Re: [PATCH 5/6] x86/cpu: Add platform ID to CPU matching structure

From: Andy Shevchenko

Date: Tue Jan 20 2026 - 03:30:54 EST


On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 11:50:57AM -0800, Dave Hansen wrote:

> The existing x86_match_cpu() infrastructure can be used to match
> a bunch of attributes of a CPU: vendor, family, model, steppings
> and CPU features.
>
> But, there's one more attribute that's missing and unable to be
> matched against: the platform ID, enumerated on Intel CPUs in
> MSR_IA32_PLATFORM_ID. It is a little more obscure and is only
> queried during microcode loading. This is because Intel sometimes
> has CPUs with identical family/model/stepping but which need
> different microcode. These CPUs are differentiated with the
> platform ID.
>
> Add a field in 'struct x86_cpu_id' for the platform ID. Similar
> to the stepping field, make the new field a mask of platform IDs.
> Some examples:
>
> 0x01: matches only platform ID 0x0
> 0x02: matches only platform ID 0x1
> 0x03: matches platform IDs 0x0 or 0x1
> 0x80: matches only platform ID 0x7
> 0xff: matches all 8 possible platform IDs
>
> Since the mask is only a byte wide, it nestles in next to another
> u8 and does not even increase the size of 'struct x86_cpu_id'.
>
> Reserve the all 0's value as the wildcard (X86_PLATFORM_ANY). This
> avoids forcing changes changes to existing 'struct x86_cpu_id' users.
> They can just continue to fill the field with 0's and their matching
> will work exactly as before.
>
> Note: If someone is ever looking for space in 'struct x86_cpu_id',
> this new field could probably get stuck over in ->driver_data
> for the one user that there is.

...

> struct x86_cpu_id {

> __u16 feature; /* bit index */
> /* Solely for kernel-internal use: DO NOT EXPORT to userspace! */
> __u16 flags;
> + __u8 platform_mask;
> __u8 type;
> kernel_ulong_t driver_data;
> };

...

> #define X86_STEPPING_ANY 0
> #define X86_STEP_MIN 0
> #define X86_STEP_MAX 0xf
> +#define X86_PLATFORM_ANY 0x0
> #define X86_FEATURE_ANY 0 /* Same as FPU, you can't test for that */

Wouldn't it be slightly better to locate the new one here to follow the order
in x86_cpu_id above?

> #define X86_CPU_TYPE_ANY 0

--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko