Re: [PATCH v1 1/2] cxl_test: enable zero sized decoders under hb0

From: Gregory Price

Date: Wed Feb 11 2026 - 10:59:46 EST


On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 10:04:41AM -0500, Gregory Price wrote:
> Revisiting this - it might be reasonable to allow post-lock ordering if
> *all* decoders in beyond the programmable one are zero-locked.
>
> Seems ok? Thoughts?
>

Sorry, got myself a bit mixed up, lets me a bit more precise, there are
annoying corner conditions here that make reasoning about this
difficult, and the mild ambiguity in the spec doesn't imbue confidence.

[open] = programmable
[programmed] = usually auto-decoder, but some cases may allow runtime
programming, i haven't logic'd that out.


Post-lock Legal
decoder 0 1 2 ... N
------------------------------------------------------------------
[open] [zero-lock] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]
[open] [open] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]
[programmed] [open] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]
[programmed] [programmed] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]


In these cases you basically act as-if the zero-locked decoders
essentially don't exist.



Pre-lock Legal
decoder 0 1 2 ... N
------------------------------------------------------------------
[zero-lock] [zero-lock] [zero-lock] [open]
[zero-lock] [zero-lock] [zero-lock] [programmed]
[zero-lock] [zero-lock] [programmed] [open]
[zero-lock] [zero-lock] [programmed] [programmed]

Again, in these causes you just act like the decoders don't exist.


Illegal
decoder 0 1 2 ... N
------------------------------------------------------------------
[open] [zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock]
[programmed] [zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock]
[open] [zero-lock] [programmed] [zero-lock]
[zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]
[zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock] [open]
[zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock] [open]
[zero-lock] [open] [zero-lock] [programmed]

These cases are all illegal because there is always some form of
decoder committed out-of-order in the presence of at least one locked
decoder (the zero-locks).


Questionable
decoder 0 1 2 ... N
------------------------------------------------------------------
[zero-lock] [programmed] [zero-lock] [zero-lock]
[programmed] [zero-lock] [programmed] [zero-lock]
[zero-lock] [programmed] [zero-lock] [programmed]
****** [zero-lock] [programmed] [zero-lock] [open]...[open]


In these cases, it's only really legal IFF the programmed decoder(s) are
auto-decoders, because it means an out-of-order condition is impossible.

I think you can validate this on probe, but it's annoying

if zero-lock decoder is present
a) all decoders prior to the zero-lock are locked (zero | auto)
b) all decoders after the zero-lock are locked*

* if an open decoder appears after a zero-lock, all decoders after
the open decoder must also be open. (supports corner case above)


I... think that works? It's annoying though lol.

~Gregory