386 lines
19 KiB
ReStructuredText
386 lines
19 KiB
ReStructuredText
Compute Express Link (CXL)
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==========================
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From the view of a single host, CXL is an interconnect standard that
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targets accelerators and memory devices attached to a CXL host.
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This description will focus on those aspects visible either to
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software running on a QEMU emulated host or to the internals of
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functional emulation. As such, it will skip over many of the
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electrical and protocol elements that would be more of interest
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for real hardware and will dominate more general introductions to CXL.
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It will also completely ignore the fabric management aspects of CXL
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by considering only a single host and a static configuration.
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CXL shares many concepts and much of the infrastructure of PCI Express,
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with CXL Host Bridges, which have CXL Root Ports which may be directly
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attached to CXL or PCI End Points. Alternatively there may be CXL Switches
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with CXL and PCI Endpoints attached below them. In many cases additional
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control and capabilities are exposed via PCI Express interfaces.
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This sharing of interfaces and hence emulation code is reflected
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in how the devices are emulated in QEMU. In most cases the various
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CXL elements are built upon an equivalent PCIe devices.
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CXL devices support the following interfaces:
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* Most conventional PCIe interfaces
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- Configuration space access
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- BAR mapped memory accesses used for registers and mailboxes.
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- MSI/MSI-X
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- AER
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- DOE mailboxes
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- IDE
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- Many other PCI express defined interfaces..
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* Memory operations
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- Equivalent of accessing DRAM / NVDIMMs. Any access / feature
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supported by the host for normal memory should also work for
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CXL attached memory devices.
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* Cache operations. The are mostly irrelevant to QEMU emulation as
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QEMU is not emulating a coherency protocol. Any emulation related
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to these will be device specific and is out of the scope of this
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document.
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CXL 2.0 Device Types
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--------------------
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CXL 2.0 End Points are often categorized into three types.
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**Type 1:** These support coherent caching of host memory. Example might
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be a crypto accelerators. May also have device private memory accessible
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via means such as PCI memory reads and writes to BARs.
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**Type 2:** These support coherent caching of host memory and host
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managed device memory (HDM) for which the coherency protocol is managed
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by the host. This is a complex topic, so for more information on CXL
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coherency see the CXL 2.0 specification.
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**Type 3 Memory devices:** These devices act as a means of attaching
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additional memory (HDM) to a CXL host including both volatile and
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persistent memory. The CXL topology may support interleaving across a
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number of Type 3 memory devices using HDM Decoders in the host, host
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bridge, switch upstream port and endpoints.
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Scope of CXL emulation in QEMU
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------------------------------
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The focus of CXL emulation is CXL revision 2.0 and later. Earlier CXL
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revisions defined a smaller set of features, leaving much of the control
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interface as implementation defined or device specific, making generic
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emulation challenging with host specific firmware being responsible
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for setup and the Endpoints being presented to operating systems
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as Root Complex Integrated End Points. CXL rev 2.0 looks a lot
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more like PCI Express, with fully specified discoverability
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of the CXL topology.
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CXL System components
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----------------------
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A CXL system is made up a Host with a number of 'standard components'
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the control and capabilities of which are discoverable by system software
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using means described in the CXL 2.0 specification.
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CXL Fixed Memory Windows (CFMW)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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A CFMW consists of a particular range of Host Physical Address space
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which is routed to particular CXL Host Bridges. At time of generic
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software initialization it will have a particularly interleaving
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configuration and associated Quality of Service Throttling Group (QTG).
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This information is available to system software, when making
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decisions about how to configure interleave across available CXL
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memory devices. It is provide as CFMW Structures (CFMWS) in
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the CXL Early Discovery Table, an ACPI table.
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Note: QTG 0 is the only one currently supported in QEMU.
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CXL Host Bridge (CXL HB)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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A CXL host bridge is similar to the PCIe equivalent, but with a
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specification defined register interface called CXL Host Bridge
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Component Registers (CHBCR). The location of this CHBCR MMIO
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space is described to system software via a CXL Host Bridge
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Structure (CHBS) in the CEDT ACPI table. The actual interfaces
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are identical to those used for other parts of the CXL hierarchy
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as CXL Component Registers in PCI BARs.
