On Jan 18, 2021, at 18:39, Krste Asanovic <krste@...> wrote:


Current RISC-V specs only have a non-resumable NMI definition. The
following proposal would add resumable NMI support. This was one of
the features requested for priv 1.12 or RVA/RVM22.

This is up for discussion, but I think it is small enough to go
through fast track process.

Krste

:sectnums:
:toc: left

= Resumable NMI support in RISC-V
Version 0.2.1-Draft

== Background and Motivation

The RISC-V privileged architecture version 1.11 supports only
unresumable non-maskable interrupts (UNMIs), where the NMI jumps to a
handler in machine mode, overwriting the current `mepc` and `mcause`
register values. If the hart had been executing machine-mode code in
a trap handler, the previous values in `mepc` and `mcause` would not
be recoverable and so execution is not generally resumable.

This proposal adds support for resumable non-maskable interrupts
(RNMIs) to RISC-V. The extension adds four new CSRs (`mnepc`,
`mncause`, `mnstatus`, and `mnscratch`) to hold the interrupted state,
and a new instruction to resume from the RNMI handler.

== RNMI Interrupt Signals

The `rnmi` interrupt signals are inputs to
the hart. These interrupts have higher priority than any other
interrupt or exception on the hart and cannot be disabled by software.
Specifically, they are not disabled by clearing the `mstatus.mie`
register.

== RNMI Handler Addresses

The RNMI interrupt trap handler address is implementation-defined.

RNMI also has an associated exception trap handler address, which is
implementation defined.

== New RNMI CSRs

This proposal adds additional M-mode CSRs to enable a resumable
non-maskable interrupt (RNMI).

.NMI additional CSRs
[cols="2,2,2,2"]
[%autowidth]
|===
| Number | Privilege | Name | Description

| 0x350 | MRW | `mnscratch` | Resumable Non-maskable scratch register
| 0x351 | MRW | `mnepc` | Resumable Non-maskable EPC value
| 0x352 | MRW | `mncause` | Resumable Non-maskable cause value
| 0x353 | MRW | `mnstatus` | Resumable Non-maskable status
|===

The `mnscratch` CSR holds an XLEN-bit read-write register which
enables the NMI trap handler to save and restore the context that was
interrupted.

The `mnepc` CSR is an XLEN-bit read-write register which on entry
to the NMI trap handler holds the PC of the instruction that took the
interrupt. The lowest bit of `mnepc` is hardwired to zero.

The `mncause` CSR holds the reason for the NMI, with bit XLEN-1 set to
1, and the NMI cause encoded in the least-significant bits or zero if
NMI causes are not supported.

The `mnstatus` CSR holds a two-bit field which on entry to the trap
handler holds the privilege mode of the interrupted context encoded in
bits `mnstatus[12:11]` in the same manner as `mstatus.mpp`. The other
bits in `mnstatus` are _reserved_, but software should write zeros and
hardware implementations should return zeros.

== New MNRET instruction

This new M-mode only instruction uses the values in `mnepc` and
`mnstatus` to return to the program counter and privileged mode of the
interrupted context respectively. This instruction also sets the
`rnmie` state bit.

MNRET instruction encoding is same as MRET except with bit 30 set
(i.e.,`funct7`=`0111000`).

== RNMI Operation

When an RNMI interrupt is detected, the interrupted PC is written to
the `mnepc` CSR, the type of RNMI to the `mncause` CSR, and the
privilege mode of the interrupted context to the `mnstatus` CSR. An
internal microarchitectural state bit `rnmie` is cleared to indicate
that processor is in an RNMI handler and cannot take a new RNMI
interrupt. The internal `rnmie` bit when clear also disables all
other interrupts.

NOTE: These interrupts are called non-maskable because software cannot
mask the interrupts, but for correct operation other instances of the
same interrupt must be held off until the handler is completed, hence
the internal state bit.

The core then enters machine-mode and jumps to the RNMI trap handler
address.

The RNMI handler can resume original execution using the new MNRET
instruction, which restores the PC from `mnepc`, the privilege mode
from `mnstatus`, and also sets the internal `rnmie` state bit, which
reenables other interrupts.

If the hart encounters an exception while the `rnmie` bit is clear, the
exception state is written to `mepc` and `mcause`, `mstatus.mpp` is
set to M-mode, and the hart jumps to the RNMI exception handler
address.

NOTE: Traps in the RNMI handler can only be resumed if they occur while
the handler was servicing an interrupt that occured outside of
machine-mode.

== Interaction with debugger

The debugger can be configured such that an RNMI event drops the
system into the debugger.