Monitoring the operation of a processor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11048588-B2
Application number	US-202016787333-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2020
Priority date	Dec 17, 2015
Publication date	Jun 29, 2021
Grant date	Jun 29, 2021

Abstract

Embodiments of an invention for monitoring the operation of a processor are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system includes a processor and a hardware agent external to the processor. The processor includes virtualization logic to provide for the processor to operate in a root mode and in a non-root mode. The hardware agent is to verify operation of the processor in the non-root mode based on tracing information to be collected by a software agent to be executed by the processor in the root mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A processor comprising:
an instruction decoder to decode a virtual machine (VM) enter instruction, execution of the VM enter instruction to cause the processor to enter a non-root mode in which guest software is to run on a VM hosted by a virtual machine monitor (VMM), the VMM to run in a root mode in which host software is to directly control system resources;
a memory management unit to provide for partitioning the system memory into a plurality of memory regions;
a virtualization unit to provide for the processor to intercept an interrupt occurring in the VM and to cause the processor to exit the VM, wherein the interrupt is from a hardware agent external to the processor and is to initiate a sampling interval; and
an execution unit to execute a software agent in the root mode to collect tracing information during the sampling interval.

2. The processor of claim 1 , wherein the tracing information is to be stored in one or more of the plurality of memory regions accessible to the hardware agent and inaccessible to the VM.

3. The processor of claim 2 , wherein the tracing information is to be used by the hardware agent to verify operation of the processor in the non-root mode.

4. The processor of claim 3 , wherein the operation of the processor in the non-root mode includes execution of an ordinary software stack by the VM.

5. The processor of claim 4 , wherein the processor also includes state storage, and the tracing information is to include an initial checkpoint of the state storage and a final checkpoint of the state storage.

6. The processor of claim 5 , wherein the hardware agent is to emulate execution of the ordinary software stack by the processor from an initial state based on the initial checkpoint to a final state and to compare the final state to the final checkpoint.

7. The processor of claim 6 , wherein the software agent is to record initial checkpoint information in connection with initiation of the sampling interval and to record final checkpoint information in connection with termination of the sampling interval.

8. The processor of claim 7 , wherein the hardware agent is also to interrupt the processor to terminate the sampling interval.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Neiger Gilbert
• Anderson Andrew V
• Uhlig Richard A
• Durham David M
• Singhal Ronak
• Wu Xiangbin
• Kottapalli Sailesh

Classifications

• G06F11/3466

  Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring · CPC title

• G06F11/3457

  Performance evaluation by simulation · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F11/3037 Primary

  where the computing system component is a memory, e.g. virtual memory, cache (accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/00; checking stores for correct operation G11C29/00) · CPC title

• G06F11/3024 Primary

  where the computing system component is a central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title