RE: [RFC PATCH 0/3] kernel: add support for 256-bit IO access

From: Andy Lutomirski

Sent: 20 March 2018 14:57

...

I'd rather see us finally finish the work that Rik started to rework
this differently.  I'd like kernel_fpu_begin() to look like:

if (test_thread_flag(TIF_NEED_FPU_RESTORE)) {
  return; // we're already okay.  maybe we need to check
in_interrupt() or something, though?
} else {
  XSAVES/XSAVEOPT/XSAVE;
  set_thread_flag(TIF_NEED_FPU_RESTORE):
}

and kernel_fpu_end() does nothing at all.

I guess it might need to set (clear?) the CFLAGS bit for a process
that isn't using the fpu at all - which seems a sensible feature.
 

We take the full performance hit for a *single* kernel_fpu_begin() on
an otherwise short syscall or interrupt, but there's no additional
cost for more of them or for long-enough-running things that we
schedule in the middle.

It might be worth adding a parameter to kernel_fpu_begin() to indicate
which registers are needed, and a return value to say what has been
granted.
Then a driver could request AVX2 (for example) and use a fallback path
if the register set isn't available (for any reason).
A call from an ISR could always fail.

As I remember, the main hangup was that this interacts a bit oddly
with PKRU, but that's manageable.

WTF PKRU ??

	Dvaid