KVM: Add cpuid.txt file
authorGlauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>
Tue, 11 May 2010 16:17:47 +0000 (12:17 -0400)
committerAvi Kivity <avi@redhat.com>
Wed, 19 May 2010 08:41:07 +0000 (11:41 +0300)
This file documents cpuid bits used by KVM.

Signed-off-by: Glauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Zachary Amsden <zamsden@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>
Documentation/kvm/cpuid.txt [new file with mode: 0644]

diff --git a/Documentation/kvm/cpuid.txt b/Documentation/kvm/cpuid.txt
new file mode 100644 (file)
index 0000000..14a12ea
--- /dev/null
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+KVM CPUID bits
+Glauber Costa <glommer@redhat.com>, Red Hat Inc, 2010
+=====================================================
+
+A guest running on a kvm host, can check some of its features using
+cpuid. This is not always guaranteed to work, since userspace can
+mask-out some, or even all KVM-related cpuid features before launching
+a guest.
+
+KVM cpuid functions are:
+
+function: KVM_CPUID_SIGNATURE (0x40000000)
+returns : eax = 0,
+          ebx = 0x4b4d564b,
+          ecx = 0x564b4d56,
+          edx = 0x4d.
+Note that this value in ebx, ecx and edx corresponds to the string "KVMKVMKVM".
+This function queries the presence of KVM cpuid leafs.
+
+
+function: define KVM_CPUID_FEATURES (0x40000001)
+returns : ebx, ecx, edx = 0
+          eax = and OR'ed group of (1 << flag), where each flags is:
+
+
+flag                               || value || meaning
+=============================================================================
+KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE            ||     0 || kvmclock available at msrs
+                                   ||       || 0x11 and 0x12.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+KVM_FEATURE_NOP_IO_DELAY           ||     1 || not necessary to perform delays
+                                   ||       || on PIO operations.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+KVM_FEATURE_MMU_OP                 ||     2 || deprecated.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE2           ||     3 || kvmclock available at msrs
+                                   ||       || 0x4b564d00 and 0x4b564d01
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+KVM_FEATURE_CLOCKSOURCE_STABLE_BIT ||    24 || host will warn if no guest-side
+                                   ||       || per-cpu warps are expected in
+                                   ||       || kvmclock.
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------