linux-kernel - Re: [tip:perfcounters/core] perf_counter: x86: Fix call-chain support to use NMI-safe methods

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Date:	Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:50:25 +0200
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
To:	Avi Kivity <avi@...hat.com>
Cc:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	mingo@...hat.com, paulus@...ba.org, acme@...hat.com,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl,
	penberg@...helsinki.fi, vegard.nossum@...il.com, efault@....de,
	jeremy@...p.org, npiggin@...e.de, tglx@...utronix.de,
	linux-tip-commits@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [tip:perfcounters/core] perf_counter: x86: Fix call-chain
	support to use NMI-safe methods


* Avi Kivity <avi@...hat.com> wrote:

> On 06/16/2009 11:36 AM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>>
>>>> I can try to find out internally what Intel's position on writing
>>>> %cr2 is, but it'll take a while; however, KVM should be able to
>>>> tell you if any random OS uses %cr2 writes (as should a static
>>>> disassembly of their kernel.)
>>>>        
>>> Linux is one such OS.  When acting as a hypervisor it writes cr2
>>> to present its guests with their expected environment (any
>>> hypervisor that uses virtualization extensions will of course need
>>> to do this).
>>>      
>>
>> Ah, it does save/restore it in svm_vcpu_run. VMX can do this via its
>> context structure (without explicit CR manipulations in host space),
>> right?
>>    
>
> It's the other way around.  svm switches the guest cr2 in hardware 
> (through svm->vmcb->save.cr2).  The code you're referring to saves 
> and restores the host cr2, which is completely unnecessary.  I'm 
> currently in the middle of dropping it :)

Heh :)

> vmx has no hardware support for switching cr2, so vmx_vcpu_run() 
> switches it using mov cr2.  Given that it's pretty expensive, I've 
> switched it to write-if-changed, which dropped 70 cycles from the 
> vmexit latency.

Yep, see my numbers elsewhere in this thread - the cost of a cr2 
write is ~84 cycles on Nehalem.

	Ingo
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