Re: [RFC Patch] use MTRR for write combining if PAT is notavailable

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Mon Oct 19 2009 - 09:55:27 EST



* Suresh Siddha <suresh.b.siddha@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Mon, 2009-10-19 at 02:16 -0700, Jan Beulich wrote:
> > Functionality-wise this looks fine to me
>
> If we are going to make ioremap() and set_memory_wc() add mtrr's in
> non-pat case, then we need to delete the added mtrr(s) in the
> corresponding iounmap() and set_memory_wb() aswell.
>
> hmm, this is becoming too complex. The way i915 and other graphics
> drivers are using set_memory_wc(), it is def a bad idea to start
> adding mtrr's behind the back for non-pat case.

Touching MTRRs beyond working around basic bugs like non-cached RAM
sounds like madness. The interactions with PAT are ... countless.

> Can't we just force PAT option always and we probably don't care about
> ioremap_wc() on processors were PAT doesn't get enabled because of
> known errata.

We can make PAT configurability dependent on EMBEDDED-y - mind sending a
patch for that?

Ingo
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