This patch adds basic documentation of the user/kernel interface provided by the for SVE. Signed-off-by: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@xxxxxxx> --- Documentation/arm64/sve.txt | 454 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 454 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/arm64/sve.txt diff --git a/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df25abf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/arm64/sve.txt @@ -0,0 +1,454 @@ + Scalable Vector Extension support for AArch64 Linux + =================================================== + +Author: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@xxxxxxx> +Date: 4 August 2017 + +This document outlines briefly the interface provided to userspace by Linux in +order to support use of the ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE). + +This is an outline of the most important features and issues only and not +intended to be exhaustive. + +This document does not aim to describe the SVE architecture or programmer's +model. To aid understanding, a minimal description of relevant programmer's +model features for SVE is included in Appendix A. + + +1. General +----------- + +* SVE registers Z0..Z31, P0..P15 and FFR and the current vector length VL, are + tracked per-thread. + +* The presence of SVE is reported to userspace via HWCAP_SVE in the aux vector + AT_HWCAP entry. SVE is reported in /proc/cpuinfo as "sve". + + +2. Vector length terminology +----------------------------- + +The size of an SVE vector (Z) register is referred to as the "vector length". + +To avoid confusion about the units used to express vector length, the kernel +adopts the following conventions: + +* Vector length (VL) = size of a Z-register in bytes + +* Vector quadwords (VQ) = size of a Z-register in units of 128 bits + +(So, VL = 16 * VQ.) + +The VQ convention is used where the underlying granularity is important, such +as in data structure definitions. In most other situations, the VL convention +is used. This is consistent with the meaning of the "VL" pseudo-register in +the SVE instruction set architecture. + + +3. System call behaviour +------------------------- + +* On syscall, V0..V31 are preserved (as without SVE). Thus, bits [127:0] of + Z0..Z31 are preserved. All other bits of Z0..Z31, and all of P0..P15 and FFR + become unspecified on return from a syscall. + +* The SVE registers are not used to pass arguments to or receive results from + any syscall. + +* In practice the affected registers/bits will be preserved or will be replaced + with zeros on return from a syscall, but userspace should not make + assumptions about this. The kernel behaviour may vary on a case-by-case + basis. + + +4. Signal handling +------------------- + +* A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal + delivery. [1] + +* This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context. The FPSR and FPCR registers + are only present in fpsimd_context. For convenience, the content of V0..V31 + is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context. + +* The signal frame record for SVE always contains basic metadata, in particular + the thread's vector length (in sve_context.vl). + +* The SVE registers may or may not be included in the record, depending on + whether the registers are live for the thread. The registers are present if + and only if: + sve_context.head.size >= SVE_SIG_CONTEXT_SIZE(sve_vq_from_vl(sve_context.vl)). + +* If the registers are present, the remainder of the record has a vl-dependent + size and layout. Macros SIG_SVE_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to + the members. + +* If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra + space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in + __reserved[] referencing this space. sve_context is then written in the + extra space. Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism. + + +5. Signal return +----------------- + +When returning from a signal handler: + +* If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is + present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section, + then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values. + +* If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register + data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified + data. However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31 + are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[] + and not from sve_context. The remaining bits are restored from sve_context. + +* Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory, + irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not. + +* The vector length cannot be changed via signal return. If sve_context.vl in + the signal frame does not match the current vector length, the signal return + attempt is treated as illegal, resulting in a forced SIGSEGV. + + +6. prctl extensions +-------------------- + +Some new prctl() calls are added to allow programs to manage the SVE vector +length: + +prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, unsigned long arg) + + Sets the vector length of the calling thread and related flags, where + arg == vl | flags. + + vl is the desired vector length, where