linux/Documentation/virtual/kvm/cpuid.txt
Wanpeng Li a4429e53c9 KVM: Introduce paravirtualization hints and KVM_HINTS_DEDICATED
This patch introduces kvm_para_has_hint() to query for hints about
the configuration of the guests.  The first hint KVM_HINTS_DEDICATED,
is set if the guest has dedicated physical CPUs for each vCPU (i.e.
pinning and no over-commitment).  This allows optimizing spinlocks
and tells the guest to avoid PV TLB flush.

Cc: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@redhat.com>
Cc: Eduardo Habkost <ehabkost@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@tencent.com>
Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Radim Krčmář <rkrcmar@redhat.com>
2018-03-06 18:40:44 +01:00

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KVM CPUID bits
Glauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>, Red Hat Inc, 2010
=====================================================
A guest running on a kvm host, can check some of its features using
cpuid. This is not always guaranteed to work, since userspace can
mask-out some, or even all KVM-related cpuid features before launching
a guest.
KVM cpuid functions are:
function: KVM_CPUID_SIGNATURE (0x40000000)
returns : eax = 0x40000001,
ebx = 0x4b4d564b,
ecx = 0x564b4d56,
edx = 0x4d.
Note that this value in ebx, ecx and edx corresponds to the string "KVMKVMKVM".
The value in eax corresponds to the maximum cpuid function present in this leaf,
and will be updated if more functions are added in the future.
Note also that old hosts set eax value to 0x0. This should
be interpreted as if the value was 0x40000001.
This function queries the presence of KVM cpuid leafs.
function: define KVM_CPUID_FEATURES (0x40000001)
returns : ebx, ecx
eax = an OR'ed group of (1 << flag), where each flags is:
flag || value || meaning
=============================================================================
KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE || 0 || kvmclock available at msrs
|| || 0x11 and 0x12.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_NOP_IO_DELAY || 1 || not necessary to perform delays
|| || on PIO operations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_MMU_OP || 2 || deprecated.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE2 || 3 || kvmclock available at msrs
|| || 0x4b564d00 and 0x4b564d01
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_ASYNC_PF || 4 || async pf can be enabled by
|| || writing to msr 0x4b564d02
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_STEAL_TIME || 5 || steal time can be enabled by
|| || writing to msr 0x4b564d03.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_PV_EOI || 6 || paravirtualized end of interrupt
|| || handler can be enabled by writing
|| || to msr 0x4b564d04.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_PV_UNHALT || 7 || guest checks this feature bit
|| || before enabling paravirtualized
|| || spinlock support.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_PV_TLB_FLUSH || 9 || guest checks this feature bit
|| || before enabling paravirtualized
|| || tlb flush.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_ASYNC_PF_VMEXIT || 10 || paravirtualized async PF VM exit
|| || can be enabled by setting bit 2
|| || when writing to msr 0x4b564d02
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE_STABLE_BIT || 24 || host will warn if no guest-side
|| || per-cpu warps are expected in
|| || kvmclock.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
edx = an OR'ed group of (1 << flag), where each flags is:
flag || value || meaning
==================================================================================
KVM_HINTS_DEDICATED || 0 || guest checks this feature bit to
|| || determine if there is vCPU pinning
|| || and there is no vCPU over-commitment,
|| || allowing optimizations
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------