This changeset adds support for KVM on x86. Full support is split
across a number of commits since some features are relatively
complex. This changeset includes support for:
* Integer state synchronization (including segment regs)
* CPUID (gem5's CPUID values are inserted into KVM)
* x86 legacy IO (remapped and handled by gem5's memory system)
* Memory mapped IO
* PCI
* MSRs
* State dumping
Most of the functionality is fairly straight forward. There are some
quirks to support PCI enumerations since this is done in the TLB(!) in
the simulated CPUs. We currently replicate some of that code.
Unlike the ARM implementation, the x86 implementation of the virtual
CPU does not use the cycles hardware counter. KVM on x86 simulates the
time stamp counter (TSC) in the kernel. If we just measure host cycles
using perfevent, we might end up measuring a slightly different number
of cycles. If we don't get the cycle accounting right, we might end up
rewinding the TSC, with all kinds of chaos as a result.
An additional feature of the KVM CPU on x86 is extended state
dumping. This enables Python scripts controlling the simulator to
request dumping of a subset of the processor state. The following
methods are currenlty supported:
* dumpFpuRegs
* dumpIntRegs
* dumpSpecRegs
* dumpDebugRegs
* dumpXCRs
* dumpXSave
* dumpVCpuEvents
* dumpMSRs
Known limitations:
* M5 ops are currently not supported.
* FPU synchronization is not supported (only affects CPU switching).
Both of the limitations will be addressed in separate commits.
This changeset introduces the architecture independent parts required
to support KVM-accelerated CPUs. It introduces two new simulation
objects:
KvmVM -- The KVM VM is a component shared between all CPUs in a shared
memory domain. It is typically instantiated as a child of the
system object in the simulation hierarchy. It provides access
to KVM VM specific interfaces.
BaseKvmCPU -- Abstract base class for all KVM-based CPUs. Architecture
dependent CPU implementations inherit from this class
and implement the following methods:
* updateKvmState() -- Update the
architecture-dependent KVM state from the gem5
thread context associated with the CPU.
* updateThreadContext() -- Update the thread context
from the architecture-dependent KVM state.
* dump() -- Dump the KVM state using (optional).
In order to deliver interrupts to the guest, CPU
implementations typically override the tick() method and
check for, and deliver, interrupts prior to entering
KVM.
Hardware-virutalized CPU currently have the following limitations:
* SE mode is not supported.
* PC events are not supported.
* Timing statistics are currently very limited. The current approach
simply scales the host cycles with a user-configurable factor.
* The simulated system must not contain any caches.
* Since cycle counts are approximate, there is no way to request an
exact number of cycles (or instructions) to be executed by the CPU.
* Hardware virtualized CPUs and gem5 CPUs must not execute at the
same time in the same simulator instance.
* Only single-CPU systems can be simulated.
* Remote GDB connections to the guest system are not supported.
Additionally, m5ops requires an architecture specific interface and
might not be supported.
