Re: [PATCH v9 02/10] x86/bhi: Make clear_bhb_loop() effective on newer CPUs

Jim Mattson
2026-04-07T20:53:43Z

On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 12:11 PM Pawan Gupta
<pawan.kumar.gupta@linux.intel.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Apr 07, 2026 at 11:40:57AM -0700, Jim Mattson wrote:
> > My proposal is as follows:
> >
> > 1. The (advanced) hypervisor can advertise to the guest (via CPUID bit
> > or MSR bit) that the short BHB clearing sequence is adequate. This may
> > mean either that the VM will only be hosted on pre-Alder Lake hardware
> > or that the hypervisor will set BHI_DIS_S behind the back of the
> > guest. Presumably, this bit would not be reported if BHI_CTRL is
> > advertised to the guest.
> > 2. If the guest sees this bit, then it can use the short sequence. If
> > it doesn't see this bit, it must use the long sequence.
>
> Thats a good middle ground. Let me check with folks internally what they
> think about defining a new software-only bit.
>
> Third case, for a guest that doesn't want BHI_DIS_S, userspace should be
> allowed to override setting BHI_DIS_S. Then this proposed bit can indicate
> that long sequence is required.

That case can be handled by the paravirtual mitigation MSRs, right?