Core™ Processors

Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2

ID 655258
Date 01/11/2022

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Document Table of Contents

Intel® VT for Intel® 64 and Intel® Architecture

Objectives

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Intel® 64 and Intel® Architecture (Intel® VT-x) provides hardware acceleration for virtualization of IA platforms. Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) can use Intel® VT-x features to provide an improved reliable Virtualization platform. By using Intel® VT-x, a VMM is:

  • Robust: VMMs no longer need to use para-virtualization or binary translation. This means that VMMs will be able to run off-the-shelf operating systems and applications without any special steps.
  • Enhanced: Intel® VT enables VMMs to run 64-bit guest operating systems on IA x86 processors.
  • More Reliable: Due to the hardware support, VMMs can now be smaller, less complex, and more efficient. This improves reliability and availability and reduces the potential for software conflicts.
  • More Secure: The use of hardware transitions in the VMM strengthens the isolation of VMs and further prevents corruption of one VM from affecting others on the same system.

Key Features

The processor supports the following added new Intel® VT-x features:

  • Mode-based Execute Control for EPT (MBEC) - A mode of EPT operation which enables different controls for executability of Guest Physical Address (GPA) based on Guest specified mode (User/ Supervisor) of linear address translating to the GPA. When the mode is enabled, the executability of a GPA is defined by two bits in EPT entry. One bit for accesses to user pages and other one for accesses to supervisor pages.

    • This mode requires changes in VMCS and EPT entries. VMCS includes a bit "Mode-based execute control for EPT" which is used to enable/disable the mode. An additional bit in EPT entry is defined as "execute access for user-mode linear addresses"; the original EPT execute access bit is considered as "execute access for supervisor-mode linear addresses". If the "mode-based execute control for EPT" VM-execution control is disabled the additional bit is ignored and the system work with one bit i.e. the original bit, for execute control for both user and supervisor pages.

    • Behavioral changes - Behavioral changes are across three areas:

      • Access to GPA - If the "Mode-based execute control for EPT" VMexecution control is 1, treatment of guest-physical accesses by instruction fetches depends on the linear address from which an instruction is being fetched.

        1. If the translation of the linear address specifies user mode (the U/S bit was set in every paging structure entry used to translate the linear address), the resulting guest-physical address is executable under EPT only if the XU bit (at position 10) is set in every EPT paging-structure entry used to translate the guest-physical address.

        2. If the translation of the linear address specifies supervisor mode (the U/ S bit was clear in at least one of the paging-structure entries used to translate the linear address), the resulting guest-physical address is executable under EPT only if the XS bit is set in every EPT paging-structure entry used to translate the guest-physical address.

      • The XU and XS bits are used only when translating linear addresses for guest code fetches. They do not apply to guest page walks, data accesses, or A/D-bit updates.

  • VMEntry - If the "activate secondary controls" and "Mode-based execute control for EPT" VM-execution controls are both 1, VM entries ensure that the "enable EPT" VM-execution control is 1. VM entry fails if this check fails. When such a failure occurs, control is passed to the next instruction.

  • VMExit - The exit qualification due to EPT violation reports clearly whether the violation was due to User mode access or supervisor mode access.

    • Capability Querying: IA32_​VMX_​PROCBASED_​CTLS2 has bit to indicate the capability, RDMSR can be used to read and query whether the processor supports the capability or not.

  • Extended Page Table (EPT) Accessed and Dirty Bits
    • EPT A/D bits enabled VMMs to efficiently implement memory management and page classification algorithms to optimize VM memory operations, such as de-fragmentation, paging, live migration, and check-pointing. Without hardware support for EPT A/D bits, VMMs may need to emulate A/D bits by marking EPT paging-structures as not-present or read-only, and incur the overhead of EPT page-fault VM exits and associated software processing.
  • EPTP (EPT pointer) switching
    • EPTP switching is a specific VM function. EPTP switching allows guest software (in VMX non-root operation, supported by EPT) to request a different EPT paging-structure hierarchy. This is a feature by which software in VMX non-root operation can request a change of EPTP without a VM exit. The software will be able to choose among a set of potential EPTP values determined in advance by software in VMX root operation.
  • Pause loop exiting
    • Support VMM schedulers seeking to determine when a virtual processor of a multiprocessor virtual machine is not performing useful work. This situation may occur when not all virtual processors of the virtual machine are currently scheduled and when the virtual processor in question is in a loop involving the PAUSE instruction. The new feature allows detection of such loops and is thus called PAUSE-loop exiting.

The processor IA core supports the following Intel® VT-x features:

  • Extended Page Tables (EPT)
    • EPT is hardware assisted page table virtualization
    • It eliminates VM exits from guest OS to the VMM for shadow page-table maintenance
  • Virtual Processor IDs (VPID)
    • Ability to assign a VM ID to tag processor IA core hardware structures (such as TLBs)
    • This avoids flushes on VM transitions to give a lower-cost VM transition time and an overall reduction in virtualization overhead.
  • Guest Preemption Timer
    • The mechanism for a VMM to preempt the execution of a guest OS after an amount of time specified by the VMM. The VMM sets a timer value before entering a guest
    • The feature aids VMM developers in flexibility and Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees
  • Descriptor-Table Exiting
    • Descriptor-table exiting allows a VMM to protect a guest OS from internal (malicious software based) attack by preventing the relocation of key system data structures like IDT (interrupt descriptor table), GDT (global descriptor table), LDT (local descriptor table), and TSS (task segment selector).
    • A VMM using this feature can intercept (by a VM exit) attempts to relocate these data structures and prevent them from being tampered by malicious software.