Re: LAPIC soft-disable vs. LVT masking

[Sheng Yang <yasker@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 01:58:03PM +0200, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> Sheng Yang wrote:
> > On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 05:46:35PM +0800, Yang, Sheng wrote:
> >> On Monday 20 October 2008 16:49:11 Jan Kiszka wrote:
> >>> Hi Sheng,
> >>>
> >>> obviously, I meditated too long over the APIC specs and VAPIC code of
> >>> KVM: When the guest resets the soft-enable bit in SVR, the in-kernel
> >>> APIC implementation also set the LVT masked bits - so far, so fine
> >>> (according to specs). But I failed to read out of that doc if those mask
> >>> bits are permanently set (until the guest clears them again) or only
> >>> until the soft-disabling ends (ie. they are restored to their previous
> >>> state - QEMU goes this way). Can you clarify?
> >>>
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Jan
> >>>
> >> Hi Jan
> >>
> >> I also can't find related info in the spec. But I think, when software enable 
> >> bit is cleaned, the spec said the mask bits are set, which means the content 
> >> of register is changed. And no words for what happen if set software enable 
> >> bit, so I think it maybe retain the mask state after software enable (a 
> >> little more possibility).
> >>
> >> I will give a update if I got more infos.
> > 
> > Find some info:
> > 
> > SDM 3A 8.5.1 Local Vector Table
> > Mask:
> > [...] This flag would remain set until software clears it.
> > 
> > I think this can explain it.
> 
> If you cut out this sentence allow, maybe. But when looking at the full
> paragraph...
> 
> "Interrupt mask: (0) enables reception of the interrupt and (1) inhibits
> reception of the interrupt. When the local APIC handles a
> performance-monitoring counters interrupt, it automatically sets the
> mask flag in the corresponding LVT entry. This flag will remain set
> until software clears it."
> 
> At least I put the last sentence in the context of the last-but-one. So,
> do I have to apply an "extended" interpretation here?

Well, indeed...
> 
> > 
> > If you got some interesting circumstance, please share with us. :)
> 
> Well, I guess someone has to "ask" the real hardware (or someone who
> regularly implements it in silicon ;) )...

Still one concern for asking the real hardware, what if it's implement
specific? For there is indeed no word about it except the one above...

For software, it's better to not to assume anything in such a condition...

--
regards
Yang, Sheng
> 
> Jan
> 
> -- 
> Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, CT SE 2
> Corporate Competence Center Embedded Linux
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