diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/arch/arm64/memory.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/arch/arm64/memory.rst | 100 |
1 files changed, 100 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/arch/arm64/memory.rst b/Documentation/arch/arm64/memory.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..678fbb418c3a --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/arch/arm64/memory.rst @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +============================== +Memory Layout on AArch64 Linux +============================== + +Author: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com> + +This document describes the virtual memory layout used by the AArch64 +Linux kernel. The architecture allows up to 4 levels of translation +tables with a 4KB page size and up to 3 levels with a 64KB page size. + +AArch64 Linux uses either 3 levels or 4 levels of translation tables +with the 4KB page configuration, allowing 39-bit (512GB) or 48-bit +(256TB) virtual addresses, respectively, for both user and kernel. With +64KB pages, only 2 levels of translation tables, allowing 42-bit (4TB) +virtual address, are used but the memory layout is the same. + +ARMv8.2 adds optional support for Large Virtual Address space. This is +only available when running with a 64KB page size and expands the +number of descriptors in the first level of translation. + +TTBRx selection is given by bit 55 of the virtual address. The +swapper_pg_dir contains only kernel (global) mappings while the user pgd +contains only user (non-global) mappings. The swapper_pg_dir address is +written to TTBR1 and never written to TTBR0. + +When using KVM without the Virtualization Host Extensions, the +hypervisor maps kernel pages in EL2 at a fixed (and potentially +random) offset from the linear mapping. See the kern_hyp_va macro and +kvm_update_va_mask function for more details. MMIO devices such as +GICv2 gets mapped next to the HYP idmap page, as do vectors when +ARM64_SPECTRE_V3A is enabled for particular CPUs. + +When using KVM with the Virtualization Host Extensions, no additional +mappings are created, since the host kernel runs directly in EL2. + +52-bit VA support in the kernel +------------------------------- +If the ARMv8.2-LVA optional feature is present, and we are running +with a 64KB page size; then it is possible to use 52-bits of address +space for both userspace and kernel addresses. However, any kernel +binary that supports 52-bit must also be able to fall back to 48-bit +at early boot time if the hardware feature is not present. + +This fallback mechanism necessitates the kernel .text to be in the +higher addresses such that they are invariant to 48/52-bit VAs. Due +to the kasan shadow being a fraction of the entire kernel VA space, +the end of the kasan shadow must also be in the higher half of the +kernel VA space for both 48/52-bit. (Switching from 48-bit to 52-bit, +the end of the kasan shadow is invariant and dependent on ~0UL, +whilst the start address will "grow" towards the lower addresses). + +In order to optimise phys_to_virt and virt_to_phys, the PAGE_OFFSET +is kept constant at 0xFFF0000000000000 (corresponding to 52-bit), +this obviates the need for an extra variable read. The physvirt +offset and vmemmap offsets are computed at early boot to enable +this logic. + +As a single binary will need to support both 48-bit and 52-bit VA +spaces, the VMEMMAP must be sized large enough for 52-bit VAs and +also must be sized large enough to accommodate a fixed PAGE_OFFSET. + +Most code in the kernel should not need to consider the VA_BITS, for +code that does need to know the VA size the variables are +defined as follows: + +VA_BITS constant the *maximum* VA space size + +VA_BITS_MIN constant the *minimum* VA space size + +vabits_actual variable the *actual* VA space size + + +Maximum and minimum sizes can be useful to ensure that buffers are +sized large enough or that addresses are positioned close enough for +the "worst" case. + +52-bit userspace VAs +-------------------- +To maintain compatibility with software that relies on the ARMv8.0 +VA space maximum size of 48-bits, the kernel will, by default, +return virtual addresses to userspace from a 48-bit range. + +Software can "opt-in" to receiving VAs from a 52-bit space by +specifying an mmap hint parameter that is larger than 48-bit. + +For example: + +.. code-block:: c + + maybe_high_address = mmap(~0UL, size, prot, flags,...); + +It is also possible to build a debug kernel that returns addresses +from a 52-bit space by enabling the following kernel config options: + +.. code-block:: sh + + CONFIG_EXPERT=y && CONFIG_ARM64_FORCE_52BIT=y + +Note that this option is only intended for debugging applications +and should not be used in production. |