linux_dsm_epyc7002/arch/powerpc
Michael Neuling c974809a26 powerpc/vdso: Avoid link stack corruption in __get_datapage()
powerpc has a link register (lr) used for calling functions. We "bl
<func>" to call a function, and "blr" to return back to the call site.

The lr is only a single register, so if we call another function from
inside this function (ie. nested calls), software must save away the
lr on the software stack before calling the new function. Before
returning (ie. before the "blr"), the lr is restored by software from
the software stack.

This makes branch prediction quite difficult for the processor as it
will only know the branch target just before the "blr".

To help with this, modern powerpc processors keep a (non-architected)
hardware stack of lr called a "link stack". When a "bl <func>" is
run, the lr is pushed onto this stack. When a "blr" is called, the
branch predictor pops the lr value from the top of the link stack, and
uses it to predict the branch target. Hence the processor pipeline
knows a lot earlier the branch target.

This works great but there are some cases where you call "bl" but
without a matching "blr". Once such case is when trying to determine
the program counter (which can't be read directly). Here you "bl+4;
mflr" to get the program counter. If you do this, the link stack will
get out of sync with reality, causing the branch predictor to
mis-predict subsequent function returns.

To avoid this, modern micro-architectures have a special case of bl.
Using the form "bcl 20,31,+4", ensures the processor doesn't push to
the link stack.

The 32 and 64 bit variants of __get_datapage() use a "bl; mflr" to
determine the loaded address of the VDSO. The current versions of
these attempt to use this special bl variant.

Unfortunately they use +8 rather than the required +4. Hence the
current code results in the link stack getting out of sync with
reality and hence the resulting performance degradation.

This patch moves it to bcl+4 by moving __kernel_datapage_offset out of
__get_datapage().

With this patch, running a gettimeofday() (which uses
__get_datapage()) microbenchmark we get a decent bump in performance
on POWER7/8.

For the benchmark in tools/testing/selftests/powerpc/benchmarks/gettimeofday.c
  POWER8:
    64bit gets ~4% improvement
    32bit gets ~9% improvement
  POWER7:
    64bit gets ~7% improvement

Signed-off-by: Michael Neuling <mikey@neuling.org>
Reported-by: Aaron Sawdey <sawdey@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
2015-10-01 16:52:02 +10:00
..
boot powerpc/boot: Specify ABI v2 when building an LE boot wrapper 2015-09-16 22:05:55 +10:00
configs powerpc/ps3: Refresh ps3_defconfig 2015-09-29 23:01:04 +10:00
crypto crypto: powerpc/md5 - use md5 IV MD5_HX instead of their raw value 2015-05-18 12:20:20 +08:00
include AMD fixes for bugs introduced in the 4.2 merge window, 2015-09-25 10:51:40 -07:00
kernel powerpc/vdso: Avoid link stack corruption in __get_datapage() 2015-10-01 16:52:02 +10:00
kvm KVM: PPC: Book3S: Take the kvm->srcu lock in kvmppc_h_logical_ci_load/store() 2015-09-21 09:05:15 +10:00
lib powerpc32: memset: only use dcbz once cache is enabled 2015-09-17 10:36:53 +10:00
math-emu powerpc: Correct emulated mtfsf instruction 2014-04-07 10:33:11 +10:00
mm powerpc/slb: Use a local to avoid multiple calls to get_slb_shadow() 2015-10-01 16:52:01 +10:00
net ppc: bpf: Add SKF_AD_CPU for ppc32 2015-02-20 15:19:43 -05:00
oprofile powerpc: Remove mtmsrd(), use existing mtmsr() 2015-07-13 15:47:28 +10:00
perf powerpc/perf: Change type of the bhrb_users variable 2015-07-27 14:31:44 +10:00
platforms powerpc: Kconfig: remove BE-only platforms from LE kernel build 2015-09-29 22:57:00 +10:00
sysdev Merge branch 'irq-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2015-09-18 08:11:42 -07:00
xmon powerpc/xmon: Drop the valid variable completely in dump_segments() 2015-08-12 15:05:47 +10:00
Kconfig kexec: split kexec_load syscall from kexec core code 2015-09-10 13:29:01 -07:00
Kconfig.debug powerpc: Make STRICT_MM_TYPECHECKS a config option 2015-05-11 19:53:59 +10:00
Makefile Merge branch 'kbuild' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mmarek/kbuild 2015-09-08 14:12:19 -07:00
relocs_check.sh powerpc: Convert relocs_check to a shell script using grep 2015-03-23 14:47:39 +11:00