x86/mm/mtrr, pat: Document Write Combining MTRR type effects on PAT / non-PAT pages

As part of the effort to phase out MTRR use document
write-combining MTRR effects on pages with different non-PAT
page attributes flags and different PAT entry values. Extend
arch_phys_wc_add() documentation to clarify power of two sizes /
boundary requirements as we phase out mtrr_add() use.

Lastly hint towards ioremap_uc() for corner cases on device
drivers working with devices with mixed regions where MTRR size
requirements would otherwise not enable write-combining
effective memory types.

Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net>
Cc: Antonino Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de>
Cc: Brian Gerst <brgerst@gmail.com>
Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>
Cc: Dave Airlie <airlied@redhat.com>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Davidlohr Bueso <dbueso@suse.de>
Cc: Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com>
Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Jean-Christophe Plagniol-Villard <plagnioj@jcrosoft.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Mel Gorman <mgorman@suse.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Suresh Siddha <sbsiddha@gmail.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Tomi Valkeinen <tomi.valkeinen@ti.com>
Cc: Ville Syrjälä <syrjala@sci.fi>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: linux-fbdev@vger.kernel.org
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1430343851-967-3-git-send-email-mcgrof@do-not-panic.com
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1432628901-18044-10-git-send-email-bp@alien8.de
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

2 files changed, 49 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/x86/mtrr.txt b/Documentation/x86/mtrr.txt
index cc071dc333c2..860bc3adc223 100644
--- a/Documentation/x86/mtrr.txt
+++ b/Documentation/x86/mtrr.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,19 @@
 MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) control
-3 Jun 1999
-Richard Gooch
-<rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>
+
+Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au> - 3 Jun 1999
+Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@do-not-panic.com> - April 9, 2015
+
+===============================================================================
+Phasing out MTRR use
+
+MTRR use is replaced on modern x86 hardware with PAT. Over time the only type
+of effective MTRR that is expected to be supported will be for write-combining.
+As MTRR use is phased out device drivers should use arch_phys_wc_add() to make
+MTRR effective on non-PAT systems while a no-op on PAT enabled systems.
+
+For details refer to Documentation/x86/pat.txt.
+
+===============================================================================
 
   On Intel P6 family processors (Pentium Pro, Pentium II and later)
   the Memory Type Range Registers (MTRRs) may be used to control
diff --git a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
index cf08c9fff3cd..521bd8adc3b8 100644
--- a/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
+++ b/Documentation/x86/pat.txt
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ ioremap                |    --    |    UC-     |       UC-        |
                        |          |            |                  |
 ioremap_cache          |    --    |    WB      |       WB         |
                        |          |            |                  |
+ioremap_uc             |    --    |    UC      |       UC         |
+                       |          |            |                  |
 ioremap_nocache        |    --    |    UC-     |       UC-        |
                        |          |            |                  |
 ioremap_wc             |    --    |    --      |       WC         |
@@ -102,7 +104,38 @@ wants to export a RAM region, it has to do set_memory_uc() or set_memory_wc()
 as step 0 above and also track the usage of those pages and use set_memory_wb()
 before the page is freed to free pool.
 
-
+MTRR effects on PAT / non-PAT systems
+-------------------------------------
+
+The following table provides the effects of using write-combining MTRRs when
+using ioremap*() calls on x86 for both non-PAT and PAT systems. Ideally
+mtrr_add() usage will be phased out in favor of arch_phys_wc_add() which will
+be a no-op on PAT enabled systems. The region over which a arch_phys_wc_add()
+is made, should already have been ioremapped with WC attributes or PAT entries,
+this can be done by using ioremap_wc() / set_memory_wc().  Devices which
+combine areas of IO memory desired to remain uncacheable with areas where
+write-combining is desirable should consider use of ioremap_uc() followed by
+set_memory_wc() to white-list effective write-combined areas.  Such use is
+nevertheless discouraged as the effective memory type is considered
+implementation defined, yet this strategy can be used as last resort on devices
+with size-constrained regions where otherwise MTRR write-combining would
+otherwise not be effective.
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+MTRR Non-PAT   PAT    Linux ioremap value        Effective memory type
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+                                                  Non-PAT |  PAT
+     PAT
+     |PCD
+     ||PWT
+     |||
+WC   000      WB      _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_WB            WC   |   WC
+WC   001      WC      _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_WC            WC*  |   WC
+WC   010      UC-     _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_UC_MINUS      WC*  |   UC
+WC   011      UC      _PAGE_CACHE_MODE_UC            UC   |   UC
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+(*) denotes implementation defined and is discouraged
 
 Notes: