Re: [LSF/MM/BPF TOPIC] 64k (or 16k) base page size on x86

["David Hildenbrand (Arm)" <david@kernel.org>]

On 2/23/26 16:14, Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 2/23/26 03:27, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
> ...
>>> BTW, x86-64 SysV ABI allows for 64k page size:
>>>
>>>      Systems are permitted to use any power-of-two page size between
>>>      4KB and 64KB, inclusive.
>>>
>>> But it doesn't work in practice.
>>
>> Even in well controlled environments you would run in a hyperscaler?
> 
> I think what Kirill is trying to say is that "it breaks userspace". ;)

Yes. Probably similar to Intel proposing an actual 64k page size. 
Expected. :)

> 
> A hyperscaler (or other "embedded" environment) might be willing or able
> to go fix up userspace breakage. I would suspect our high frequency
> trading friends would be all over this if it shaved a microsecond off
> their receive times.
> 
> The more important question is what it breaks and how badly it breaks
> things. 5-level paging, for instance, broke some JITs that historically
> used the new (>48) upper virtual address bits for metadata. The gains
> from 5-level paging were big enough and the userspace breakage was
> confined and fixable enough that 5-level paging was viable.
> 
> I'm not sure which side a larger base page side will fall on, though. Is
> it going to be an out-of-tree hack that a few folks use, or will it be
> more like 5-level paging and be good enough that it goes into mainline?

Just thinking about VMAs spanning partial pages makes me shiver. Or A 
single page spanning multiple VMAs.

I haven't seen the code yet, but I am certain that I will not like it.

I'm happy to be proven wrong :)

-- 
Cheers,

David