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Virtual Memory Layout on RISC-V Linux¶
- Author:
Alexandre Ghiti <alex@ghiti.fr>
- Date:
12 February 2021
This document describes the virtual memory layout used by the RISC-V Linux Kernel.
RISC-V Linux Kernel 32bit¶
RISC-V Linux Kernel SV32¶
TODO
RISC-V Linux Kernel 64bit¶
The RISC-V privileged architecture document states that the 64bit addresses “must have bits 63–48 all equal to bit 47, or else a page-fault exception will occur.”: that splits the virtual address space into 2 halves separated by a very big hole, the lower half is where the userspace resides, the upper half is where the RISC-V Linux Kernel resides.
RISC-V Linux Kernel SV39¶
========================================================================================================================
Start addr | Offset | End addr | Size | VM area description
========================================================================================================================
| | | |
0000000000000000 | 0 | 0000003fffffffff | 256 GB | user-space virtual memory, different per mm
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
0000004000000000 | +256 GB | ffffffbfffffffff | ~16M TB | ... huge, almost 64 bits wide hole of non-canonical
| | | | virtual memory addresses up to the -256 GB
| | | | starting offset of kernel mappings.
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
|
| Kernel-space virtual memory, shared between all processes:
____________________________________________________________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
ffffffc6fea00000 | -228 GB | ffffffc6feffffff | 6 MB | fixmap
ffffffc6ff000000 | -228 GB | ffffffc6ffffffff | 16 MB | PCI io
ffffffc700000000 | -228 GB | ffffffc7ffffffff | 4 GB | vmemmap
ffffffc800000000 | -224 GB | ffffffd7ffffffff | 64 GB | vmalloc/ioremap space
ffffffd800000000 | -160 GB | fffffff6ffffffff | 124 GB | direct mapping of all physical memory
fffffff700000000 | -36 GB | fffffffeffffffff | 32 GB | kasan
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
|
|
____________________________________________________________|____________________________________________________________
| | | |
ffffffff00000000 | -4 GB | ffffffff7fffffff | 2 GB | modules, BPF
ffffffff80000000 | -2 GB | ffffffffffffffff | 2 GB | kernel
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
RISC-V Linux Kernel SV48¶
========================================================================================================================
Start addr | Offset | End addr | Size | VM area description
========================================================================================================================
| | | |
0000000000000000 | 0 | 00007fffffffffff | 128 TB | user-space virtual memory, different per mm
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
0000800000000000 | +128 TB | ffff7fffffffffff | ~16M TB | ... huge, almost 64 bits wide hole of non-canonical
| | | | virtual memory addresses up to the -128 TB
| | | | starting offset of kernel mappings.
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
|
| Kernel-space virtual memory, shared between all processes:
____________________________________________________________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
ffff8d7ffea00000 | -114.5 TB | ffff8d7ffeffffff | 6 MB | fixmap
ffff8d7fff000000 | -114.5 TB | ffff8d7fffffffff | 16 MB | PCI io
ffff8d8000000000 | -114.5 TB | ffff8f7fffffffff | 2 TB | vmemmap
ffff8f8000000000 | -112.5 TB | ffffaf7fffffffff | 32 TB | vmalloc/ioremap space
ffffaf8000000000 | -80.5 TB | ffffef7fffffffff | 64 TB | direct mapping of all physical memory
ffffef8000000000 | -16.5 TB | fffffffeffffffff | 16.5 TB | kasan
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
|
| Identical layout to the 39-bit one from here on:
____________________________________________________________|____________________________________________________________
| | | |
ffffffff00000000 | -4 GB | ffffffff7fffffff | 2 GB | modules, BPF
ffffffff80000000 | -2 GB | ffffffffffffffff | 2 GB | kernel
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
RISC-V Linux Kernel SV57¶
========================================================================================================================
Start addr | Offset | End addr | Size | VM area description
========================================================================================================================
| | | |
0000000000000000 | 0 | 00ffffffffffffff | 64 PB | user-space virtual memory, different per mm
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
0100000000000000 | +64 PB | feffffffffffffff | ~16K PB | ... huge, almost 64 bits wide hole of non-canonical
| | | | virtual memory addresses up to the -64 PB
| | | | starting offset of kernel mappings.
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
|
| Kernel-space virtual memory, shared between all processes:
____________________________________________________________|___________________________________________________________
| | | |
ff1bfffffea00000 | -57 PB | ff1bfffffeffffff | 6 MB | fixmap
ff1bffffff000000 | -57 PB | ff1bffffffffffff | 16 MB | PCI io
ff1c000000000000 | -57 PB | ff1fffffffffffff | 1 PB | vmemmap
ff20000000000000 | -56 PB | ff5fffffffffffff | 16 PB | vmalloc/ioremap space
ff60000000000000 | -40 PB | ffdeffffffffffff | 32 PB | direct mapping of all physical memory
ffdf000000000000 | -8 PB | fffffffeffffffff | 8 PB | kasan
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
|
| Identical layout to the 39-bit one from here on:
____________________________________________________________|____________________________________________________________
| | | |
ffffffff00000000 | -4 GB | ffffffff7fffffff | 2 GB | modules, BPF
ffffffff80000000 | -2 GB | ffffffffffffffff | 2 GB | kernel
__________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
Userspace VAs¶
To maintain compatibility with software that relies on the VA space with a maximum of 48 bits the kernel will, by default, return virtual addresses to userspace from a 48-bit range (sv48). This default behavior is achieved by passing 0 into the hint address parameter of mmap. On CPUs with an address space smaller than sv48, the CPU maximum supported address space will be the default.
Software can “opt-in” to receiving VAs from another VA space by providing a hint address to mmap. When a hint address is passed to mmap, the returned address will never use more bits than the hint address. For example, if a hint address of 1 << 40 is passed to mmap, a valid returned address will never use bits 41 through 63. If no mappable addresses are available in that range, mmap will return MAP_FAILED.