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- ===================================================
- Scalable Vector Extension support for AArch64 Linux
- ===================================================
- Author: Dave Martin <[email protected]>
- Date: 4 August 2017
- This document outlines briefly the interface provided to userspace by Linux in
- order to support use of the ARM Scalable Vector Extension (SVE), including
- interactions with Streaming SVE mode added by the Scalable Matrix Extension
- (SME).
- This is an outline of the most important features and issues only and not
- intended to be exhaustive.
- This document does not aim to describe the SVE architecture or programmer's
- model. To aid understanding, a minimal description of relevant programmer's
- model features for SVE is included in Appendix A.
- 1. General
- -----------
- * SVE registers Z0..Z31, P0..P15 and FFR and the current vector length VL, are
- tracked per-thread.
- * In streaming mode FFR is not accessible unless HWCAP2_SME_FA64 is present
- in the system, when it is not supported and these interfaces are used to
- access streaming mode FFR is read and written as zero.
- * The presence of SVE is reported to userspace via HWCAP_SVE in the aux vector
- AT_HWCAP entry. Presence of this flag implies the presence of the SVE
- instructions and registers, and the Linux-specific system interfaces
- described in this document. SVE is reported in /proc/cpuinfo as "sve".
- * Support for the execution of SVE instructions in userspace can also be
- detected by reading the CPU ID register ID_AA64PFR0_EL1 using an MRS
- instruction, and checking that the value of the SVE field is nonzero. [3]
- It does not guarantee the presence of the system interfaces described in the
- following sections: software that needs to verify that those interfaces are
- present must check for HWCAP_SVE instead.
- * On hardware that supports the SVE2 extensions, HWCAP2_SVE2 will also
- be reported in the AT_HWCAP2 aux vector entry. In addition to this,
- optional extensions to SVE2 may be reported by the presence of:
- HWCAP2_SVE2
- HWCAP2_SVEAES
- HWCAP2_SVEPMULL
- HWCAP2_SVEBITPERM
- HWCAP2_SVESHA3
- HWCAP2_SVESM4
- This list may be extended over time as the SVE architecture evolves.
- These extensions are also reported via the CPU ID register ID_AA64ZFR0_EL1,
- which userspace can read using an MRS instruction. See elf_hwcaps.txt and
- cpu-feature-registers.txt for details.
- * On hardware that supports the SME extensions, HWCAP2_SME will also be
- reported in the AT_HWCAP2 aux vector entry. Among other things SME adds
- streaming mode which provides a subset of the SVE feature set using a
- separate SME vector length and the same Z/V registers. See sme.rst
- for more details.
- * Debuggers should restrict themselves to interacting with the target via the
- NT_ARM_SVE regset. The recommended way of detecting support for this regset
- is to connect to a target process first and then attempt a
- ptrace(PTRACE_GETREGSET, pid, NT_ARM_SVE, &iov). Note that when SME is
- present and streaming SVE mode is in use the FPSIMD subset of registers
- will be read via NT_ARM_SVE and NT_ARM_SVE writes will exit streaming mode
- in the target.
- * Whenever SVE scalable register values (Zn, Pn, FFR) are exchanged in memory
- between userspace and the kernel, the register value is encoded in memory in
- an endianness-invariant layout, with bits [(8 * i + 7) : (8 * i)] encoded at
- byte offset i from the start of the memory representation. This affects for
- example the signal frame (struct sve_context) and ptrace interface
- (struct user_sve_header) and associated data.
- Beware that on big-endian systems this results in a different byte order than
- for the FPSIMD V-registers, which are stored as single host-endian 128-bit
- values, with bits [(127 - 8 * i) : (120 - 8 * i)] of the register encoded at
- byte offset i. (struct fpsimd_context, struct user_fpsimd_state).
- 2. Vector length terminology
- -----------------------------
- The size of an SVE vector (Z) register is referred to as the "vector length".
- To avoid confusion about the units used to express vector length, the kernel
- adopts the following conventions:
- * Vector length (VL) = size of a Z-register in bytes
- * Vector quadwords (VQ) = size of a Z-register in units of 128 bits
- (So, VL = 16 * VQ.)
