Can PCM Read/Write a WO registry bit?

Tongliang_L_ — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 02:34:51 GMT

Hi , all:

Recently I was reading the PCM source code and the document "Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 Product Family Uncore Performance Monitoring Guide"(Reference Number:327043-001). There are some questions confused me.

In the guide 2.7.3.1, Page 89, I can get the "Q_Py_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL Register – Field Definitions",and the attr of bit[8] is WO.

And I find the definition of "WO" in the EDS of E5-2600 family:

Write Only: These bits can only be written by microcode, reads return indeterminate values. Microcode that wants to ensure this bit was written must read wherever the side-effect takes place.

Then I read the source of PCM v2.5, from Line 2849 to Line 2860 in cpucounter.cpp, I can get the code to write & read the registry:

        // freeze enable
        qpiLLHandles->write32(Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL, Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL_RST_FRZ_EN);
        // freeze
        qpiLLHandles->write32(Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL, Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL_RST_FRZ_EN + Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL_RST_FRZ);

        val = 0;
        qpiLLHandles->read32(Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL, &val);
        if (val != (Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL_RST_FRZ_EN + Q_P_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL_RST_FRZ))
  {
            std::cout << "ERROR: QPI LL counter programming seems not to work. Q_P" << i << "_PCI_PMON_BOX_CTL=0x" << std::hex << val << std::endl;
   std::cout << "       Please see BIOS options to enable the export of performance monitoring devices (devices 8 and 9: function 2)." << std::endl;
  }

So comes the questions.

1.As the bit[8] is WO and can only be written by microcode, can a linux process write this bit?

2.As the bit[8] is WO and read return indeterminate values, is the if statement resonable?

topic Can PCM Read/Write a WO registry bit? in Software Tuning, Performance Optimization & Platform Monitoring

Can PCM Read/Write a WO registry bit?