linux/Documentation/riscv/hwprobe.rst
Palmer Dabbelt 580253b518
Merge patch series "RISC-V: Probe for misaligned access speed"
Evan Green <evan@rivosinc.com> says:

The current setting for the hwprobe bit indicating misaligned access
speed is controlled by a vendor-specific feature probe function. This is
essentially a per-SoC table we have to maintain on behalf of each vendor
going forward. Let's convert that instead to something we detect at
runtime.

We have two assembly routines at the heart of our probe: one that
does a bunch of word-sized accesses (without aligning its input buffer),
and the other that does byte accesses. If we can move a larger number of
bytes using misaligned word accesses than we can with the same amount of
time doing byte accesses, then we can declare misaligned accesses as
"fast".

The tradeoff of reducing this maintenance burden is boot time. We spend
4-6 jiffies per core doing this measurement (0-2 on jiffie edge
alignment, and 4 on measurement). The timing loop was based on
raid6_choose_gen(), which uses (16+1)*N jiffies (where N is the number
of algorithms). By taking only the fastest iteration out of all
attempts for use in the comparison, variance between runs is very low.
On my THead C906, it looks like this:

[    0.047563] cpu0: Ratio of byte access time to unaligned word access is 4.34, unaligned accesses are fast

Several others have chimed in with results on slow machines with the
older algorithm, which took all runs into account, including noise like
interrupts. Even with this variation, results indicate that in all cases
(fast, slow, and emulated) the measured numbers are nowhere near each
other (always multiple factors away).

* b4-shazam-merge:
  RISC-V: alternative: Remove feature_probe_func
  RISC-V: Probe for unaligned access speed

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20230818194136.4084400-1-evan@rivosinc.com
Signed-off-by: Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@rivosinc.com>
2023-09-08 11:24:12 -07:00

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.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
RISC-V Hardware Probing Interface
---------------------------------
The RISC-V hardware probing interface is based around a single syscall, which
is defined in <asm/hwprobe.h>::
struct riscv_hwprobe {
__s64 key;
__u64 value;
};
long sys_riscv_hwprobe(struct riscv_hwprobe *pairs, size_t pair_count,
size_t cpu_count, cpu_set_t *cpus,
unsigned int flags);
The arguments are split into three groups: an array of key-value pairs, a CPU
set, and some flags. The key-value pairs are supplied with a count. Userspace
must prepopulate the key field for each element, and the kernel will fill in the
value if the key is recognized. If a key is unknown to the kernel, its key field
will be cleared to -1, and its value set to 0. The CPU set is defined by
CPU_SET(3). For value-like keys (eg. vendor/arch/impl), the returned value will
be only be valid if all CPUs in the given set have the same value. Otherwise -1
will be returned. For boolean-like keys, the value returned will be a logical
AND of the values for the specified CPUs. Usermode can supply NULL for cpus and
0 for cpu_count as a shortcut for all online CPUs. There are currently no flags,
this value must be zero for future compatibility.
On success 0 is returned, on failure a negative error code is returned.
The following keys are defined:
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_MVENDORID`: Contains the value of ``mvendorid``,
as defined by the RISC-V privileged architecture specification.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_MARCHID`: Contains the value of ``marchid``, as
defined by the RISC-V privileged architecture specification.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_MIMPLID`: Contains the value of ``mimplid``, as
defined by the RISC-V privileged architecture specification.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_BASE_BEHAVIOR`: A bitmask containing the base
user-visible behavior that this kernel supports. The following base user ABIs
are defined:
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_BASE_BEHAVIOR_IMA`: Support for rv32ima or
rv64ima, as defined by version 2.2 of the user ISA and version 1.10 of the
privileged ISA, with the following known exceptions (more exceptions may be
added, but only if it can be demonstrated that the user ABI is not broken):
* The ``fence.i`` instruction cannot be directly executed by userspace
programs (it may still be executed in userspace via a
kernel-controlled mechanism such as the vDSO).
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_IMA_EXT_0`: A bitmask containing the extensions
that are compatible with the :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_BASE_BEHAVIOR_IMA`:
base system behavior.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_IMA_FD`: The F and D extensions are supported, as
defined by commit cd20cee ("FMIN/FMAX now implement
minimumNumber/maximumNumber, not minNum/maxNum") of the RISC-V ISA manual.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_IMA_C`: The C extension is supported, as defined
by version 2.2 of the RISC-V ISA manual.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_IMA_V`: The V extension is supported, as defined by
version 1.0 of the RISC-V Vector extension manual.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_EXT_ZBA`: The Zba address generation extension is
supported, as defined in version 1.0 of the Bit-Manipulation ISA
extensions.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_EXT_ZBB`: The Zbb extension is supported, as defined
in version 1.0 of the Bit-Manipulation ISA extensions.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_EXT_ZBS`: The Zbs extension is supported, as defined
in version 1.0 of the Bit-Manipulation ISA extensions.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_KEY_CPUPERF_0`: A bitmask that contains performance
information about the selected set of processors.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_MISALIGNED_UNKNOWN`: The performance of misaligned
accesses is unknown.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_MISALIGNED_EMULATED`: Misaligned accesses are
emulated via software, either in or below the kernel. These accesses are
always extremely slow.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_MISALIGNED_SLOW`: Misaligned accesses are slower
than equivalent byte accesses. Misaligned accesses may be supported
directly in hardware, or trapped and emulated by software.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_MISALIGNED_FAST`: Misaligned accesses are faster
than equivalent byte accesses.
* :c:macro:`RISCV_HWPROBE_MISALIGNED_UNSUPPORTED`: Misaligned accesses are
not supported at all and will generate a misaligned address fault.