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Interfaces provided include:
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* Configuration of HDM Decoders to route CXL Memory accesses with
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a particularly Host Physical Address range to the target port
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below which the CXL device servicing that address lies. This
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may be a mapping to a single Root Port (RP) or across a set of
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target RPs.
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CXL Root Ports (CXL RP)
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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A CXL Root Port servers te same purpose as a PCIe Root Port.
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There are a number of CXL specific Designated Vendor Specific
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Extended Capabilities (DVSEC) in PCIe Configuration Space
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and associated component register access via PCI bars.
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CXL Switch
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~~~~~~~~~~
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Here we consider a simple CXL switch with only a single
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virtual hierarchy. Whilst more complex devices exist, their
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visibility to a particular host is generally the same as for
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a simple switch design. Hosts often have no awareness
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of complex rerouting and device pooling, they simply see
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devices being hot added or hot removed.
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A CXL switch has a similar architecture to those in PCIe,
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with a single upstream port, internal PCI bus and multiple
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downstream ports.
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Both the CXL upstream and downstream ports have CXL specific
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DVSECs in configuration space, and component registers in PCI
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BARs. The Upstream Port has the configuration interfaces for
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the HDM decoders which route incoming memory accesses to the
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appropriate downstream port.
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A CXL switch is created in a similar fashion to PCI switches
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by creating an upstream port (cxl-upstream) and a number of
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downstream ports on the internal switch bus (cxl-downstream).
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CXL Memory Devices - Type 3
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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CXL type 3 devices use a PCI class code and are intended to be supported
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by a generic operating system driver. They have HDM decoders
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though in these EP devices, the decoder is responsible not for
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routing but for translation of the incoming host physical address (HPA)
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into a Device Physical Address (DPA).
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CXL Memory Interleave
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---------------------
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To understand the interaction of different CXL hardware components which
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are emulated in QEMU, let us consider a memory read in a fully configured
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CXL topology. Note that system software is responsible for configuration
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of all components with the exception of the CFMWs. System software is
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responsible for allocating appropriate ranges from within the CFMWs
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and exposing those via normal memory configurations as would be done
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for system RAM.
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Example system Topology. x marks the match in each decoder level::
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|<------------------SYSTEM PHYSICAL ADDRESS MAP (1)----------------->|
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| __________ __________________________________ __________ |
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| | | | | | | |
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| | CFMW 0 | | CXL Fixed Memory Window 1 | | CFMW 1 | |
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| | HB0 only | | Configured to interleave memory | | HB1 only | |
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| | | | memory accesses across HB0/HB1 | | | |
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| |__________| |_____x____________________________| |__________| |
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| Interleave Decoder | |
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| Matches this HB | |
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\_____________| |_____________/
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__________|__________ _____|_______________
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| | | |
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(2) | CXL HB 0 | | CXL HB 1 |
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| HB IntLv Decoders | | HB IntLv Decoders |
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| PCI/CXL Root Bus 0c | | PCI/CXL Root Bus 0d |
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| | | |
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|___x_________________| |_____________________|
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A HB 0 HDM Decoder | | |
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matches this Port | | |
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___________|___ __________|__ __|_________ ___|_________
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(3)| Root Port 0 | | Root Port 1 | | Root Port 2| | Root Port 3 |
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| Appears in | | Appears in | | Appears in | | Appear in |
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| PCI topology | | PCI Topology| | PCI Topo | | PCI Topo |
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| As 0c:00.0 | | as 0c:01.0 | | as de:00.0 | | as de:01.0 |
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|_______________| |_____________| |____________| |_____________|
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_____|_________ ______|______ ______|_____ ______|_______
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(4)| x | | | | | | |
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| CXL Type3 0 | | CXL Type3 1 | | CXL type3 2| | CLX Type 3 3 |
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| PMEM0(Vol LSA)| | PMEM1 (...) | | PMEM2 (...)| | PMEM3 (...) |
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| Decoder to go | | | | | | |
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| from host PA | | PCI 0e:00.0 | | PCI df:00.0| | PCI e0:00.0 |
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| to device PA | | | | | | |
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| PCI as 0d:00.0| | | | | | |
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|_______________| |_____________| |____________| |______________|
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Notes:
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(1) **3 CXL Fixed Memory Windows (CFMW)** corresponding to different
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ranges of the system physical address map. Each CFMW has
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particular interleave setup across the CXL Host Bridges (HB)
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CFMW0 provides uninterleaved access to HB0, CFW2 provides
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uninterleaved access to HB1. CFW1 provides interleaved memory access
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across HB0 and HB1.
