ELF loader support for auxvec base platform string
Some IBM POWER-based platforms have the ability to run in a
mode which mostly appears to the OS as a different processor from the
actual hardware. For example, a Power6 system may appear to be a
Power5+, which makes the AT_PLATFORM value "power5+". This means that
programs are restricted to the ISA supported by Power5+;
Power6-specific instructions are treated as illegal.
However, some applications (virtual machines, optimized libraries) can
benefit from knowledge of the underlying CPU model. A new aux vector
entry, AT_BASE_PLATFORM, will denote the actual hardware. For
example, on a Power6 system in Power5+ compatibility mode, AT_PLATFORM
will be "power5+" and AT_BASE_PLATFORM will be "power6". The idea is
that AT_PLATFORM indicates the instruction set supported, while
AT_BASE_PLATFORM indicates the underlying microarchitecture.
If the architecture has defined ELF_BASE_PLATFORM, copy that value to
the user stack in the same manner as ELF_PLATFORM.
Signed-off-by: Nathan Lynch <ntl@pobox.com>
Acked-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
2 files changed