[PATCH v2 0/3] Support SMP on RISC-V cores with Zalrsc only

[PATCH v2 0/3] Support SMP on RISC-V cores with Zalrsc only

[Yao Zi]

Previously, we use AMO instructions to synchronize cores at start when
SMP is used, which requires Zaamo extension to present. This series
implements an alternative implementation of synchronization with LR/SC
instructions and add Kconfig options to use them, make it possible to
enable SMP on cores without Zaamo extension.

This is tested on both TH1520 Lichee Pi 4A board and QEMU. With QEMU,
building and testing looks lile,

	$ make qemu-riscv64_defconfig
	$ ./scripts/config -d CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO
	$ make
	$ qemu-system-riscv64 -M virt \
		-cpu rv64,a=off,zaamo=off,zawrs=off,zalrsc=on   \
		-nographic -bios u-boot-nodtb.bin -smp 8

	U-Boot 2025.07-rc4-00456-g2a74e084d720-dirty (Sep 02 2025 - 08:07:58 +0000)

	CPU:   riscv
	Model: riscv-virtio,qemu
	DRAM:  128 MiB
	using memory 0x86ea1000-0x876c1000 for malloc()
	Core:  34 devices, 13 uclasses, devicetree: board
	Flash: 32 MiB
	Loading Environment from nowhere... OK
	In:    serial,usbkbd
	Out:   serial,vidconsole
	Err:   serial,vidconsole
	No USB controllers found
	Net:   No ethernet found.

Changed from v1
- Split changes to ibex-ast2700_defconfig into a separate patch
- Fix several typos
- Improve help text of CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_{ZAAMO,ZALRSC}
- Improve commit message for PATCH 3
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250802092155.40915-1-ziyao@disroot.org/

Yao Zi (3):
  riscv: Add Kconfig options to distinguish Zaamo and Zalrsc
  configs: ibex-ast2700: Explicitly disable Zaamo and Zalrsc extension
  riscv: Add a Zalrsc-only alternative for synchronization in start.S

 arch/riscv/Kconfig             | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 arch/riscv/Makefile            |  7 ++++++-
 arch/riscv/cpu/start.S         | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig |  3 ++-
 4 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

-- 
2.50.1

[PATCH v2 1/3] riscv: Add Kconfig options to distinguish Zaamo and Zalrsc

[Yao Zi]

Ratified on Apr. 2024, the original RISC-V "A" extension is now split
into two separate extensions, "Zaamo" for atomic operations and "Zalrsc"
for load-reserved/store-conditional instructions.

For now, we've already seen real-world designs implement the Zalrsc
extension only[2]. As U-Boot mainly runs with only one HART, we could
easily support these designs by not using AMO instructions in the
hard-written assembly if necessary, for which this patch introduces two
new Kconfig options to indicate the availability of "Zaamo" and "Zalrsc".

Note that even with this patch, "A" extension is specified in the ISA
string passed to the compiler as long as one of "Zaamo" or "Zalrsc" is
available, since they're only recognized with a quite recent version of
GCC/Clang. The compiler usually doesn't automatically generate atomic
instructions unless the source explicitly instructs it to do so, thus
this should be safe.

Link: https://github.com/riscv/riscv-zaamo-zalrsc/commit/d94c64c63e9120d56bdeb540caf2e5dae60a8126 # [1]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/u-boot/20250729162035.209849-9-uros.stajic@htecgroup.com/ # [2]
Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
---
 arch/riscv/Kconfig  | 17 +++++++++++++++++
 arch/riscv/Makefile |  7 ++++++-
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/riscv/Kconfig b/arch/riscv/Kconfig
index 8c6feae5735..8b5a4074724 100644
--- a/arch/riscv/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/riscv/Kconfig
@@ -339,10 +339,27 @@ endmenu
 
 config RISCV_ISA_A
 	bool "Standard extension for Atomic Instructions"
+	depends on RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO && RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC
 	default y
 	help
 	  Adds "A" to the ISA string passed to the compiler.
 