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(2) **Two CXL Host Bridges**. Each of these has 2 CXL Root Ports and
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programmable HDM decoders to route memory accesses either to
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a single port or interleave them across multiple ports.
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A complex configuration here, might be to use the following HDM
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decoders in HB0. HDM0 routes CFMW0 requests to RP0 and hence
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part of CXL Type3 0. HDM1 routes CFMW0 requests from a
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different region of the CFMW0 PA range to RP2 and hence part
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of CXL Type 3 1. HDM2 routes yet another PA range from within
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CFMW0 to be interleaved across RP0 and RP1, providing 2 way
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interleave of part of the memory provided by CXL Type3 0 and
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CXL Type 3 1. HDM3 routes those interleaved accesses from
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CFMW1 that target HB0 to RP 0 and another part of the memory of
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CXL Type 3 0 (as part of a 2 way interleave at the system level
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across for example CXL Type3 0 and CXL Type3 2.
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HDM4 is used to enable system wide 4 way interleave across all
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the present CXL type3 devices, by interleaving those (interleaved)
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requests that HB0 receives from from CFMW1 across RP 0 and
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RP 1 and hence to yet more regions of the memory of the
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attached Type3 devices. Note this is a representative subset
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of the full range of possible HDM decoder configurations in this
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topology.
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(3) **Four CXL Root Ports.** In this case the CXL Type 3 devices are
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directly attached to these ports.
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(4) **Four CXL Type3 memory expansion devices.** These will each have
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HDM decoders, but in this case rather than performing interleave
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they will take the Host Physical Addresses of accesses and map
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them to their own local Device Physical Address Space (DPA).
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Example topology involving a switch::
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|<------------------SYSTEM PHYSICAL ADDRESS MAP (1)----------------->|
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| __________ __________________________________ __________ |
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| | | | | | | |
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| | CFMW 0 | | CXL Fixed Memory Window 1 | | CFMW 1 | |
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| | HB0 only | | Configured to interleave memory | | HB1 only | |
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| | | | memory accesses across HB0/HB1 | | | |
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| |____x_____| |__________________________________| |__________| |
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Interleave Decoder | | |
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Matches this HB | | |
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\_____________| |_____________/
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__________|__________ _____|_______________
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| CXL HB 0 | | CXL HB 1 |
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| HB IntLv Decoders | | HB IntLv Decoders |
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| PCI/CXL Root Bus 0c | | PCI/CXL Root Bus 0d |
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|___x_________________| |_____________________|
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A HB 0 HDM Decoder
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matches this Port
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___________|___
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| Root Port 0 |
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| Appears in |
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| PCI topology |
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| As 0c:00.0 |
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|___________x___|
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\_____________________
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---------------------------------------------------
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| Switch 0 USP as PCI 0d:00.0 |
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| USP has HDM decoder which direct traffic to |
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| appropriate downstream port |
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| Switch BUS appears as 0e |
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|x__________________________________________________|
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_____|_________ ______|______ ______|_____ ______|_______
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(4)| x | | | | | | |
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| CXL Type3 0 | | CXL Type3 1 | | CXL type3 2| | CLX Type 3 3 |
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| | | | | | | |
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| PMEM0(Vol LSA)| | PMEM1 (...) | | PMEM2 (...)| | PMEM3 (...) |
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| Decoder to go | | | | | | |
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| from host PA | | PCI 10:00.0 | | PCI 11:00.0| | PCI 12:00.0 |
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| to device PA | | | | | | |
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| PCI as 0f:00.0| | | | | | |
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|_______________| |_____________| |____________| |______________|
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Example command lines
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---------------------
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A very simple setup with just one directly attached CXL Type 3 device::
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qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt,gic-version=3,cxl=on -m 4g,maxmem=8G,slots=8 -cpu max \
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...
