On Sun, 17 Oct 2010, Kevin Cernekee wrote: > > 1) In linux ,esspecially in TLB refilling, Âis Context[PTEBase] used > > to store cpuid? (refer to build_get_pgde32 in tlbex.c) > > On 32-bit systems, PTEBase stores a byte offset that can be added to > &pgd_current[0]. i.e. smp_processor_id() * sizeof(unsigned long) > > So the TLB refill handler can find pgd for the current CPU using code > that looks something like this: > > 0: 401b2000 mfc0 k1,c0_context > 4: 3c1a8054 lui k0,0x8054 > 8: 001bddc2 srl k1,k1,0x17 > c: 035bd821 addu k1,k0,k1 > ... > 14: 8f7b5008 lw k1,20488(k1) > > where pgd_current is at 0x8054_5008, and PTEBase is 0, 4, 8, 12, ... It has been always making me wonder (though not as much to go and dig through our code ;) ) why Linux is uncapable of using the value presented by the CPU in the CP0 Context register as is, or perhaps after a trivial operation such as a left-shift by a constant number of bits (where the size of the page entry slot assumed by hardware turned out too small). There should be no need to add another constant as in the piece of code you have quoted -- this constant should already have been preloaded to this register when switching the context the last time. The design of the TLB refill exception in the MIPS Architecture has been such as to allow this register to be readily used as an address into the page table. Hmm... Maciej
