[RFC] Don't lookup full CPU state in the indirect branch fast path on AArch64 when running in user mode.

[Owen Anderson]

Hello,

I would like to request feedback on the following patch, which I do
not believe should be applied to master as-is.  The idea here is to
avoid gathering the full CPU state in the fast path of an indirect
branch lookup when running in user mode on a platform where the flags
can only be changed in privileged mode.  I believe this is true on the
AArch64 scenario that I care about, but clearly not true in general.
I'm particularly seeking feedback on how to clean this up into a
version that checks the correct necessary and sufficient conditions to
allow all users that can benefit from it to do so.

On the workload that I am targeting (aarch64 on x86), this patch
reduces execution wall time by approximately 20%, and eliminates
indirect branch lookups from the hot stack traces entirely.

Thank you,

--Owen

>From 3d96db17d3baacb92ef1bc5e70ef06b97d06a0ae Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Owen Anderson <oanderso@google.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2020 13:47:00 -0700
Subject: [RFC] Don't lookup full CPU state in the indirect branch fast path on
 AArch64 when running in user mode.

Most of the CPU state can't be changed in user mode, so this is useless work.

Signed-off-by: Owen Anderson <oanderso@google.com>
---
 include/exec/tb-lookup.h | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/exec/tb-lookup.h b/include/exec/tb-lookup.h
index 9cf475bb03..f4ea0eb4c0 100644
--- a/include/exec/tb-lookup.h
+++ b/include/exec/tb-lookup.h
@@ -25,7 +25,15 @@ tb_lookup__cpu_state(CPUState *cpu, target_ulong
*pc, target_ulong *cs_base,
     TranslationBlock *tb;
     uint32_t hash;

+#if !defined(TARGET_ARM) || !defined(CONFIG_USER_ONLY)
     cpu_get_tb_cpu_state(env, pc, cs_base, flags);
+#else
+    if (is_a64(env)) {
+      *pc = env->pc;
+    } else {
+      *pc = env->regs[15];
+    }
+#endif
     hash = tb_jmp_cache_hash_func(*pc);
     tb = qatomic_rcu_read(&cpu->tb_jmp_cache[hash]);

@@ -34,12 +42,19 @@ tb_lookup__cpu_state(CPUState *cpu, target_ulong
*pc, target_ulong *cs_base,

     if (likely(tb &&
                tb->pc == *pc &&
+#if !defined(TARGET_ARM) || !defined(CONFIG_USER_ONLY)
                tb->cs_base == *cs_base &&
                tb->flags == *flags &&
+#endif
                tb->trace_vcpu_dstate == *cpu->trace_dstate &&
                (tb_cflags(tb) & (CF_HASH_MASK | CF_INVALID)) == cf_mask)) {
         return tb;
     }
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_USER_ONLY
+    cpu_get_tb_cpu_state(env, pc, cs_base, flags);
+#endif
+
     tb = tb_htable_lookup(cpu, *pc, *cs_base, *flags, cf_mask);
     if (tb == NULL) {
         return NULL;
-- 
2.28.0.709.gb0816b6eb0-goog