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa.raw,size=256M \
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-device pxb-cxl,bus_nr=12,bus=pcie.0,id=cxl.1 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=0,bus=cxl.1,id=root_port13,chassis=0,slot=2 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=root_port13,memdev=cxl-mem1,lsa=cxl-lsa1,id=cxl-pmem0 \
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-M cxl-fmw.0.targets.0=cxl.1,cxl-fmw.0.size=4G
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A setup suitable for 4 way interleave. Only one fixed window provided, to enable 2 way
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interleave across 2 CXL host bridges. Each host bridge has 2 CXL Root Ports, with
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the CXL Type3 device directly attached (no switches).::
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qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt,gic-version=3,cxl=on -m 4g,maxmem=8G,slots=8 -cpu max \
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...
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem2,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest2.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem3,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest3.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem4,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest4.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa2,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa2.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa3,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa3.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa4,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa4.raw,size=256M \
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-device pxb-cxl,bus_nr=12,bus=pcie.0,id=cxl.1 \
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-device pxb-cxl,bus_nr=222,bus=pcie.0,id=cxl.2 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=0,bus=cxl.1,id=root_port13,chassis=0,slot=2 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=root_port13,memdev=cxl-mem1,lsa=cxl-lsa1,id=cxl-pmem0 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=1,bus=cxl.1,id=root_port14,chassis=0,slot=3 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=root_port14,memdev=cxl-mem2,lsa=cxl-lsa2,id=cxl-pmem1 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=0,bus=cxl.2,id=root_port15,chassis=0,slot=5 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=root_port15,memdev=cxl-mem3,lsa=cxl-lsa3,id=cxl-pmem2 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=1,bus=cxl.2,id=root_port16,chassis=0,slot=6 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=root_port16,memdev=cxl-mem4,lsa=cxl-lsa4,id=cxl-pmem3 \
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-M cxl-fmw.0.targets.0=cxl.1,cxl-fmw.0.targets.1=cxl.2,cxl-fmw.0.size=4G,cxl-fmw.0.interleave-granularity=8k
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An example of 4 devices below a switch suitable for 1, 2 or 4 way interleave::
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qemu-system-aarch64 -M virt,gic-version=3,cxl=on -m 4g,maxmem=8G,slots=8 -cpu max \
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...
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem0,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest1.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem2,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest2.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-mem3,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/cxltest3.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa0,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa0.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa1,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa1.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa2,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa2.raw,size=256M \
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-object memory-backend-file,id=cxl-lsa3,share=on,mem-path=/tmp/lsa3.raw,size=256M \
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-device pxb-cxl,bus_nr=12,bus=pcie.0,id=cxl.1 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=0,bus=cxl.1,id=root_port0,chassis=0,slot=0 \
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-device cxl-rp,port=1,bus=cxl.1,id=root_port1,chassis=0,slot=1 \
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-device cxl-upstream,bus=root_port0,id=us0 \
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-device cxl-downstream,port=0,bus=us0,id=swport0,chassis=0,slot=4 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=swport0,memdev=cxl-mem0,lsa=cxl-lsa0,id=cxl-pmem0,size=256M \
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-device cxl-downstream,port=1,bus=us0,id=swport1,chassis=0,slot=5 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=swport1,memdev=cxl-mem1,lsa=cxl-lsa1,id=cxl-pmem1,size=256M \
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-device cxl-downstream,port=2,bus=us0,id=swport2,chassis=0,slot=6 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=swport2,memdev=cxl-mem2,lsa=cxl-lsa2,id=cxl-pmem2,size=256M \
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-device cxl-downstream,port=3,bus=us0,id=swport3,chassis=0,slot=7 \
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-device cxl-type3,bus=swport3,memdev=cxl-mem3,lsa=cxl-lsa3,id=cxl-pmem3,size=256M \
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-M cxl-fmw.0.targets.0=cxl.1,cxl-fmw.0.size=4G,cxl-fmw.0.interleave-granularity=4k
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Kernel Configuration Options
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----------------------------
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In Linux 5.18 the following options are necessary to make use of
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OS management of CXL memory devices as described here.
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* CONFIG_CXL_BUS
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* CONFIG_CXL_PCI
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* CONFIG_CXL_ACPI
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* CONFIG_CXL_PMEM
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* CONFIG_CXL_MEM
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* CONFIG_CXL_PORT
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* CONFIG_CXL_REGION
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References
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----------
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- Consortium website for specifications etc:
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http://www.computeexpresslink.org
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- Compute Express link Revision 2 specification, October 2020
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- CEDT CFMWS & QTG _DSM ECN May 2021
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