1.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 2 3========================== 4PAT (Page Attribute Table) 5========================== 6 7x86 Page Attribute Table (PAT) allows for setting the memory attribute at the 8page level granularity. PAT is complementary to the MTRR settings which allows 9for setting of memory types over physical address ranges. However, PAT is 10more flexible than MTRR due to its capability to set attributes at page level 11and also due to the fact that there are no hardware limitations on number of 12such attribute settings allowed. Added flexibility comes with guidelines for 13not having memory type aliasing for the same physical memory with multiple 14virtual addresses. 15 16PAT allows for different types of memory attributes. The most commonly used 17ones that will be supported at this time are: 18 19=== ============== 20WB Write-back 21UC Uncached 22WC Write-combined 23WT Write-through 24UC- Uncached Minus 25=== ============== 26 27 28PAT APIs 29======== 30 31There are many different APIs in the kernel that allows setting of memory 32attributes at the page level. In order to avoid aliasing, these interfaces 33should be used thoughtfully. Below is a table of interfaces available, 34their intended usage and their memory attribute relationships. Internally, 35these APIs use a reserve_memtype()/free_memtype() interface on the physical 36address range to avoid any aliasing. 37 38+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 39| API | RAM | ACPI,... | Reserved/Holes | 40+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 41| ioremap | -- | UC- | UC- | 42+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 43| ioremap_cache | -- | WB | WB | 44+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 45| ioremap_uc | -- | UC | UC | 46+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 47| ioremap_wc | -- | -- | WC | 48+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 49| ioremap_wt | -- | -- | WT | 50+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 51| set_memory_uc, | UC- | -- | -- | 52| set_memory_wb | | | | 53+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 54| set_memory_wc, | WC | -- | -- | 55| set_memory_wb | | | | 56+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 57| set_memory_wt, | WT | -- | -- | 58| set_memory_wb | | | | 59+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 60| pci sysfs resource | -- | -- | UC- | 61+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 62| pci sysfs resource_wc | -- | -- | WC | 63| is IORESOURCE_PREFETCH | | | | 64+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 65| pci proc | -- | -- | UC- | 66| !PCIIOC_WRITE_COMBINE | | | | 67+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 68| pci proc | -- | -- | WC | 69| PCIIOC_WRITE_COMBINE | | | | 70+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 71| /dev/mem | -- | WB/WC/UC- | WB/WC/UC- | 72| read-write | | | | 73+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 74| /dev/mem | -- | UC- | UC- | 75| mmap SYNC flag | | | | 76+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 77| /dev/mem | -- | WB/WC/UC- | WB/WC/UC- | 78| mmap !SYNC flag | | | | 79| and | |(from existing| (from existing | 80| any alias to this area | |alias) | alias) | 81+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 82| /dev/mem | -- | WB | WB | 83| mmap !SYNC flag | | | | 84| no alias to this area | | | | 85| and | | | | 86| MTRR says WB | | | | 87+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 88| /dev/mem | -- | -- | UC- | 89| mmap !SYNC flag | | | | 90| no alias to this area | | | | 91| and | | | | 92| MTRR says !WB | | | | 93+------------------------+----------+--------------+------------------+ 94 95 96Advanced APIs for drivers 97========================= 98 99A. Exporting pages to users with remap_pfn_range, io_remap_pfn_range, 100vmf_insert_pfn. 101 102Drivers wanting to export some pages to userspace do it by using mmap 103interface and a combination of: 104 105 1) pgprot_noncached() 106 2) io_remap_pfn_range() or remap_pfn_range() or vmf_insert_pfn() 107 108With PAT support, a new API pgprot_writecombine is being added. So, drivers can 109continue to use the above sequence, with either pgprot_noncached() or 110pgprot_writecombine() in step 1, followed by step 2. 111 112In addition, step 2 internally tracks the region as UC or WC in memtype 113list in order to ensure no conflicting mapping. 114 115Note that this set of APIs only works with IO (non RAM) regions. If driver 116wants to export a RAM region, it has to do set_memory_uc() or set_memory_wc() 117as step 0 above and also track the usage of those pages and use set_memory_wb() 118before the page is freed to free pool. 119 120MTRR effects on PAT / non-PAT systems 121===================================== 122 123The following table provides the effects of using write-combining MTRRs when 124using ioremap*() calls on x86 for both non-PAT and PAT systems. Ideally 125mtrr_add() usage will be phased out in favor of arch_phys_wc_add() which will 126be a no-op on PAT enabled systems. The region over which a arch_phys_wc_add() 127is made, should already have been ioremapped with WC attributes or PAT entries, 128this can be done by using ioremap_wc() / set_memory_wc(). Devices which 129combine areas of IO memory desired to remain uncacheable with areas where 130write-combining is desirable should consider use of ioremap_uc() followed by 131set_memory_wc() to white-list effective write-combined areas. Such use is 132nevertheless discouraged as the effective memory type is considered 133implementation defined, yet this strategy can be used as last resort on devices 134with size-constrained regions where otherwise MTRR write-combining would 135otherwise not be effective. 