- The VQ convention is used where the underlying granularity is important, such
- as in data structure definitions. In most other situations, the VL convention
- is used. This is consistent with the meaning of the "VL" pseudo-register in
- the SVE instruction set architecture.
- 3. System call behaviour
- -------------------------
- * On syscall, V0..V31 are preserved (as without SVE). Thus, bits [127:0] of
- Z0..Z31 are preserved. All other bits of Z0..Z31, and all of P0..P15 and FFR
- become zero on return from a syscall.
- * The SVE registers are not used to pass arguments to or receive results from
- any syscall.
- * In practice the affected registers/bits will be preserved or will be replaced
- with zeros on return from a syscall, but userspace should not make
- assumptions about this. The kernel behaviour may vary on a case-by-case
- basis.
- * All other SVE state of a thread, including the currently configured vector
- length, the state of the PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT flag, and the deferred vector
- length (if any), is preserved across all syscalls, subject to the specific
- exceptions for execve() described in section 6.
- In particular, on return from a fork() or clone(), the parent and new child
- process or thread share identical SVE configuration, matching that of the
- parent before the call.
- 4. Signal handling
- -------------------
- * A new signal frame record sve_context encodes the SVE registers on signal
- delivery. [1]
- * This record is supplementary to fpsimd_context. The FPSR and FPCR registers
- are only present in fpsimd_context. For convenience, the content of V0..V31
- is duplicated between sve_context and fpsimd_context.
- * The record contains a flag field which includes a flag SVE_SIG_FLAG_SM which
- if set indicates that the thread is in streaming mode and the vector length
- and register data (if present) describe the streaming SVE data and vector
- length.
- * The signal frame record for SVE always contains basic metadata, in particular
- the thread's vector length (in sve_context.vl).
- * The SVE registers may or may not be included in the record, depending on
- whether the registers are live for the thread. The registers are present if
- and only if:
- sve_context.head.size >= SVE_SIG_CONTEXT_SIZE(sve_vq_from_vl(sve_context.vl)).
- * If the registers are present, the remainder of the record has a vl-dependent
- size and layout. Macros SVE_SIG_* are defined [1] to facilitate access to
- the members.
- * Each scalable register (Zn, Pn, FFR) is stored in an endianness-invariant
- layout, with bits [(8 * i + 7) : (8 * i)] stored at byte offset i from the
- start of the register's representation in memory.
- * If the SVE context is too big to fit in sigcontext.__reserved[], then extra
- space is allocated on the stack, an extra_context record is written in
- __reserved[] referencing this space. sve_context is then written in the
- extra space. Refer to [1] for further details about this mechanism.
- 5. Signal return
- -----------------
- When returning from a signal handler:
- * If there is no sve_context record in the signal frame, or if the record is
- present but contains no register data as desribed in the previous section,
- then the SVE registers/bits become non-live and take unspecified values.
- * If sve_context is present in the signal frame and contains full register
- data, the SVE registers become live and are populated with the specified
- data. However, for backward compatibility reasons, bits [127:0] of Z0..Z31
- are always restored from the corresponding members of fpsimd_context.vregs[]
- and not from sve_context. The remaining bits are restored from sve_context.
- * Inclusion of fpsimd_context in the signal frame remains mandatory,
- irrespective of whether sve_context is present or not.
- * The vector length cannot be changed via signal return. If sve_context.vl in
- the signal frame does not match the current vector length, the signal return
- attempt is treated as illegal, resulting in a forced SIGSEGV.
- * It is permitted to enter or leave streaming mode by setting or clearing
- the SVE_SIG_FLAG_SM flag but applications should take care to ensure that
- when doing so sve_context.vl and any register data are appropriate for the
- vector length in the new mode.
- 6. prctl extensions
- --------------------
- Some new prctl() calls are added to allow programs to manage the SVE vector
- length:
- prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, unsigned long arg)
- Sets the vector length of the calling thread and related flags, where
- arg == vl | flags. Other threads of the calling process are unaffected.
- vl is the desired vector length, where sve_vl_valid(vl) must be true.
