Intel Corporation

Peng Zou

Kai Wang

Bing Zhu

Fenardi Thenus

Raghu Chepuri

Joseph T Dibene, Ii

Luhai Chen

Manohar Ruben Castelino

Henry W Koertzen

Fangjian Zhong

Henry K Koertzen

David J Harriman

Madhukar Tallam

Fernardi Thenus

Yadong Qi

Joseph Dibene Ii

Memory security technologies are described. An example processing device includes a processor core and a memory controller coupled to the processor core and a memory. The processor core can determine that an exit condition to transfer control of a resource for a processor core from a first virtual machine monitor (VMM) to a second VMM has occurred. The processor core can also determine whether a control virtual machine control structure (VMCS) link pointer is valid. The processor core can also determine whether a reason value corresponding to the control VMCS link pointer is set. The processor core can also determine whether the reason value is set to zero. The processor core can also determining whether an exception bit corresponding to a specific exception type of a reason value is set. The processor core can also transfer a control of the resource from the first VMM to the second VMM.

Nested virtualization for virtual machine exits

A processing system includes a first register to store an invalidation mode flag associated with a virtual processor identifier (VPID) and a processing core, communicatively coupled to the first register, the processing core comprising a logic circuit to execute a virtual machine monitor (VMM) environment, the VMM environment comprising a root mode VMM supporting a non-root mode VMM, the non-root mode VMM to execute a virtual machine (VM) identified by the VPID, the logic circuit further comprising an invalidation circuit to execute a virtual processor invalidation (INVVPID) instruction issued by the non-root mode VMM, the INVVPID instruction comprising a reference to an INVVPID descriptor that specifies a linear address and the VPID and responsive to determining that the invalidation mode flag is set, invalidate, without triggering a VM exit event, a memory address mapping associated with the linear address.

System and method to improve nested virtual machine monitor performance

The systems and methods for enabling a lightweight VMM to efficiently interrupt virtual machines are provided. In some examples, the lightweight VMM is configured to utilize a self IPI to deliver external interrupts to the virtual machines. The self IPI may be generated by writing one or more values, including an identifier of the external interrupt, to an ICR of a programmable interrupt controller. The programmable interrupt controller may retrieve the one or more values from the ICR, identify the external interrupt and process the external interrupt, which culminates in the external interrupt being written to an IDT of a virtual machine targeted for interrupt delivery by the lightweight VMM.

Systems and methods of efficiently interrupting virtual machines

In some embodiments described herein, proposed schemes utilize a duty-cycle sensing technique to detect load current imbalance in each individual inductor, and then adjusts the duty cycles for the specific phases through a digital duty cycle tuner.

Method and apparatus of current balancing for multiple phase power converter

A method of an aspect includes receiving an indication of an attempt by a virtual machine to modify a paging structure identification storage location to have a given value. It is determined that the given value matches at least one of a set of one or more blacklist values. The attempt by the virtual machine to modify the paging structure identification storage location to have the given value is trapped to a virtual machine monitor. Other methods, apparatus, and systems are also disclosed.

Processors, methods, and systems to enforce blacklisted paging structure indication values

An apparatus comprises a programmable delay line (PDL) to receive a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal as input and to generate a first output; a selection unit to provide PWM signal or its inverted version as a second output; and a sequential unit coupled to the PDL to sample the second output with the first output and to generate a pulse-frequency modulation (PFM) output. A voltage regulator comprises mutually coupled on-die inductors for coupling to a load; a bridge coupled to the mutually coupled on-die inductors, including a low-side switch and a high-side switch; a PWM controller for controlling the low-side and high-side switches during a first load current; and a PFM controller for controlling the low-side and high-side switches during a second load current, the second load current being smaller than the first load current, the PFM controller comprising a comparator and a first PDL coupled to the comparator.

Low power high frequency digital pulse frequency modulator

Described is a soft-start scheme for a voltage regulator. The apparatus comprises: a first voltage regulator to provide regulated voltage to an output node coupled to a load, the first voltage regulator operable to be in open loop via a bypass unit, the first voltage regulator including a comparator; and a second voltage regulator, coupled to the first voltage regulator, operable to be in closed loop, via the bypass unit, to provide a reference voltage for the comparator of the first voltage regulator.

Apparatus for starting up switching voltage regulator

Described is an apparatus that comprises: a programmable delay line (PDL) to receive a pulse-width modulation (PWM) signal as input and to generate a first output; a selection unit operable to provide PWM signal or its inverted version as a second output; and a sequential unit coupled to the PDL, the sequential unit to sample the second output with the first output, the sequential unit to generate a pulse-frequency modulation (PFM) output. Described is also a voltage regulator which comprises: mutually coupled on-die inductors for coupling to a load; a bridge, coupled to the mutually coupled on-die inductors, including a low-side switch and a high-side switch; a PWM controller for controlling the low-side and high-side switches during a first load current; and a PFM controller for controlling the low-side and high-side switches during a second load current, the second load current being smaller than the first load current, the PFM controller comprising: a comparator for comparing output voltage of the load with a reference voltage; and a first PDL coupled to the comparator for determining turn-on duration of the high-side switch.

Methods and apparatus are disclosed to capture error conditions in lightweight virtual machine managers. A disclosed example method includes defining a shared memory structure between the VMM and a virtual machine (VM), when the VM is spawned by the VMM, installing an abort handler on the VM associated with a vector value, in response to detecting an error, transferring VMM state information to the shared memory structure, and invoking the abort handler on the VM to transfer contents of the shared memory structure to a non-volatile memory.

Methods, systems and apparatus to capture error conditions in lightweight virtual machine managers

In some embodiments, the invention provides a higher efficiency, real-time platform power management architecture for computing platforms. A more direct power management architecture may be provided using integrated voltage regulators and in some embodiments, a direct power management interface (DPMI) as well. Integrated voltage regulators, such as in-silicon voltage regulators (ISVR) can be used to implement quicker, more highly responsive power state transitions.

Power management system for selectively changing the power state of devices using an OS power management framework and non-OS power management framework

In one embodiment, a test apparatus includes a field programmable gate array (FPGA) including a first transmitter to communicate first signals according to current mode logic (CML) signaling and a first receiver to receive second signals according to the CML signaling, and an interface circuit to couple the FPGA to a device that is to communicate according to voltage mode signaling. The interface circuit may adapt the first signals communicated by the first transmitter according to the CML signaling to voltage mode signaling signals for receipt by the device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Interface circuitry for a test apparatus

Embodiments of an apparatus, system and method are described for dynamically time-interleaving supply voltage modulation to shape a power profile. An apparatus may comprise, for example, a power management module to monitor power information received from a plurality of devices and send a power control signal including delay information to each device having power information that exceeds a power threshold, the delay information comprising information for time-interleaving power usage among the devices having power information that exceeds the power threshold. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

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Tumwater, WA, United States of America

Peng Zou