sve_vl_valid(vl) must be true. + + flags: + + PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT + + Inherit the current vector length across execve(). Otherwise, the + vector length is reset to the system default at execve(). (See + Section 9.) + + PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC + + Defer the requested vector length change until the next execve(). + This allows launching of a new program with a different vector + length, while avoiding runtime side effects in the caller. + + This also overrides the effect of PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT for the + first execve(). + + Without PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC, any outstanding deferred vector + length change is cancelled. + + Return value: a nonnegative on success, or a negative value on error: + EINVAL: SVE not supported, invalid vector length requested, or + invalid flags. + + On success, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the largest + value supported by the system that is less than or equal to vl. + If vl == SVE_VL_MAX, the calling thread's vector length is changed to the + largest value supported by the system. + + The returned value describes the resulting configuration, encoded as for + PR_SVE_GET_VL. + + Changing the vector length causes all of P0..P15, FFR and all bits of + Z0..V31 except for Z0 bits [127:0] .. Z31 bits [127:0] to become + unspecified. Calling PR_SVE_SET_VL with vl equal to the thread's current + vector length does not constitute a change to the vector length for this + purpose. + + +prctl(PR_SVE_GET_VL) + + Gets the vector length of the calling thread. + + The following flag may be OR-ed into the result: + + PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT + + Vector length will be inherited across execve(). + + There is no way to determine whether there is an outstanding deferred + vector length change (which would only normally be the case between a + fork() or vfork() and the corresponding execve() in typical use). + + To extract the vector length from the result, and it with + PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK. + + Return value: a nonnegative value on success, or a negative value on error: + EINVAL: SVE not supported. + + +7. ptrace extensions +--------------------- + +* A new regset NT_ARM_SVE is defined for use with PTRACE_GETREGSET and + PTRACE_SETREGSET. + + Refer to [2] for definitions. + +The regset data starts with struct user_sve_header, containing: + + size + + Size of the complete regset, in bytes. + This depends on vl and possibly on other things in the future. + + If a call to PTRACE_GETREGSET requests less data than the value of + size, the caller can allocate a larger buffer and retry in order to + read the complete regset. + + max_size + + Maximum size in bytes that the regset can grow to for the target + thread. The regset won't grow bigger than this even if the target + thread changes its vector length etc. + + vl + + Target thread's current vector length, in bytes. + + max_vl + + Maximum possible vector length for the target thread. + + flags + + either + + SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD + + SVE registers are not live (GETREGSET) or are to be made + non-live (SETREGSET). + + The payload is of type struct user_fpsimd_state, with the same + meaning as for NT_PRFPREG, starting at offset + SVE_PT_FPSIMD_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header. + + Extra data might be appended in the future: the size of the + payload should be obtained using SVE_PT_FPSIMD_SIZE(vq, flags). + + vq should be obtained using sve_vq_from_vl(vl). + + or + + SVE_PT_REGS_SVE + + SVE registers are live (GETREGSET) or are to be made live + (SETREGSET). + + The payload contains the SVE register data, starting at offset + SVE_PT_SVE_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header, and with + size SVE_PT_SVE_SIZE(vq, flags); + + ... OR-ed with zero or more of the following flags, which have the same + meaning and behaviour as the corresponding PR_SET_VL_* flags: + + SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT + + SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC (SETREGSET only). + +* The effects of changing the vector length and/or flags are equivalent to + those documented for PR_SVE_SET_VL. + +* In the SVE_PT_REGS_SVE case, the size and layout of the payload depends on + the header fields. The SVE_PT_SVE_*() macros are provided to facilitate + access to the members. + +* In either case, for SETREGSET it is permissible to omit the payload, in which + case only the vector length and flags are changed (along with any + consequences of those changes). + + The effect of writing a partial, incomplete payload is unspecified. + + +8. ELF coredump extensions +--------------------------- + +* A NT_ARM_SVE note will be added to each coredump for each thread of the + dumped process. The contents will be equivalent to the data that would have + been read if a PTRACE_GETREGSET of NT_ARM_SVE were executed for each thread + when the coredump was generated. + + Each of these notes may be padded up to a larger size: if so, the surplus + data should be ignored when parsing the coredump. + + +9. System runtime configuration +-------------------------------- + +* To