+config RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO
+	bool "Standard extension for Atomic Memory Operations"
+	default y
+	help
+	  Indicates the platform supports Zaamo extension for atomic memory
+	  operations. Hand-written Assembly routines won't use AMO
+	  instructions if set to n.
+
+config RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC
+	bool "Standard extension for LR/SC instructions"
+	default y
+	help
+	  Indicates the platform supports Zalrsc extension for load-reserved
+	  and store-conditional isntructions. Hand-written assembly routines
+	  won't use LR/SC instructions if set to n.
+
 config RISCV_ISA_ZICBOM
 	bool "Zicbom support"
 	depends on !SYS_DISABLE_DCACHE_OPS
diff --git a/arch/riscv/Makefile b/arch/riscv/Makefile
index 6f80f4a7108..fdda6da1df3 100644
--- a/arch/riscv/Makefile
+++ b/arch/riscv/Makefile
@@ -11,7 +11,12 @@ ifeq ($(CONFIG_ARCH_RV32I),y)
 	ARCH_BASE = rv32im
 	ABI_BASE = ilp32
 endif
-ifeq ($(CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_A),y)
+# GCC starts to recognize "Zaamo" and "Zalrsc" from version 15, which is quite
+# recent. We don't bother checking the exact compiler version, but pass "A"
+# extension for -march as long as one of "Zaamo" or "Zalrsc" is available.
+ifeq ($(findstring y,$(CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_A)	\
+		     $(CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO)	\
+		     $(CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC)),y)
 	ARCH_A = a
 endif
 ifeq ($(CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_F),y)
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] riscv: Add Kconfig options to distinguish Zaamo and Zalrsc

[Leo Liang]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2025 at 08:19:30AM +0000, Yao Zi wrote:
> Ratified on Apr. 2024, the original RISC-V "A" extension is now split
> into two separate extensions, "Zaamo" for atomic operations and "Zalrsc"
> for load-reserved/store-conditional instructions.
> 
> For now, we've already seen real-world designs implement the Zalrsc
> extension only[2]. As U-Boot mainly runs with only one HART, we could
> easily support these designs by not using AMO instructions in the
> hard-written assembly if necessary, for which this patch introduces two
> new Kconfig options to indicate the availability of "Zaamo" and "Zalrsc".
> 
> Note that even with this patch, "A" extension is specified in the ISA
> string passed to the compiler as long as one of "Zaamo" or "Zalrsc" is
> available, since they're only recognized with a quite recent version of
> GCC/Clang. The compiler usually doesn't automatically generate atomic
> instructions unless the source explicitly instructs it to do so, thus
> this should be safe.
> 
> Link: https://github.com/riscv/riscv-zaamo-zalrsc/commit/d94c64c63e9120d56bdeb540caf2e5dae60a8126 # [1]
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/u-boot/20250729162035.209849-9-uros.stajic@htecgroup.com/ # [2]
> Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
> ---
>  arch/riscv/Kconfig  | 17 +++++++++++++++++
>  arch/riscv/Makefile |  7 ++++++-
>  2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Reviewed-by: Leo Yu-Chi Liang <ycliang@andestech.com>

[PATCH v2 2/3] configs: ibex-ast2700: Explicitly disable Zaamo and Zalrsc extension

[Yao Zi]

This board supports neither Zaamo nor Zalrsc extension, thus we want to
build it without "a" specified in the ISA string passed to compiler in
case of misused A-extension instructions. With RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO and
RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC Kconfig options introduced, we must explicitly disable
both of them to achieve this.

Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
---
 configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig b/configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig
index 6cb2a21ed2d..ec30fa1ae10 100644
--- a/configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig
+++ b/configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig
@@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ CONFIG_SYS_MEM_TOP_HIDE=0x10000000
 CONFIG_BUILD_TARGET=""
 CONFIG_TARGET_ASPEED_AST2700_IBEX=y
 # CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_F is not set
-# CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_A is not set
+# CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO is not set
+# CONFIG_RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC is not set
 # CONFIG_SPL_SMP is not set
 CONFIG_XIP=y
 CONFIG_SPL_XIP=y
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] configs: ibex-ast2700: Explicitly disable Zaamo and Zalrsc extension

[Leo Liang]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2025 at 08:19:31AM +0000, Yao Zi wrote:
> This board supports neither Zaamo nor Zalrsc extension, thus we want to
> build it without "a" specified in the ISA string passed to compiler in
> case of misused A-extension instructions. With RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO and
> RISCV_ISA_ZALRSC Kconfig options introduced, we must explicitly disable
> both of them to achieve this.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
> ---
>  configs/ibex-ast2700_defconfig | 3 ++-
>  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Reviewed-by: Leo Yu-Chi Liang <ycliang@andestech.com>

[PATCH v2 3/3] riscv: Add a Zalrsc-only alternative for synchronization in start.S

[Yao Zi]

Add an alternative implementation that use Zalrsc extension only for
HART lottery and SMP locking to support SMP on cores without "Zaamo"
extension available. The Zaamo implementation is still prioritized if
both of them are available, since it takes fewer instructions.

Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
---
 arch/riscv/cpu/start.S | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/riscv/cpu/start.S b/arch/riscv/cpu/start.S
index 7bafdfd390a..6324ff585d4 100644
--- a/arch/riscv/cpu/start.S
+++ b/arch/riscv/cpu/start.S
@@ -151,8 +151,15 @@ call_harts_early_init:
 	 */
 	la	t0, hart_lottery
 	li	t1, 1
+#if CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO)
 	amoswap.w s2, t1, 0(t0)
 	bnez	s2, wait_for_gd_init
+#else
+	lr.w	s2, (t0)
+	bnez	s2, wait_for_gd_init
+	sc.w	s2, t1, (t0)
+	bnez	s2, wait_for_gd_init
+#endif
 #else
 	/*
 	 * FIXME: gp is set before it is initialized. If an XIP U-Boot ever
@@ -177,7 +184,12 @@ call_harts_early_init:
 #if !CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(XIP)
 #ifdef CONFIG_AVAILABLE_HARTS
 	la	t0, available_harts_lock
+#if CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO)
 	amoswap.w.rl zero, zero, 0(t0)
+#else
+	fence	rw, w
+	sw	zero, 0(t0)
+#endif
 #endif
 
 wait_for_gd_init:
@@ -190,7 +202,14 @@ wait_for_gd_init:
 #ifdef CONFIG_AVAILABLE_HARTS
 	la	t0, available_harts_lock
 	li	t1, 1
-1:	amoswap.w.aq t1, t1, 0(t0)
+1:
+#if CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO)
+	amoswap.w.aq t1, t1, 0(t0)
+#else
+	lr.w.aq	t1, 0(t0)
+	bnez	t1, 1b
+	sc.w.rl t1, t1, 0(t0)
+#endif
 	bnez	t1, 1b
 
 	/* register available harts in the available_harts mask */
@@ -200,7 +219,12 @@ wait_for_gd_init:
 	or	t2, t2, t1
 	SREG	t2, GD_AVAILABLE_HARTS(gp)
 
+#if CONFIG_IS_ENABLED(RISCV_ISA_ZAAMO)
 	amoswap.w.rl zero, zero, 0(t0)
+#else
+	fence	rw, w
+	sw	zero, 0(t0)
+#endif
 #endif
 
 	/*
-- 
2.50.1

Re: [PATCH v2 3/3] riscv: Add a Zalrsc-only alternative for synchronization in start.S

[Leo Liang]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2025 at 08:19:32AM +0000, Yao Zi wrote:
> Add an alternative implementation that use Zalrsc extension only for
> HART lottery and SMP locking to support SMP on cores without "Zaamo"
> extension available. The Zaamo implementation is still prioritized if
> both of them are available, since it takes fewer instructions.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Yao Zi <ziyao@disroot.org>
> ---
>  arch/riscv/cpu/start.S | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

Reviewed-by: Leo Yu-Chi Liang <ycliang@andestech.com>