ARM 64-bit Server Architecture

• Introduction to ARM 64-bit Architecture
• ARM architecture profiles, what is v8-A and v9-A
• v8-A introduction and rational
• Support for v7 legacy code
• 64-bit platform architecture overview
  
  • Sample SoC
• A64 ISA introduction
• Integer registers
• Instruction set
  • Integer operations
  • Memory operations
  • Stack
  • System instructions
    • System control registers
    • Relationship to v7 support and co-processors
  • Calling conventions
  • Memory access (DRAM and device)
    • Memory mapped access to devices
    • Memory types
    • Ordering model
    • Barriers
      • dmb, dsb, isb
      • load-acquire and store-release
      • Domains
    • Semaphores
    • Cache management
  • Floating point, advanced SIMD, crypto
    • Registers and instructions
  • Exception levels
    • The 4 exception levels
    • Stack model, handler and thread
    • Vector table
    • Core implementation choices
    • Switching AArch32 and AArch64 state
  • Exception and interrupt handling
    • Control of delivery of exceptions and interrupts
    • Syndrome registers
    • Switching exception levels
    • Return from exception
  • Paging
    • Page tables
    • 4K, 16K and 64K granules
    • Page sizes, support for large pages
    • TLB management
• Caches
  • Cache architecture
  • Multiple cache levels
  • Instruction and data/unified caches
  • Hardware cache coherency, MP Core and multi-cluster
  • Shareability domains
  • I/O cache coherency
  • Software responsibilities
  • Cache control
• Security (TrustZone)
  • Trustzone overview
  • Switching bitness of TrustZone between 32-bit and 64-bit
• Virtualization overview
• ARM Piplelines
  • Cortex-A57
• Interconnects and multi-core support
  • MP Core
  • Role of the interconnect
  • Cache oherency and the interconnect
  • DVM and the interconnect
  • Role of the interconnect in memory ordering models
  • CHI
• Interrupt architectures
  • Interrupt delivery across multiple cores
  • Software generated interrupts
  • Interrupt controller
  • Memory mapped interrupts
• Firmware
  • Booting
  • UEFI overview
  • ACPI overview
• PCIe support
  • Bridge to PCIe
  • Interrupt delivery
  • Configuration space
• Other topics
  • Core power management, power controller
    • Power modes (dormant, shutdown)
    • WFI, WFE, SEV
  • Server reliability features, ECC protection, error reporting
  • Debug
  • Linaro
  • 64-bit tool chain overview
  • 64-bit Linux overview

 

Optional Topics (Not covered in standard 4-day course)

• 32-bit v7 Architecture Overview (1-day)
  • Overview of 32-bit v7 ISA (registers, instruction set, etc.)
  • Memory and Paging architecture overview
  • Interrupt handling and exception overview
  • Floating Point, TrustZone and NEON overview
  • Example 32-bit processor pipeline overview
• Additional 64-bit ISA material not covered in standard 4-day course (1 day)
• ARM processor virtualization support (1-day)
  • Processor mode (Hyp mode, EL2) added in 32-bit ARM to implement hardware virtualization of the processor core
  • The intersection of virtualization support and security support (TrustZone)
  • ARM 64-bit processor virtualization implementation – Exception Levels 2 and 3
  • Interrupts and Virtualization
  • Memory management
  • Paravirtualization techniques
  • Hardware support for paging guest operating systems
  • Significance of guest physical (intermediate physical address space), especially with regard to I/O
  • The SMMU
  • TLB management and TLB features to support virtualization
  • IO Virtualization