- flags:
- PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT
- Inherit the current vector length across execve(). Otherwise, the
- vector length is reset to the system default at execve(). (See
- Section 9.)
- PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
- Defer the requested vector length change until the next execve()
- performed by this thread.
- The effect is equivalent to implicit exceution of the following
- call immediately after the next execve() (if any) by the thread:
- prctl(PR_SVE_SET_VL, arg & ~PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC)
- This allows launching of a new program with a different vector
- length, while avoiding runtime side effects in the caller.
- Without PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC, the requested change takes effect
- immediately.
- Return value: a nonnegative on success, or a negative value on error:
- EINVAL: SVE not supported, invalid vector length requested, or
- invalid flags.
- On success:
- * Either the calling thread's vector length or the deferred vector length
- to be applied at the next execve() by the thread (dependent on whether
- PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC is present in arg), is set to the largest value
- supported by the system that is less than or equal to vl. If vl ==
- SVE_VL_MAX, the value set will be the largest value supported by the
- system.
- * Any previously outstanding deferred vector length change in the calling
- thread is cancelled.
- * The returned value describes the resulting configuration, encoded as for
- PR_SVE_GET_VL. The vector length reported in this value is the new
- current vector length for this thread if PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC was not
- present in arg; otherwise, the reported vector length is the deferred
- vector length that will be applied at the next execve() by the calling
- thread.
- * Changing the vector length causes all of P0..P15, FFR and all bits of
- Z0..Z31 except for Z0 bits [127:0] .. Z31 bits [127:0] to become
- unspecified. Calling PR_SVE_SET_VL with vl equal to the thread's current
- vector length, or calling PR_SVE_SET_VL with the PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC
- flag, does not constitute a change to the vector length for this purpose.
- prctl(PR_SVE_GET_VL)
- Gets the vector length of the calling thread.
- The following flag may be OR-ed into the result:
- PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT
- Vector length will be inherited across execve().
- There is no way to determine whether there is an outstanding deferred
- vector length change (which would only normally be the case between a
- fork() or vfork() and the corresponding execve() in typical use).
- To extract the vector length from the result, bitwise and it with
- PR_SVE_VL_LEN_MASK.
- Return value: a nonnegative value on success, or a negative value on error:
- EINVAL: SVE not supported.
- 7. ptrace extensions
- ---------------------
- * New regsets NT_ARM_SVE and NT_ARM_SSVE are defined for use with
- PTRACE_GETREGSET and PTRACE_SETREGSET. NT_ARM_SSVE describes the
- streaming mode SVE registers and NT_ARM_SVE describes the
- non-streaming mode SVE registers.
- In this description a register set is referred to as being "live" when
- the target is in the appropriate streaming or non-streaming mode and is
- using data beyond the subset shared with the FPSIMD Vn registers.
- Refer to [2] for definitions.
- The regset data starts with struct user_sve_header, containing:
- size
- Size of the complete regset, in bytes.
- This depends on vl and possibly on other things in the future.
- If a call to PTRACE_GETREGSET requests less data than the value of
- size, the caller can allocate a larger buffer and retry in order to
- read the complete regset.
- max_size
- Maximum size in bytes that the regset can grow to for the target
- thread. The regset won't grow bigger than this even if the target
- thread changes its vector length etc.
- vl
- Target thread's current vector length, in bytes.
- max_vl
- Maximum possible vector length for the target thread.
- flags
- at most one of
- SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD
- SVE registers are not live (GETREGSET) or are to be made
- non-live (SETREGSET).
- The payload is of type struct user_fpsimd_state, with the same
- meaning as for NT_PRFPREG, starting at offset
- SVE_PT_FPSIMD_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header.
- Extra data might be appended in the future: the size of the
- payload should be obtained using SVE_PT_FPSIMD_SIZE(vq, flags).
- vq should be obtained using sve_vq_from_vl(vl).
- or
- SVE_PT_REGS_SVE
- SVE registers are live (GETREGSET) or are to be made live
- (SETREGSET).
- The payload contains the SVE register data, starting at offset
- SVE_PT_SVE_OFFSET from the start of user_sve_header, and with
- size SVE_PT_SVE_SIZE(vq, flags);
- ... OR-ed with zero or more of the following flags, which have the same
- meaning and behaviour as the corresponding PR_SET_VL_* flags:
- SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT
- SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC (SETREGSET only).
