This changeset adds support for aarch64 in kvm. The CPU module
supports both checkpointing and online CPU model switching as long as
no devices are simulated by the host kernel. It currently has the
following limitations:
* The system register based generic timer can only be simulated by
the host kernel. Workaround: Use a memory mapped timer instead to
simulate the timer in gem5.
* Simulating devices (e.g., the generic timer) in the host kernel
requires that the host kernel also simulates the GIC.
* ID registers in the host and in gem5 must match for switching
between simulated CPUs and KVM. This is particularly important
for ID registers describing memory system capabilities (e.g.,
ASID size, physical address size).
* Switching between a virtualized CPU and a simulated CPU is
currently not supported if in-kernel device emulation is
used. This could be worked around by adding support for switching
to the gem5 (e.g., the KvmGic) side of the device models. A
simpler workaround is to avoid in-kernel device models
altogether.
This patch contains a new CPU model named `Minor'. Minor models a four
stage in-order execution pipeline (fetch lines, decompose into
macroops, decompose macroops into microops, execute).
The model was developed to support the ARM ISA but should be fixable
to support all the remaining gem5 ISAs. It currently also works for
Alpha, and regressions are included for ARM and Alpha (including Linux
boot).
Documentation for the model can be found in src/doc/inside-minor.doxygen and
its internal operations can be visualised using the Minorview tool
utils/minorview.py.
Minor was designed to be fairly simple and not to engage in a lot of
instruction annotation. As such, it currently has very few gathered
stats and may lack other gem5 features.
Minor is faster than the o3 model. Sample results:
Benchmark | Stat host_seconds (s)
---------------+--------v--------v--------
(on ARM, opt) | simple | o3 | minor
| timing | timing | timing
---------------+--------+--------+--------
10.linux-boot | 169 | 1883 | 1075
10.mcf | 117 | 967 | 491
20.parser | 668 | 6315 | 3146
30.eon | 542 | 3413 | 2414
40.perlbmk | 2339 | 20905 | 11532
50.vortex | 122 | 1094 | 588
60.bzip2 | 2045 | 18061 | 9662
70.twolf | 207 | 2736 | 1036
The CPUs supported by the configuration scripts used to be
hard-coded. This was not ideal for several reasons. For example, the
configuration scripts depend on all CPU models even though only a
subset might have been compiled.
This changeset adds a new module to the configuration scripts that
automatically discovers the available CPU models from the compiled
SimObjects. As a nice bonus, the use of introspection allows us to
automatically generate a list of available CPU models suitable for
printing. This list is augmented with the Python doc string from the
underlying class if available.
