making inferences such as that have gotten folks into trouble when interpreting other specs. Unfortunately I am not allowed to detail more about this specific system, however implying that the affected cache(s) are direct mapped is incorrect. Officially, what you have is a cache or multiple caches at certain levels that have a specified size. You can make no inferences about the exact behavior or implementation of the cache beyond what FW explicitly provides. I'm not particularly a fan of it, but its what I have to deal with.

--
Jeffrey Hugo
Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies as an affiliate of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is a member of the
Code Aurora Forum, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.