Multicore Processor SMM Entry with SMRAM Page Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing processor architectures face inefficiencies in managing system management mode transitions and memory operations, particularly in multicore systems, leading to increased latency and complexity in handling system management interrupts and virtualization.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves dividing memory circuitry into clusters and slices based on address values, utilizing a crossbar to transition between domains, and employing a hierarchical cache structure with L0, L1, and L2 memory levels, each optimized for specific operations to enhance scalability and reduce ordering checks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a unified memory structure is used in multicore processors, then implementation is simpler, but latency increases and bandwidth resilience decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The memory structure is segmented into multiple independent memory clusters, each serving specific cores. This segmentation allows parallel memory operations across clusters, reducing latency while maintaining implementation simplicity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical memory organization with L0, L1, and L2 cache levels, adding a vertical dimension to memory access. This hierarchical structure enables faster local access at lower levels while maintaining capacity at higher levels, reducing overall latency without complicating the base structure.
2Reliability
If memory operations require extensive ordering checks, then correctness is ensured, but productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Memory clusters are organized into independent domains with localized ordering checks. By segmenting the memory system into separate clusters that can operate independently, the patent reduces the scope of ordering checks needed for each operation, maintaining correctness while increasing throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces memory domain interfaces as intermediaries between memory clusters and cores. These interfaces handle ordering checks locally, ensuring correctness at cluster boundaries without requiring global ordering verification, thus improving productivity.
3Device complexity
If system management mode transitions are not optimized, then implementation is simpler, but latency increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary saving of processor states and configuration of memory domains before system management mode transitions. By preparing these elements in advance, the actual transition latency is reduced while keeping the overall implementation manageable.
Solution Approach 2:
The memory domain configuration is made dynamic, allowing reconfiguration during runtime to optimize for different operating modes including system management mode. This dynamic adaptability reduces transition latency without requiring a completely complex static structure.
Data Source
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AI summary
An apparatus and method for a more efficient system management mode. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: a plurality of cores, at least a first core of the plurality of cores to perform operations to cause the plurality of cores to enter into a system management mode (SMM), the operations comprising: allocating a memory region for a system management RAM (SMRAM); writing an SMRAM state save location to a first register; and generating a page table in the SMRAM, including mapping a virtual address space a physical address space.