We currently execute instructions in the guest and then handle any IO
request right after we break out of the virtualized environment. This
has the effect of executing IO requests in the exact same tick as the
first instruction in the sequence that was just run. There seem to be
cases where this simplification upsets some timing-sensitive devices.
This changeset splits execute and IO (and other services) across
multiple ticks. This is implemented by adding a separate
RunningService state to the CPU state machine. When a VM requires
service, it enters into this state and pending IO is then serviced in
the future instead of immediately. The delay between getting the
request and servicing it depends on the number of cycles executed in
the guest, which allows other components to catch up with the CPU.
This changeset adds support for m5 pseudo-ops when running in
kvm-mode. Unfortunately, we can't trap the normal gem5 co-processor
entry in KVM (it doesn't seem to be possible to trap accesses to
non-existing co-processors). We therefore use BZJ instructions to
cause a trap from virtualized mode into gem5. The BZJ instruction is
becomes a normal branch to the gem5 fallback code when running in
simulated mode, which means that this patch does not need to change
the ARM ISA-specific code.
Note: This requires a patched host kernel.
Architecture specific limitations:
* LPAE is currently not supported by gem5. We therefore panic if LPAE
is enabled when returning to gem5.
* The co-processor based interface to the architected timer is
unsupported. We can't support this due to limitations in the KVM
API on ARM.
* M5 ops are currently not supported. This requires either a kernel
hack or a memory mapped device that handles the guest<->m5
interface.
