12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2
Datasheet
ID | Date | Version | Classification |
---|---|---|---|
655258 | 28/10/2021 00:00:00 | Public Content |
A newer version of this document is available. Customers should click here to go to the newest version.
Requesting the Low-Power Idle States
The primary software interfaces for requesting low-power idle states are through the MWAIT instruction with sub-state hints and the HLT instruction (for C1 and C1E). However, the software may make C-state requests using the legacy method of I/O reads from the ACPI-defined processor clock control registers, referred to as P_LVLx. This method of requesting C-states provides legacy support for operating systems that initiate C-state transitions using I/O reads.
For legacy operating systems, P_LVLx I/O reads are converted within the processor to the equivalent MWAIT C-state request. Therefore, P_LVLx reads do not directly result in I/O reads to the system. The feature, known as I/O MWAIT redirection, should be enabled in the BIOS..
The BIOS can write to the C-state range field of the PMG_IO_CAPTURE MSR to restrict the range of I/O addresses that are trapped and emulate MWAIT like functionality. Any P_LVLx reads outside of this range do not cause an I/O redirection to MWAIT(Cx) like the request. They fall through like a normal I/O instruction.
When P_LVLx I/O instructions are used, MWAIT sub-states cannot be defined. The MWAIT sub-state is always zero if I/O MWAIT redirection is used. By default, P_LVLx I/O redirections enable the MWAIT 'break on EFLAGS.IF’ feature that triggers a wake up on an interrupt, even if interrupts are masked by EFLAGS.IF.