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authorToshi Kani <toshi.kani@hpe.com>2016-03-23 15:42:03 -0600
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2016-03-29 12:23:27 +0200
commitb6350c21cfe8aa9d65e189509a23c0ea4b8362c2 (patch)
tree91e07831c29301370942cca5833d51ce85b78a0f /Documentation/x86
parent88ba281108ed0c25c9d292b48bd3f272fcb90dd0 (diff)
x86/pat: Document the PAT initialization sequence
Update PAT documentation to describe how PAT is initialized under various configurations. Signed-off-by: Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@hpe.com> Reviewed-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de> Cc: Brian Gerst <brgerst@gmail.com> Cc: Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com> Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com> Cc: Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@hp.com> Cc: elliott@hpe.com Cc: konrad.wilk@oracle.com Cc: paul.gortmaker@windriver.com Cc: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1458769323-24491-8-git-send-email-toshi.kani@hpe.com Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/x86')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/x86/pat.txt32
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
index 54944c71b819..2a4ee6302122 100644
--- a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
+++ b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
@@ -196,3 +196,35 @@ Another, more verbose way of getting PAT related debug messages is with
"debugpat" boot parameter. With this parameter, various debug messages are
printed to dmesg log.
+PAT Initialization
+------------------
+
+The following table describes how PAT is initialized under various
+configurations. The PAT MSR must be updated by Linux in order to support WC
+and WT attributes. Otherwise, the PAT MSR has the value programmed in it
+by the firmware. Note, Xen enables WC attribute in the PAT MSR for guests.
+
+ MTRR PAT Call Sequence PAT State PAT MSR
+ =========================================================
+ E E MTRR -> PAT init Enabled OS
+ E D MTRR -> PAT init Disabled -
+ D E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS
+ D D MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled -
+ - np/E PAT -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS
+ - np/D PAT -> PAT disable Disabled -
+ E !P/E MTRR -> PAT init Disabled BIOS
+ D !P/E MTRR -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS
+ !M !P/E MTRR stub -> PAT disable Disabled BIOS
+
+ Legend
+ ------------------------------------------------
+ E Feature enabled in CPU
+ D Feature disabled/unsupported in CPU
+ np "nopat" boot option specified
+ !P CONFIG_X86_PAT option unset
+ !M CONFIG_MTRR option unset
+ Enabled PAT state set to enabled
+ Disabled PAT state set to disabled
+ OS PAT initializes PAT MSR with OS setting
+ BIOS PAT keeps PAT MSR with BIOS setting
+