cacheattr

Information about the configuration of the on-chip and off-chip cache system.

As well as information about the configuration of the on-chip and off-chip cache system, the cacheattr area contains the control() kernel callout used for cache control operations.

The system page cacheattr_entry structure is filled by the following startup library functions:

Each entry in the cacheattr area consists of the following:

next
Index to next lower level entry
line_size
Size of cache line, in bytes
num_lines
Number of cache lines
flags
See flags below.
control
Kernel callout supplied by startup code (see Cache control in the Kernel Callouts chapter).
Note: Note that the structure is used for 32-bit or 64-bit systems.

The total number of bytes described by a particular cacheattr entry is defined by line_size × num_lines.

flags

The flags parameter is a bitmapped variable consisting of the following:

This constant: Means that the cache:
CACHE_FLAG_INSTR Holds instructions.
CACHE_FLAG_DATA Holds data.
CACHE_FLAG_UNIFIED Holds both instructions and data.
CACHE_FLAG_SHARED Is shared between multiple processors in an SMP system.
CACHE_FLAG_SNOOPED Implements a bus-snooping protocol.
CACHE_FLAG_VIRT_TAG Cache is virtually tagged.
CACHE_FLAG_VIRTUAL Is virtually tagged.
CACHE_FLAG_WRITEBACK Does write-back, not write-through.
CACHE_FLAG_CTRL_PHYS Takes physical addresses via its control() function.
CACHE_FLAG_SUBSET Obeys the subset property. This means that one cache level caches something from another level as well. As you go up each cache level, if something is in a particular level, it will also be in all the lower-level caches as well. This impacts the flushing operations of the cache in that a “subsetted” level can be effectively “ignored” by the control() function, since it knows that the operation will be performed on the lower-level cache.
CACHE_FLAG_NONCOHERENT Is noncoherent on SMP.
CACHE_FLAG_NONISA Doesn't obey ISA cache instructions.
CACHE_FLAG_NOBROADCAST Cache ops aren't broadcast on bus for SMP.
CACHE_FLAG_VIRT_IDX Cache is virtually indexed.
CACHE_FLAG_CTRL_PHYS64 Control function takes 64-bit paddr (see Cache control and Patcher routines).

Organization of cacheattr entries

The cacheattr entries are organized in a linked list, with the next member indicating the index of the next lower cache entry. Some architectures have separate instruction and data caches at one level, but a unified cache at another level. This linking of entries allows the system page to efficiently contain the information for the different cache levels.

The cpuinfo area's ins_cache and data_cache members provide index pointers to cacheattr tables, respectively to the instruciton cache and to the data cache.

Since the cpuinfo structure is an array which for SMP systems is indexed by the CPU number, it is possible to construct a description of caches for CPUs with different cache architectures. Below is a diagram showing a two-processor system, with separate L1 instruction and data caches as well as a unified L2 cache:

Figure 1. Two-processor system with separate L1 instruction and data caches, and a unified L2 cache.

Given the memory layout presented in the diagram above, here's what the cpuinfo and cacheattr fields will look like:

/*
 * CPUINFO
 */
cpuinfo [0].ins_cache  = 0;
cpuinfo [0].data_cache = 1;

cpuinfo [1].ins_cache  = 0;
cpuinfo [1].data_cache = 1;

/*
 * CACHEATTR
 */
cacheattr [0].next = 2;
cacheattr [0].linesize = linesize;
cacheattr [0].numlines = numlines;
cacheattr [0].flags = CACHE_FLAG_INSTR;

cacheattr [1].next = 2;
cacheattr [1].linesize = linesize;
cacheattr [1].numlines = numlines;
cacheattr [1].flags = CACHE_FLAG_DATA;

cacheattr [2].next = CACHE_LIST_END;
cacheattr [2].linesize = linesize;
cacheattr [2].numlines = numlines;
cacheattr [2].flags = CACHE_FLAG_UNIFIED;
Note: Of course, the values chosen for linesize and numlines depend on the actual configuration of the caches present on the system.