Intel Corporation

Advanced Micro Devices Corporation

National Semiconductor Corporation

Christopher D Bryant

Vedvyas Shanbhogue

Stephen J Robinson

Jason W Brandt

Rama S Gopal

David A Kaplan

Robin W Edenfield

Jonathan D Combs

Stephen Patrick Thompson

Jeff Wiedemeier

Vikash Agarwal

Daniel Hopper

Suzanne Plummer

Systems, methods, and apparatuses relating to circuitry to implement a pipelined out of order page miss handler are described. In one embodiment, a hardware processor core includes an execution circuit to generate data storage requests for virtual addresses, a translation lookaside buffer to translate the virtual addresses to physical addresses, and a single page miss handler circuit comprising a plurality of pipelined page walk stages, wherein the single page miss handler circuit is to contemporaneously perform a first page walk within a first stage of the plurality of pipelined page walk stages for a first miss of a first virtual address in the translation lookaside buffer, and a second page walk within a second stage of the plurality of pipelined page walk stages for a second miss of a second virtual address in the translation lookaside buffer.

Pipelined out of order page miss handler

A processor includes a widest set of data registers that corresponds to a given logical processor. Each of the data registers of the widest set have a first width in bits. A decode unit that corresponds to the given logical processor is to decode instructions that specify the data registers of the widest set, and is to decode an atomic store to memory instruction. The atomic store to memory instruction is to indicate data that is to have a second width in bits that is wider than the first width in bits. The atomic store to memory instruction is to indicate memory address information associated with a memory location. An execution unit is coupled with the decode unit. The execution unit, in response to the atomic store to memory instruction, is to atomically store the indicated data to the memory location.

Processors, methods, systems, and instructions to atomically store to memory data wider than a natively supported data width

An apparatus and method for sub-page extended page table protection. For example, one embodiment of an apparatus comprises: a page miss handler to perform a page walk using a guest physical address (GPA) and to detect whether a page identified with the GPA is mapped with sub-page permissions; a sub-page control storage to store at least one GPA and other data related to a sub-page; the page miss handler to determine whether the GPA is programmed in the sub-page control storage; and the page miss handler to send a translation to a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) with a sub-page protection indication set to cause a matching of the sub-page control storage when an access matches a TLB entry with sub-page protection indication.

Method and apparatus for sub-page write protection

Apparatuses, methods, and systems relating to memory disambiguation are described. In one embodiment, a processor includes a decoder to decode an instruction into a decoded instruction, an execution unit to execute the decoded instruction, a retirement unit to retire an executed instruction in program order, and a memory disambiguation circuit to allocate an entry in a memory disambiguation table for a first load instruction that is to be flushed for a memory ordering violation, the entry comprising a counter value and an instruction pointer for the first load instruction.

Apparatuses, methods, and systems for memory disambiguation

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for using a shared page miss handler device to satisfy page miss requests of a plurality of devices in a multi-core system. One embodiment of such a method comprises receiving one or more page miss requests from one or more respective requesting devices of the plurality of devices in the multi-core system, and arbitrating to identify a first page miss requests of the one or more requesting devices A page table walk is performed to generate a physical address responsive to the first page miss request. Then the physical address is sent to the corresponding requesting device, or a fault is signaled to an operating system for the corresponding requesting device responsive to the first page miss request.

Multi-core shared page miss handler

A first operation associated with a request for a page miss handler may be identified. A second operation associated with a current execution of the page miss handler may also be identified. An age of the first operation and an age of the second operation may be determined. The page miss handler may be interrupted based on the age of the first operation and the age of the second operation by stopping the current execution of the page miss handler for the second operation and starting execution of the page miss handler for the first operation.

Interruption of a page miss handler

Embodiments of an invention for a guest-physical address translation lookaside buffer are disclosed. In an embodiment, a processor includes an instruction decoder, a control register, and memory address translation hardware. The instruction decoder is to receive an instruction to transfer control of the processor to guest software to execute on a virtual machine. The virtual machine is to have a plurality of resources to be controlled by a virtual machine monitor. The virtual machine monitor is to execute on a host machine having a host-physical memory to be accessed using a plurality of host-physical addresses. The plurality of resources is to include a guest-physical memory. The guest software is to access the guest-physical memory using a plurality of guest-virtual addresses. The control register is to store a pointer to a plurality of virtual address page tables. The memory address translation hardware is to translate, without causing a virtual machine exit, guest-virtual addresses to host-physical addresses using the plurality of virtual address page tables and a plurality of extended page tables. The memory address translation hardware includes a virtual address translation lookaside buffer in which to store a plurality of virtual address entries corresponding to guest-virtual address to host-physical address translations. The memory address translation hardware also includes a guest-physical address translation lookaside buffer in which to store a plurality of guest-physical address entries corresponding to guest-physical address to host-physical address translations.

Translation lookaside buffer for guest physical addresses in a virtual machine

A method and apparatus are provided to control the order of execution of load and store operations. Also provided is a computer readable storage device encoded with data for adapting a manufacturing facility to create the apparatus. One embodiment of the method includes determining whether a first group, comprising at least one or more instructions, is to be selected from a scheduling queue of a processor for execution using either a first execution mode or a second execution mode. The method also includes, responsive to determining that the first group is to be selected for execution using the second execution mode, preventing selection of the first group until a second group, comprising at least one or more instructions, that entered the scheduling queue prior to the first group is selected for execution.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Christopher D Bryant