"Smcdeleg" Counter Delegation Extension, Version 1.0

In modern “Rich OS” environments, hardware performance monitoring resources are managed by the kernel, kernel driver, and/or hypervisor. Counters may be configured with differing scopes, in some cases counting events system-wide, while in others counting events on behalf of a single virtual machine or application. In such environments, the latency of counter writes has a direct impact on overall profiling overhead as a result of frequent counter writes during:

  1. Sample collection, to clear overflow indication, and reload overflowed counter(s)

  2. Context switch, between processes, threads, containers, or virtual machines

This extension provides a means for M-mode to allow writing select counters and event selectors from S/HS-mode. The purpose is to avert transitions to and from M-mode that add latency to these performance critical supervisor/hypervisor code sections. This extension also defines one new CSR, scountinhibit.

For a Machine-level environment, extension Smcdeleg (‘Sm’ for Privileged architecture and Machine-level extension, ‘cdeleg’ for Counter Delegation) encompasses all added CSRs and all behavior modifications for a hart, over all privilege levels. For a Supervisor-level environment, extension Ssccfg (‘Ss’ for Privileged architecture and Supervisor-level extension, ‘ccfg’ for Counter Configuration) provides access to delegated counters, and to new supervisor-level state.

1. Counter Delegation

The mcounteren register allows M-mode to provide the next-lower privilege mode with read access to select counters. When the Smcdeleg/Ssccfg extension is enabled (menvcfg.CDE=1), it further allows M-mode to delegate select counters to S-mode.

The siselect (and vsiselect) index range 0x40-0x5F is reserved for delegated counter access. When a counter i is delegated (mcounteren[i]=1 and menvcfg.CDE=1), the register state associated with counter i can be read or written via sireg*, while siselect holds 0x40+i. The counter state accessible via alias CSRs is shown in the table below.

Table 1. Indirect HPM State Mappings
siselect value sireg sireg4 sireg2 sireg5

0x40

cycle1

cycleh1

cyclecfg14

cyclecfgh14

0x41

See below

0x42

instret1

instreth1

instretcfg14

instretcfgh14

0x43

hpmcounter32

hpmcounter3h2

hpmevent32

hpmevent3h23

…

…

…

…

…

0x5F

hpmcounter312

hpmcounter31h2

hpmevent312

hpmevent31h23

1 Depends on Zicntr support
2 Depends on Zihpm support
3 Depends on Sscofpmf support
4 Depends on Smcntrpmf support

hpmeventi represents a subset of the state accessed by the mhpmeventi register. Likewise, cyclecfg and instretcfg represent a subset of the state accessed by the mcyclecfg and minstretcfg registers, respectively. See below for subset details.

If extension Smstateen is implemented, refer to extension Smcsrind/Sscsrind ([indirect-csr]) for how setting bit 60 of CSR mstateen0 to zero prevents access to registers siselect, sireg*, vsiselect, and vsireg* from privileged modes less privileged than M-mode, and likewise how setting bit 60 of hstateen0 to zero prevents access to siselect and sireg* (really vsiselect and vsireg*) from VS-mode.

The remaining rules of this section apply only when access to a CSR is not blocked by mstateen0[60] = 0 or hstateen0[60] = 0.

While the privilege mode is M or S and siselect holds a value in the range 0x40-0x5F, illegal-instruction exceptions are raised for the following cases:

  • attempts to access any sireg* when menvcfg.CDE = 0;

  • attempts to access sireg3 or sireg6;

  • attempts to access sireg4 or sireg5 when XLEN = 64;

  • attempts to access sireg* when siselect = 0x41, or when the counter selected by siselect is not delegated to S-mode (the corresponding bit in mcounteren = 0).

The memory-mapped mtime register is not a performance monitoring counter to be managed by supervisor software, hence the special treatment of siselect value 0x41 described above.

For each siselect and sireg* combination defined in Indirect HPM State Mappings, the table further indicates the extensions upon which the underlying counter state depends. If any extension upon which the underlying state depends is not implemented, an attempt from M or S mode to access the given state through sireg* raises an illegal-instruction exception.

If the hypervisor (H) extension is also implemented, then as specified by extension Smcsrind/Sscsrind, a virtual-instruction exception is raised for attempts from VS-mode or VU-mode to directly access vsiselect or vsireg*, or attempts from VU-mode to access siselect or sireg*. Furthermore, while vsiselect holds a value in the range 0x40-0x5F:

  • An attempt to access any vsireg* from M or S mode raises an illegal instruction exception.

  • An attempt from VS-mode to access any sireg* (really vsireg*) raises an illegal-instruction exception if menvcfg.CDE = 0, or a virtual instruction exception if menvcfg.CDE = 1.

If Sscofpmf is implemented, sireg2 and sireg5 provide access only to a subset of the event selector registers. Specifically, event selector bit 62 (MINH) is read-only 0 when accessed through sireg*. Similarly, if Smcntrpmf is implemented, sireg2 and sireg5 provide access only to a subset of the counter configuration registers. Counter configuration register bit 62 (MINH) is read-only 0 when accessed through sireg*.

2. Supervisor Counter Inhibit (scountinhibit) Register

Smcdeleg/Ssccfg defines a new scountinhibit register, a masked alias of mcountinhibit. For counters delegated to S-mode, the associated mcountinhibit bits can be accessed via scountinhibit. For counters not delegated to S-mode, the associated bits in scountinhibit are read-only zero.

When menvcfg.CDE=0, attempts to access scountinhibit raise an illegal instruction exception. When the Supervisor Counter Delegation extension is enabled, attempts to access scountinhibit from VS-mode or VU-mode raise a virtual-instruction exception.

3. Virtualizing scountovf

For implementations that support Smcdeleg/Ssccfg, Sscofpmf, and the H extension, when menvcfg.CDE=1, attempts to read scountovf from VS-mode or VU-mode raise a virtual-instruction exception.

4. Virtualizing Local-Counter-Overflow Interrupts

For implementations that support Smcdeleg, Sscofpmf, and Smaia, the local-counter-overflow interrupt (LCOFI) bit (bit 13) in each of CSRs mvip and mvien is implemented and writable.

For implementations that support Smcdeleg/Ssccfg, Sscofpmf, Smaia/Ssaia, and the H extension, the LCOFI bit (bit 13) in each of hvip and hvien is implemented and writable.

The hvip register is defined by the hypervisor (H) extension, while the mvien and hvien registers are defined by the Smaia/Ssaia extension.

By virtue of implementing hvip.LCOFI, it is implicit that the LCOFI bit (bit 13) in each of vsie and vsip is also implemented.

Requiring support for the LCOFI bits listed above ensures that virtual LCOFIs can be delivered to an OS running in S-mode, and to a guest OS running in VS-mode. It is optional whether the LCOFI bit (bit 13) in each of mideleg and hideleg, which allows all LCOFIs to be delegated to S-mode and VS-mode, respectively, is implemented and writable.