- If neither FPSIMD nor SVE flags are provided then no register
- payload is available, this is only possible when SME is implemented.
- * The effects of changing the vector length and/or flags are equivalent to
- those documented for PR_SVE_SET_VL.
- The caller must make a further GETREGSET call if it needs to know what VL is
- actually set by SETREGSET, unless is it known in advance that the requested
- VL is supported.
- * In the SVE_PT_REGS_SVE case, the size and layout of the payload depends on
- the header fields. The SVE_PT_SVE_*() macros are provided to facilitate
- access to the members.
- * In either case, for SETREGSET it is permissible to omit the payload, in which
- case only the vector length and flags are changed (along with any
- consequences of those changes).
- * In systems supporting SME when in streaming mode a GETREGSET for
- NT_REG_SVE will return only the user_sve_header with no register data,
- similarly a GETREGSET for NT_REG_SSVE will not return any register data
- when not in streaming mode.
- * A GETREGSET for NT_ARM_SSVE will never return SVE_PT_REGS_FPSIMD.
- * For SETREGSET, if an SVE_PT_REGS_SVE payload is present and the
- requested VL is not supported, the effect will be the same as if the
- payload were omitted, except that an EIO error is reported. No
- attempt is made to translate the payload data to the correct layout
- for the vector length actually set. The thread's FPSIMD state is
- preserved, but the remaining bits of the SVE registers become
- unspecified. It is up to the caller to translate the payload layout
- for the actual VL and retry.
- * Where SME is implemented it is not possible to GETREGSET the register
- state for normal SVE when in streaming mode, nor the streaming mode
- register state when in normal mode, regardless of the implementation defined
- behaviour of the hardware for sharing data between the two modes.
- * Any SETREGSET of NT_ARM_SVE will exit streaming mode if the target was in
- streaming mode and any SETREGSET of NT_ARM_SSVE will enter streaming mode
- if the target was not in streaming mode.
- * The effect of writing a partial, incomplete payload is unspecified.
- 8. ELF coredump extensions
- ---------------------------
- * NT_ARM_SVE and NT_ARM_SSVE notes will be added to each coredump for
- each thread of the dumped process. The contents will be equivalent to the
- data that would have been read if a PTRACE_GETREGSET of the corresponding
- type were executed for each thread when the coredump was generated.
- 9. System runtime configuration
- --------------------------------
- * To mitigate the ABI impact of expansion of the signal frame, a policy
- mechanism is provided for administrators, distro maintainers and developers
- to set the default vector length for userspace processes:
- /proc/sys/abi/sve_default_vector_length
- Writing the text representation of an integer to this file sets the system
- default vector length to the specified value, unless the value is greater
- than the maximum vector length supported by the system in which case the
- default vector length is set to that maximum.
- The result can be determined by reopening the file and reading its
- contents.
- At boot, the default vector length is initially set to 64 or the maximum
- supported vector length, whichever is smaller. This determines the initial
- vector length of the init process (PID 1).
- Reading this file returns the current system default vector length.
- * At every execve() call, the new vector length of the new process is set to
- the system default vector length, unless
- * PR_SVE_VL_INHERIT (or equivalently SVE_PT_VL_INHERIT) is set for the
- calling thread, or
- * a deferred vector length change is pending, established via the
- PR_SVE_SET_VL_ONEXEC flag (or SVE_PT_VL_ONEXEC).
- * Modifying the system default vector length does not affect the vector length
- of any existing process or thread that does not make an execve() call.
- 10. Perf extensions
- --------------------------------
- * The arm64 specific DWARF standard [5] added the VG (Vector Granule) register
- at index 46. This register is used for DWARF unwinding when variable length
- SVE registers are pushed onto the stack.
- * Its value is equivalent to the current SVE vector length (VL) in bits divided
- by 64.
- * The value is included in Perf samples in the regs[46] field if
- PERF_SAMPLE_REGS_USER is set and the sample_regs_user mask has bit 46 set.
- * The value is the current value at the time the sample was taken, and it can
- change over time.
- * If the system doesn't support SVE when perf_event_open is called with these
- settings, the event will fail to open.
- Appendix A. SVE programmer's model (informative)
- =================================================
- This section provides a minimal description of the additions made by SVE to the
- ARMv8-A programmer's model that are relevant to this document.
- Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
- to replace any architectural specification.
- A.1. Registers
- ---------------
- In A64 state, SVE adds the following:
- * 32 8VL-bit vector registers Z0..Z31
- For each Zn, Zn bits [127:0] alias the ARMv8-A vector register Vn.
- A register write using a Vn register name zeros all bits of the corresponding
- Zn except for bits [127:0].
- * 16 VL-bit predicate registers P0..P15
- * 1 VL-bit special-purpose predicate register FFR (the "first-fault register")
- * a VL "pseudo-register" that determines the size of each vector register
- The SVE instruction set architecture provides no way to write VL directly.
- Instead, it can be modified only by EL1 and above, by writing appropriate
- system registers.
- * The value of VL can be configured at runtime by EL1 and above:
- 16 <= VL <= VLmax, where VL must be a multiple of 16.
- * The maximum vector length is determined by the hardware:
- 16 <= VLmax <= 256.
- (The SVE architecture specifies 256, but permits future architecture
- revisions to raise this limit.)
- * FPSR and FPCR are retained from ARMv8-A, and interact with SVE floating-point
- operations in a similar way to the way in which they interact with ARMv8
- floating-point operations::
- 8VL-1 128 0 bit index
- +---- //// -----------------+
- Z0 | : V0 |
- : :
- Z7 | : V7 |
- Z8 | : * V8 |
- : : :
- Z15 | : *V15 |
- Z16 | : V16 |
- : :
- Z31 | : V31 |
- +---- //// -----------------+
- 31 0
- VL-1 0 +-------+
- +---- //// --+ FPSR | |
- P0 | | +-------+
- : | | *FPCR | |
- P15 | | +-------+
- +---- //// --+
- FFR | | +-----+
- +---- //// --+ VL | |
- +-----+
- (*) callee-save:
- This only applies to bits [63:0] of Z-/V-registers.
- FPCR contains callee-save and caller-save bits. See [4] for details.
- A.2. Procedure call standard
- -----------------------------
- The ARMv8-A base procedure call standard is extended as follows with respect to
- the additional SVE register state:
- * All SVE register bits that are not shared with FP/SIMD are caller-save.
- * Z8 bits [63:0] .. Z15 bits [63:0] are callee-save.
- This follows from the way these bits are mapped to V8..V15, which are caller-
- save in the base procedure call standard.
- Appendix B. ARMv8-A FP/SIMD programmer's model
- ===============================================
- Note: This section is for information only and not intended to be complete or
- to replace any architectural specification.
- Refer to [4] for more information.
- ARMv8-A defines the following floating-point / SIMD register state:
- * 32 128-bit vector registers V0..V31
- * 2 32-bit status/control registers FPSR, FPCR
- ::
- 127 0 bit index
- +---------------+
- V0 | |
- : : :
- V7 | |
- * V8 | |
- : : : :
- *V15 | |
- V16 | |
- : : :
- V31 | |
- +---------------+
- 31 0
- +-------+
- FPSR | |
- +-------+
- *FPCR | |
- +-------+
- (*) callee-save:
- This only applies to bits [63:0] of V-registers.
- FPCR contains a mixture of callee-save and caller-save bits.
- References
- ==========
- [1] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/sigcontext.h
- AArch64 Linux signal ABI definitions
- [2] arch/arm64/include/uapi/asm/ptrace.h
- AArch64 Linux ptrace ABI definitions
- [3] Documentation/arm64/cpu-feature-registers.rst
- [4] ARM IHI0055C
- http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ihi0055c/IHI0055C_beta_aapcs64.pdf
- http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.subset.swdev.abi/index.html
- Procedure Call Standard for the ARM 64-bit Architecture (AArch64)
- [5] https://github.com/ARM-software/abi-aa/blob/main/aadwarf64/aadwarf64.rst
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