From: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
To: linux-cxl@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
kernel-team@meta.com, dave@stgolabs.net,
jonathan.cameron@huawei.com, dave.jiang@intel.com,
alison.schofield@intel.com, vishal.l.verma@intel.com,
ira.weiny@intel.com, dan.j.williams@intel.com, corbet@lwn.net,
gourry@gourry.net
Subject: [PATCH v2] Documentation/driver-api/cxl: device hotplug section
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 12:07:47 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20251218170747.1278327-1-gourry@gourry.net> (raw)
Describe cxl memory device hotplug implications, in particular how the
platform CEDT CFMWS must be described to support successful hot-add of
memory devices.
Signed-off-by: Gregory Price <gourry@gourry.net>
---
v2: Jonathan's clarifications and diagrams.
Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst | 1 +
.../cxl/platform/device-hotplug.rst | 112 ++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 113 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/cxl/platform/device-hotplug.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst
index c1106a68b67c..5a734988a5af 100644
--- a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ that have impacts on each other. The docs here break up configurations steps.
platform/acpi
platform/cdat
platform/example-configs
+ platform/device-hotplug
.. toctree::
:maxdepth: 2
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/platform/device-hotplug.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/platform/device-hotplug.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..617e340bd556
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/platform/device-hotplug.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==================
+CXL Device Hotplug
+==================
+
+Device hotplug refers to *physical* hotplug of a device (addition or removal
+of a physical device from the machine).
+
+Hot-Remove
+==========
+Hot removal of a device typically requires careful removal of software
+constructs (memory regions, associated drivers) which manage these devices.
+
+Hard-removing a CXL.mem device without carefully tearing down driver stacks
+is likely to cause the system to machine-check (or at least SIGBUS if memory
+access is limited to user space).
+
+Memory Device Hot-Add
+=====================
+A device present at boot will be associated with a CXL Fixed Memory Window
+reported in :doc:`CEDT<acpi/cedt>`. That CFMWS may match the size of the
+device, but the construction of the CEDT CFMWS is platform-defined.
+
+Hot-adding a memory device requires this pre-defined (*static*) CFMWS has
+sufficient space to describe that device.
+
+There are a few common scenarios to consider.
+
+Single-Endpoint Memory Device Present at Boot
+---------------------------------------------
+A device present at boot likely had its capacity reported in the
+:doc:`CEDT<acpi/cedt>`. If a device is removed and a new device hotplugged,
+the capacity of the new device will be limited to the original CFMWS capacity.
+
+Adding capacity larger than the original device will cause memory region
+creation to fail if the region size is greater than the CFMWS size.
+
+The CFMWS is *static* and cannot be adjusted. Platforms which may expect
+different sized devices to be hotplugged must allocate sufficient CFMWS space
+*at boot time* to cover all future expected devices.
+
+Multi-Endpoint Memory Device Present at Boot
+--------------------------------------------
+A hot-plug capable CXL memory device, such as one which presents multiple
+expanders as a single large-capacity device, should report the maximum
+*possible* capacity for the device at boot. ::
+
+ HB0
+ RP0
+ |
+ [Multi-Endpoint Memory Device]
+ _____|_____
+ | |
+ [Endpoint0] [Empty]
+
+
+Limiting the size to the capacity preset at boot will limit hot-add support
+to replacing capacity that was present at boot.
+
+No CXL Device Present at Boot
+-----------------------------
+When no CXL memory device is present on boot, some platforms omit the CFMWS
+in the :doc:`CEDT<acpi/cedt>`. When this occurs, hot-add is not possible.
+
+For a platform to support hot-add of a full memory device, it must allocate
+a CEDT CFMWS region with sufficient memory capacity to cover all future
+potentially added capacity.
+
+To support memory hotplug directly on the host bridge, or on a switch
+downstream of the host bridge (but not contained within a CXL memory device),
+a platform must construct a CEDT CFMWS at boot with sufficient resources to
+support the max possible (or expected) hotplug memory capacity. ::
+
+ HB0 HB1
+ RP0 RP1 RP2
+ | | |
+ Empty Empty USP
+ ________|________
+ | | | |
+ DSP DSP DSP DSP
+ | | | |
+ All Empty
+
+For example, a BIOS/EFI may expose an option to configure a CEDT CFMWS with
+a pre-configured amount of memory capacity (per host bridge, or host bridge
+interleave set), even if no device is attached to Root Ports or Downstream
+Ports at boot (as depicted in the figure above).
+
+
+Interleave Sets
+===============
+
+Host Bridge Interleave
+----------------------
+Host-bridge interleaved memory regions are defined *statically* in the
+:doc:`CEDT<acpi/cedt>`. To apply cross-host-bridge interleave, a CFMWS entry
+describing that interleave must have been provided *at boot*. Hotplugged
+devices cannot add host-bridge interleave capabilities at hotplug time.
+
+See the :doc:`Flexible CEDT Configuration<example-configurations/flexible>`
+example to see how a platform can provide this kind of flexibility regarding
+hotplugged memory devices. BIOS/EFI software should consider options to
+present flexible CEDT configurations with hotplug support.
+
+HDM Interleave
+--------------
+Decoder-applied interleave can flexibly handle hotplugged devices, as decoders
+can be re-programmed after hotplug.
+
+To add or remove a device to/from an existing HDM-applied interleaved region,
+that region must be torn down an re-created.
--
2.52.0
next reply other threads:[~2025-12-18 17:08 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2025-12-18 17:07 Gregory Price [this message]
2025-12-18 19:36 ` [PATCH v2] Documentation/driver-api/cxl: device hotplug section Randy Dunlap
2025-12-18 20:17 ` Gregory Price
2025-12-18 20:22 ` Randy Dunlap
2025-12-19 10:55 ` Jonathan Cameron
2025-12-19 14:31 ` Gregory Price
2025-12-19 14:50 ` Jonathan Cameron
2025-12-19 15:06 ` Alejandro Lucero Palau
2025-12-19 15:55 ` Gregory Price
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