136:: 137 138 ==== ======= === ========================= ===================== 139 MTRR Non-PAT PAT Linux ioremap value Effective memory type 140 ==== ======= === ========================= ===================== 141 PAT Non-PAT | PAT 142 |PCD | 143 ||PWT | 144 ||| | 145 WC 000 WB _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_WB WC | WC 146 WC 001 WC _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_WC WC* | WC 147 WC 010 UC- _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_UC_MINUS WC* | UC 148 WC 011 UC _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_UC UC | UC 149 ==== ======= === ========================= ===================== 150 151 (*) denotes implementation defined and is discouraged 152 153.. note:: -- in the above table mean "Not suggested usage for the API". Some 154 of the --'s are strictly enforced by the kernel. Some others are not really 155 enforced today, but may be enforced in future. 156 157For ioremap and pci access through /sys or /proc - The actual type returned 158can be more restrictive, in case of any existing aliasing for that address. 159For example: If there is an existing uncached mapping, a new ioremap_wc can 160return uncached mapping in place of write-combine requested. 161 162set_memory_[uc|wc|wt] and set_memory_wb should be used in pairs, where driver 163will first make a region uc, wc or wt and switch it back to wb after use. 164 165Over time writes to /proc/mtrr will be deprecated in favor of using PAT based 166interfaces. Users writing to /proc/mtrr are suggested to use above interfaces. 167 168Drivers should use ioremap_[uc|wc] to access PCI BARs with [uc|wc] access 169types. 170 171Drivers should use set_memory_[uc|wc|wt] to set access type for RAM ranges. 172 173 174PAT debugging 175============= 176 177With CONFIG_DEBUG_FS enabled, PAT memtype list can be examined by:: 178 179 # mount -t debugfs debugfs /sys/kernel/debug 180 # cat /sys/kernel/debug/x86/pat_memtype_list 181 PAT memtype list: 182 uncached-minus @ 0x7fadf000-0x7fae0000 183 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb19000-0x7fb1a000 184 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb1a000-0x7fb1b000 185 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb1b000-0x7fb1c000 186 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb1c000-0x7fb1d000 187 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb1d000-0x7fb1e000 188 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb1e000-0x7fb25000 189 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb25000-0x7fb26000 190 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb26000-0x7fb27000 191 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb27000-0x7fb28000 192 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb28000-0x7fb2e000 193 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb2e000-0x7fb2f000 194 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb2f000-0x7fb30000 195 uncached-minus @ 0x7fb31000-0x7fb32000 196 uncached-minus @ 0x80000000-0x90000000 197 198This list shows physical address ranges and various PAT settings used to 199access those physical address ranges. 200 201Another, more verbose way of getting PAT related debug messages is with 202"debugpat" boot parameter. With this parameter, various debug messages are 203printed to dmesg log. 204 205PAT Initialization 206================== 207 208The following table describes how PAT is initialized under various 209configurations. The PAT MSR must be updated by Linux in order to support WC 210and WT attributes. Otherwise, the PAT MSR has the value programmed in it 211by the firmware. Note, Xen enables WC attribute in the PAT MSR for guests. 212 213 ==== ===== ========================== ========= ======= 214 MTRR PAT Call Sequence PAT State PAT MSR 215 ==== ===== ========================== ========= ======= 216 E E MTRR -> PAT init Enabled OS 217 E D MTRR -> PAT init Disabled - 218 D E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS 219 D D MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled - 220 - np/E PAT -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS 221 - np/D PAT -> PAT disable Disabled - 222 E !P/E MTRR -> PAT init Disabled BIOS 223 D !P/E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS 224 !M !P/E MTRR stub -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS 225 ==== ===== ========================== ========= ======= 226 227 Legend 228 229 ========= ======================================= 230 E Feature enabled in CPU 231 D Feature disabled/unsupported in CPU 232 np "nopat" boot option specified 233 !P CONFIG_X86_PAT option unset 234 !M CONFIG_MTRR option unset 235 Enabled PAT state set to enabled 236 Disabled PAT state set to disabled 237 OS PAT initializes PAT MSR with OS setting 238 BIOS PAT keeps PAT MSR with BIOS setting 239 ========= ======================================= 240 241