mitigate the ABI impact of expansion of the signal frame, a policy + mechanism is provided for administrators, distro maintainers and developers + to set the default vector length for userspace processes: + +/proc/cpu/sve_default_vector_length + + Writing the text representation of an integer to this file sets the system + default vector length to the specified value, unless the value is greater + than the maximum vector length supported by the system in which case the + default vector length is set to that maximum. + + The result can be determined by reopening the file and reading its + contents. + + At boot, the default vector length is initially set to 64 or the maximum + supported vector length, whichever is smaller. This determines the initial + vector length of the init process (PID 1). + + Reading this file returns the current system default vector length. + +* At every execve() call, the new vector length of the new process is set to + the system default vector length, unless + + * PR_SVE_SET_VL_INHERIT (or equivalently SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT) is set for the + calling thread, or + + * a deferred vector length change is pending, established via the + PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag (or SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC). + +* Modifying the system default vector length does not affect the vector length + of any existing process or thread that does not make an execve() call. + + +Appendix A. SVE programmer's model (informative) +================================================= + +This section provides a minimal description of the additions made by SVE to the +ARMv8-A programmer's model that are relevant to this document. + +Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or +to replace any architectural specification. + +A.1. Registers +--------------- + +In A64 state, SVE adds the following: + +* 32 8VL-bit vector registers Z0..Z31 + For each Zn, Zn bits [127:0] alias the ARMv8-A vector register Vn. + + A register write using a Vn register name zeros all bits of the corresponding + Zn except for bits [127:0]. + +* 16 VL-bit predicate registers P0..P15 + +* 1 VL-bit special-purpose predicate register FFR (the "first-fault register") + +* a VL "pseudo-register" that determines the size of each vector register + + The SVE instruction set architecture provides no way to write VL directly. + Instead, it can be modified only by EL1 and above, by writing appropriate + system registers. + +* The value of VL can be configured at runtime by EL1 and above: + 16 <= VL <= VLmax, where VL must be a multiple of 16. + +* The maximum vector length is determined by the hardware: + 16 <= VLmax <= 256. + + (The SVE architecture specifies 256, but permits future architecture + revisions to raise this limit.) + +* FPSR and FPCR are retained from ARMv8-A, and interact with SVE floating-point + operations in a similar way to the way in which they interact with ARMv8 + floating-point operations. + + 8VL-1 128 0 bit index + +---- //// -----------------+ + Z0 | : V0 | + : : + Z7 | : V7 | + Z8 | : * V8 | + : : : + Z15 | : *V15 | + Z16 | : V16 | + : : + Z31 | : V31 | + +---- //// -----------------+ + 31 0 + VL-1 0 +-------+ + +---- //// --+ FPSR | | + P0 | | +-------+ + : | | *FPCR | | + P15 | | +-------+ + +---- //// --+ + FFR | | +-----+ + +---- //// --+ VL | | + +-----+ + +(*) callee-save: + This only applies to bits [63:0] of Z-/V-registers. + FPCR contains callee-save and caller-save bits. See [3] for details. + + +A.2. Procedure call standard +----------------------------- + +The ARMv8-A base procedure call standard is extended as follows with respect to +the additional SVE register state: + +* All SVE register bits that are not shared with FP/SIMD are caller-save. + +* Z8 bits [63:0] .. Z15 bits [63:0] are callee-save. + + This follows from the way these bits are mapped to V8..V15, which are caller- + save in the base procedure call standard. + + +Appendix B. ARMv8-A FP/SIMD programmer's model +=============================================== + +Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or +to replace any architectural specification. + +Refer to [3] for for more information. + +ARMv8-A defines the following floating-point / SIMD register state: + +* 32 128-bit vector registers V0..V31 +* 2 32-bit status/control registers FPSR, FPCR + + 127 0 bit index + +---------------+ + V0 | | + : : : + V7 | | + * V8 | | + : : : : + *V15 | | + V16 | | + : : : + V31 | | + +---------------+ + + 31 0 + +-------+ + FPSR | | + +-------+ + *FPCR | | + +-------+ + +(*) callee-save: + This only applies to bits [63:0] of V-registers. + FPCR contains a mixture of callee-save and caller-save bits. + + +References +========== + +[1] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h + AArch64 Linux signal ABI definitions + +[2] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/ptrace.h + AArch64 Linux ptrace ABI definitions + +[3] ARM IHI0055C + http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ihi0055c/IHI0055C_beta_aapcs64.pdf + http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.subset.swdev.abi/index.html + Procedure Call Standard for the ARM 64-bit Architecture (AArch64) -- 2.1.4
