Re: [PATCH v4 0/2] arm64: errata: NVIDIA Olympus device store/load ordering

[Shanker Donthineni <sdonthineni@nvidia.com>]

Hi Vladimir,


On 6/29/2026 5:45 AM, Vladimir Murzin wrote:
> External email: Use caution opening links or attachments
>
>
> Hi,
>
> On 6/25/26 19:24, Shanker Donthineni wrote:
>> This series works around the NVIDIA Olympus device store/load ordering
>> erratum (T410-OLY-1027): a Device-nGnR* load can be observed by a
>> peripheral before an older, non-overlapping Device-nGnR* store to the
>> same peripheral, breaking the program order that drivers rely on for
>> MMIO and potentially leaving a device in an incorrect state.
>>
>> Patch 1 adds the workaround. It promotes the raw MMIO store helpers
>> (__raw_writeb/w/l/q, and therefore writel()/writel_relaxed()) to
>> store-release on affected CPUs, and promotes the trailing DGH of the
>> write-combining __iowrite{32,64}_copy() helpers to dmb osh. Everything is
>> gated on a new ARM64_WORKAROUND_DEVICE_STORE_RELEASE cpucap and patched
>> in only on affected parts, so it is a no-op elsewhere.
>>
>> Patch 2 provides arm64 memset_io()/memcpy_toio(). The generic versions
>> are built on __raw_write*(), so patch 1 would promote every store in a
>> block to a store-release; as each STLR drains the write-combining buffer,
>> block MMIO becomes O(n) store-releases. The arm64 versions emit plain
>> STR in the loop and order the whole block with a single trailing dmb osh,
>> keeping block MMIO at one-barrier cost.
>>
>> Performance: NVIDIA Olympus, write-combining MMIO to a device BAR, single
>> PE pinned; per-call cost in ns. Consecutive writes ping-pong between two
>> buffers so repeated stores are not coalesced. iowrite64/iowrite32 =
>> __iowrite{64,32}_copy().
>>
>> Table 1 - workaround off (CONFIG_NVIDIA_OLYMPUS_1027_ERRATUM=n)
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> |  size | iowrite64 | iowrite32 | memset_io | memcpy_toio |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> |    8B |   67.9 ns |   67.8 ns |    3.6 ns |    3.6 ns   |
>> |   16B |   67.9 ns |   67.8 ns |    4.0 ns |    4.0 ns   |
>> |   32B |   67.9 ns |   67.9 ns |    4.6 ns |    4.6 ns   |
>> |   64B |   69.1 ns |   69.1 ns |   69.1 ns |   69.0 ns   |
>> |  128B |  138.3 ns |  138.3 ns |  138.4 ns |  138.3 ns   |
>> |  256B |  276.6 ns |  276.6 ns |  276.6 ns |  276.7 ns   |
>> |  512B |  276.6 ns |  276.5 ns |  276.6 ns |  276.6 ns   |
>> |   1KB |  276.6 ns |  278.4 ns |  276.6 ns |  276.6 ns   |
>> |   2KB |  278.4 ns |  278.4 ns |  275.9 ns |  276.6 ns   |
>> |   4KB |  365.7 ns |  365.7 ns |  365.7 ns |  365.7 ns   |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> relaxed/no-flush: memset_io()/memcpy_toio() issue plain stores with no
>> trailing dgh() or barrier, unlike __iowrite*_copy() which ends with dgh().
>>
>> Table 2 - workaround on, arm64 memset_io/memcpy_toio (this series)
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> |  size | iowrite64 | iowrite32 | memset_io | memcpy_toio |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> |    8B |  231.6 ns |  231.6 ns |  232.4 ns |  232.4 ns   |
>> |   16B |  231.7 ns |  231.9 ns |  232.7 ns |  232.6 ns   |
>> |   32B |  231.9 ns |  232.7 ns |  232.9 ns |  232.9 ns   |
>> |   64B |  232.7 ns |  235.0 ns |  233.7 ns |  233.6 ns   |
>> |  128B |  233.6 ns |  235.8 ns |  234.4 ns |  234.3 ns   |
>> |  256B |  237.7 ns |  276.8 ns |  264.0 ns |  276.7 ns   |
>> |  512B |  237.7 ns |  277.1 ns |  238.1 ns |  277.6 ns   |
>> |   1KB |  253.7 ns |  279.3 ns |  276.1 ns |  294.1 ns   |
>> |   2KB |  295.0 ns |  318.7 ns |  288.5 ns |  308.3 ns   |
>> |   4KB |  365.9 ns |  381.4 ns |  365.7 ns |  381.3 ns   |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-------------+
>> all four helpers end with a single trailing barrier (dmb osh).
>>
>> Table 3 - workaround on, generic per-store memset_io/memcpy_toio
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-------------+--------------+
>> |  size | iowrite64 | iowrite32 |   memset_io |  memcpy_toio |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-------------+--------------+
>> |    8B |  231.6 ns |  231.6 ns |    229.0 ns |    229.0 ns  |
>> |   16B |  231.7 ns |  231.9 ns |    458.4 ns |    458.5 ns  |
>> |   32B |  231.9 ns |  232.7 ns |    917.4 ns |    917.5 ns  |
>> |   64B |  232.7 ns |  234.8 ns |   1835.4 ns |   1835.5 ns  |
>> |  128B |  233.6 ns |  235.8 ns |   3670.9 ns |   3670.8 ns  |
>> |  256B |  237.7 ns |  276.7 ns |   7341.6 ns |   7341.6 ns  |
>> |  512B |  237.7 ns |  279.4 ns |  14001.4 ns |  14001.3 ns  |
>> |   1KB |  253.7 ns |  279.1 ns |  28631.5 ns |  28631.8 ns  |
>> |   2KB |  279.4 ns |  317.9 ns |  57276.3 ns |  57275.2 ns  |
>> |   4KB |  365.7 ns |  381.5 ns | 114564.4 ns | 114563.6 ns  |
>> +-------+-----------+-----------+-------------+--------------+
>> the generic memset_io()/memcpy_toio() build on __raw_write*(), which the
>> workaround promotes to store-release, so every store is individually
>> ordered - hence O(n) in the store count.
>>
>> Tables 2 and 3 show why patch 2 is needed: the generic per-store block
>> writers collapse to O(n) under the workaround (4KB ~314x slower, ~115 us
>> vs ~366 ns), while the arm64 versions stay flat at one-barrier cost.
> That's interesting. With the way the patch set is structured, it
> now looks like:
>
> 1. Fix the erratum, but cause a performance regression.
> 2. Restore the performance regression and (re)apply the erratum
>     workaround.
>
> Would it make sense to avoid introducing the performance
> regression in the first place by structuring the patch set
> slightly differently?
>
> 1. (Re)introduce arm64 memset_io()/memcpy_toio().
> 2. Fix the erratum once for all
>
> What do you reckon?

Yes, that ordering makes sense.

I can restructure v5 so that patch 1 introduces the arm64 memset_{to}io()
implementations while preserving the existing behavior. Patch 2 will
then add the complete erratum workaround, including the conditional
trailing DMB for those block-write helpers. This avoids introducing
the intermediate performance regression and keeps each commit
independently usable.

Will and Catalin, could you please share your thoughts on this approach?

-Shanker