Re: [RFC PATCH 01/38] arm64: mpam: Context switch the MPAM registers

Jonathan Cameron
2025-12-18T10:35:57Z

On Fri, 5 Dec 2025 21:58:24 +0000
James Morse <james.morse@arm.com> wrote:

> MPAM allows traffic in the SoC to be labeled by the OS, these labels
> are used to apply policy in caches and bandwidth regulators, and to
> monitor traffic in the SoC. The label is made up of a PARTID and PMG
> value. The x86 equivalent calls these CLOSID and RMID, but they don't
> map precisely.
>
> MPAM has two CPU system registers that is used to hold the PARTID and PMG
> values that traffic generated at each exception level will use. These can be
> set per-task by the resctrl file system. (resctrl is the defacto interface
> for controlling this stuff).
>
> Add a helper to switch this.
>
> struct task_struct's separate CLOSID and RMID fields are insufficient
> to implement resctrl using MPAM, as resctrl can change the PARTID (CLOSID)
> and PMG (sort of like the RMID) separately. On x86, the rmid is an
> independent number, so a race that writes a mismatched closid and rmid
> into hardware is benign. On arm64, the pmg bits extend the partid.
> (i.e. partid-5 has a pmg-0 that is not the same as partid-6's pmg-0).
> In this case, mismatching the values will 'dirty' a pmg value that
> resctrl believes is clean, and is not tracking with its 'limbo' code.
>
> To avoid this, the partid and pmg are always read and written as a pair.
> Instead of making struct task_struct's closid and rmid fields an
> endian-unsafe union, add the value to struct thread_info and always use
> READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() when accessing this field.
>
> Resctrl allows a per-cpu 'default' value to be set, this overrides the
> values when scheduling a task in the default control-group, which has
> PARTID 0. The way 'code data prioritisation' gets emulated means the
> register value for the default group needs to be a variable.
>
> The current system register value is kept in a per-cpu variable to
> avoid writing to the system register if the value isn't going to change.
> Writes to this register may reset the hardware state for regulating
> bandwidth.
>
> Finally, there is no reason to context switch these registers unless
> there is a driver changing the values in struct task_struct. Hide
> the whole thing behind a static key. This also allows the driver to
> disable MPAM in response to errors reported by hardware. Move the
> existing static key to belong to the arch code, as in the future
> the MPAM driver may become a loadable module.
>
> All this should depend on whether there is an MPAM driver, hide
> it behind CONFIG_MPAM.
>
> CC: Amit Singh Tomar <amitsinght@marvell.com>
> Signed-off-by: James Morse <james.morse@arm.com>

> diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/mpam.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/mpam.h
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..86a55176f884
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/mpam.h
> @@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
...

> +/*
> + * The resctrl filesystem writes to the partid/pmg values for threads and CPUs,
> + * which may race with reads in __mpam_sched_in(). Ensure only one of the old
> + * or new values are used. Particular care should be taken with the pmg field
> + * as __mpam_sched_in() may read a partid and pmg that don't match, causing
> + * this value to be stored with cache allocations, despite being considered
> + * 'free' by resctrl.
> + *
> + * A value in struct thread_info is used instead of struct task_struct as the
> + * cpu's u64 register format is used, but struct task_struct has two u32'.

This comment probably wants to provide a little more info if it is to be useful,

Is it a reference to the closid and rmid fields under CONFIG_X86_CPU_RESCTRL?
I'm not immediately understanding why that matters given you could slap
a union on it without (I think) resulting in anything else moving.

Now having it in thread_info moves it into arch header territory so
might make sense for that reason.

> + */
> +static inline u64 mpam_get_regval(struct task_struct *tsk)
> +{
> +#ifdef CONFIG_ARM64_MPAM
> + return READ_ONCE(task_thread_info(tsk)->mpam_partid_pmg);
> +#else
> + return 0;
> +#endif
> +}