Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] kvm/arm: Align the VMID allocation with the arm64 ASID one

[Vladimir Murzin <vladimir.murzin@arm.com>]

Hi Will,

On 7/22/21 4:38 PM, Will Deacon wrote:
> Hi Vladimir,
> 
> On Thu, Jul 22, 2021 at 04:22:26PM +0100, Vladimir Murzin wrote:
>> On 7/22/21 10:50 AM, Will Deacon wrote:
>>> As an aside: I'm more and more inclined to rip out the CnP stuff given
>>> that it doesn't appear to being any benefits, but does have some clear
>>> downsides. Perhaps something for next week.
>>
>> Can you please clarify what do you mean by "it doesn't appear to being any
>> benefits"? IIRC, Cortex-A65 implements CnP hint and I've heard that some
>> payloads seen improvement...
> 
> Has anybody taped that out? I'd have thought building an SMT design in 2021
> is a reasonably courageous thing to do.

As you said three can be niche for that...

> 
> The issue I'm getting at is that modern cores seem to advertise CnP even
> if they ignore it internally, maybe because of some big/little worries?

Should we employ CPU errata framework for such cores to demote CnP?

> That would be fine if it didn't introduce complexity and overhead to the
> kernel, but it does and therefore I think we should rip it out (or at
> least stick it behind a "default n" config option if there are some niche
> users).

"default n" still better then no code at all :)

Cheers
Vladimir

> 
> There are also open questions as to exactly what CnP does because the
> architecture is not clear at all (for example TTBRx_EL1.CnP is permitted
> to be cached in a TLB).
> 
> CHeers,
> 
> Will
>