History log of /gem5/src/cpu/kvm/SConscript
Revision Date Author Comments
# 10859:0ba6f47025d1 01-Jun-2015 Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>

kvm, arm, dev: Add an in-kernel GIC implementation

This changeset adds a GIC implementation that uses the kernel's
built-in support for simulating the interrupt controller. Since there
is currently no support for state transfer between gem5 and the
kernel, the device model does not support serialization and CPU
switching (which would require switching to a gem5-simulated GIC).


# 10857:d2d5212578db 01-Jun-2015 Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>

kvm, arm: Move ARM-specific files to arch/arm/kvm/

This changeset moves the ARM-specific KVM CPU implementation to
arch/arm/kvm/. This change is expected to keep the source tree
somewhat cleaner as we start adding support for ARMv8 and KVM
in-kernel interrupt controller simulation.


# 9883:7e0dff1c165b 24-Sep-2013 Andreas Sandberg <andreas@sandberg.pp.se>

kvm: Initial x86 support

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.


# 9657:0e15490aad4f 22-Apr-2013 Andreas Sandberg <andreas.sandberg@arm.com>

kvm: Add basic support for ARM

Architecture specific limitations:
* LPAE is currently not supported by gem5. We therefore panic if LPAE
is enabled when returning to gem5.
* The co-processor based interface to the architected timer is
unsupported. We can't support this due to limitations in the KVM
API on ARM.
* M5 ops are currently not supported. This requires either a kernel
hack or a memory mapped device that handles the guest<->m5
interface.


# 9651:f551c8ad12a5 22-Apr-2013 Andreas Sandberg <Andreas.Sandberg@ARM.com>

kvm: Basic support for hardware virtualized CPUs

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.