Re: [PATCH v2 2/6] x86, mm, pat: Change reserve_memtype() to handle WT

[Andy Lutomirski]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2014 at 1:30 PM, Toshi Kani <toshi.kani@xxxxxx> wrote:
> On Wed, 2014-09-10 at 13:14 -0700, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>> On 09/10/2014 12:30 PM, Toshi Kani wrote:
>> >
>> > When WT is unavailable due to the PAT errata, it does not fail but gets
>> > redirected to UC-.  Similarly, when PAT is disabled, WT gets redirected
>> > to UC- as well.
>> >
>>
>> But on pre-PAT hardware you can still do WT.
>
> Yes, if we manipulates the bits directly, but such code is no longer
> allowed for PAT systems.  The PAT-based kernel interfaces won't work for
> pre-PAT systems, and therefore requests are redirected to UC- on such
> systems.
>

Right, the PWT bit.  Forgot about that.

I wonder whether it would make sense to do some followup patches to
replace the current support for non-PAT machines with a "PAT" and
corresponding reverse map that exactly matches the mapping when PAT is
disabled.  These patches are almost there.

--Andy
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