Re: [PATCH 1/5] x86, mm, pat: Set WT to PA4 slot of PAT MSR

[Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>]

On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 5:29 PM, Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@hp.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2014-09-04 at 16:34 -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> On Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 4:19 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh
>> <hmh@hmh.eng.br> wrote:
>> > On Thu, 04 Sep 2014, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> >> On 09/04/2014 01:11 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
>> >> > I am worried of uncharted territory, here.  I'd actually advocate for not
>> >> > enabling the upper four PAT entries on IA-32 at all, unless Windows 9X / XP
>> >> > is using them as well.  Is this a real concern, or am I being overly
>> >> > cautious?
>> >>
>> >> It is extremely unlikely that we'd have PAT issues in 32-bit mode and
>> >> not in 64-bit mode on the same CPU.
>> >
>> > Sure, but is it really a good idea to enable this on the *old* non-64-bit
>> > capable processors (note: I don't mean x86-64 processors operating in 32-bit
>> > mode) ?
>> >
>> >> As far as I know, the current blacklist rule is very conservative due to
>> >> lack of testing more than anything else.
>> >
>> > I was told that much in 2009 when I asked why cpuid 0x6d8 was blacklisted
>> > from using PAT :-)
>>
>> At the very least, anyone who plugs an NV-DIMM into a 32-bit machine
>> is nuts, and not just because I'd be somewhat amazed if it even
>> physically fits into the slot. :)
>
> According to the spec, the upper four entries bug was fixed in Pentium 4
> model 0x1.  So, the remaining Intel 32-bit processors that may enable
> the upper four entries are Pentium 4 model 0x1-4.  Should we disable it
> for all Pentium 4 models?

Assuming that this is Pentium 4 erratum N46, then there may be another
option: use slot 7 instead of slot 4 for WT.  Then, even if somehow
the blacklist screws up, the worst that happens is that a WT page gets
interpreted as UC.  I suppose this could cause aliasing issues, but
can't cause problems for people who don't use the high entries in the
first place.

--Andy

>
> Thanks,
> -Toshi
>



-- 
Andy Lutomirski
AMA Capital Management, LLC

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