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@nemecad nemecad commented Sep 4, 2025

This PR addresses some previous feedback, most notably:

  • Set-associative TLB (machine::TLB): Implements a set-associative Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) frontend over physical memory, handling virtual to physical translation, flush, and replacement policy.
  • Pluggable Replacement Policies (machine::TLBPolicy): Abstract TLB replacement policy interface & implementations (RAND, LRU, LFU, PLRU) for set-associative tables.
  • SV32 Page-Table Walker (machine::PageTableWalker): Performs multi-level page-table walks (SV32) in memory to resolve a virtual address to a physical one.
  • Sv32Pte Bitfield Helpers (sv32.h): SV32-specific definitions: page-table entry (PTE) bitfields, shifts/masks, and PTE to physical address helpers.
  • VirtualAddress (virtual_address.h): Lightweight VirtualAddress wrapper offering raw access, alignment checks, arithmetic, and comparisons.
  • Add supervisor CSRs and sstatus handling: supervisor CSRs (sstatus, stvec, sscratch, sepc, scause, stval, satp) and a write handler that presents sstatus as a masked view of mstatus so supervisor-visible bits stay in sync.
  • Store current privilege level in CoreState: tracking of the hart's current privilege level in CoreState so exception/return handling and visualization can read/update it from the central CoreState structure.

Tests:

  • Add SV32 page-table + TLB integration tests: a set of small assembly tests that exercise the SV32 page-table walker, SATP enablement and the new TLB code. The tests create a root page table and map a virtual page at 0xC4000000, then exercise several scenarios. The tests verify page-table walker behaviour, SATP switching and TLB caching/flush logic. Tests were written based on the consultation.

UI Components:

  • Show current privilege level in core state view:
Snímek obrazovky 2025-09-04 115127
  • Virtual memory configuration to NewDialog:
Snímek obrazovky 2025-09-04 115904
  • TLB visualization and statistics dock:
Snímek obrazovky 2025-09-04 115521
  • VM toggle and "As CPU" memory access view:
Snímek obrazovky 2025-09-04 120034

@jdupak jdupak self-requested a review September 28, 2025 17:17
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jdupak commented Sep 28, 2025

I am getting this weird zoom.
image

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jdupak commented Sep 28, 2025

Notice that address sanitizer is failing in CI.

void tlb_update(unsigned way, unsigned set, bool valid, unsigned asid, quint64 vpn, quint64 phys, bool write);

private:
const machine::TLB *tlb;
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Who owns this pointer?

#include <cstdint>

namespace machine {
enum TLBType { PROGRAM, DATA };
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Why does LTB need to know this?

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ppisa commented Sep 29, 2025

@jdupak thanks for review of interfacing to the memory model architecture.

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ppisa commented Sep 29, 2025

From my side, the changes to the processor pipeline diagram has been applied directly to the SVG files (src/gui/windows/coreview/schemas), but current design uses DRAW.IO source (extras/core_graphics) as the authoritative source of the pipeline visualization and SVGs are generated from this file. So the commit with SVG change should include extras/core_graphics/diagram.drawio change as well or extras/core_graphics/diagram.drawio change should be commit before SVG files regeneration commit. In long term, I would lean to single SVG file with tags for conditional rendering, but we have not got to that state yet and current solution implemented by @jdupak is based on DRAW.IO and exports controlled by tagging (some documentation there docs/developer/coreview-graphics/using-drawio-diagram.md).

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ppisa commented Sep 29, 2025

For memory view, I would not complicate it with Show virtual checkbox. I would use only switching between As CPU (VMA), Cached and Raw.

@nemecad nemecad force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch 5 times, most recently from 0bb04d1 to ca4300b Compare October 5, 2025 19:16
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nemecad commented Oct 5, 2025

@ppisa @jdupak Thank you for your detailed feedback. I appreciate it and have made some changes based on your review. I would be grateful for any further feedback.

@jdupak jdupak force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from ca4300b to a6cbf71 Compare October 19, 2025 14:48
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There is a typo in the dir name

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There is no cmake logic to run these tests. I think we want to run them as cli tests.

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Thank you for the comment. I’ve added the CMake logic to run these as CLI tests in the commit 7a204cf.

@jdupak jdupak force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from a6cbf71 to bc32933 Compare October 19, 2025 16:13
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jdupak commented Oct 19, 2025

I pushed some slight edits. Barring the issue with new tests not being run I am fine with merging this.

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ppisa commented Oct 29, 2025

I am going through the code. I have one overall remark, that there are lot of formatting changes included in functional changes. I am not reluctant to formatting changes even that I think that sometimes formatting left by human to align for example some case lines into columns etc. has some value. But formatting changes unrelated to the functional changes make review harder. So I would keep with patches as they are but I would suggest to separate formatting, even over all later modified files in series, separate from functional changes.

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ppisa commented Oct 29, 2025

I am do not like is_mmio_region() and bypass_mmio() concept. The peripherals accesses should go through regular address translation. It is responsibility of the OS to map regions related to I/O into virtual address space of kernel and or even user application, i.e. for mmap() like accesses.

As for enabling cache for accesses there is a hack in the QtRvSim which enforces next uncached region

Cache::Cache
    uncached_start(0xf0000000_addr)
    uncached_last(0xfffffffe_addr)

In the longer term, cacheability should be controlled from page tables. But PBMT (Page-Based Memory Types) are supported only for Sv39 and bigger translation configurations, see Chapter 14. "Svpbmt" Extension for Page-Based Memory Types

Mode Value Requested Memory Attributes
PMA 0 None
NC 1 Non-cacheable, idempotent, weakly-ordered (RVWMO), main memory
IO 2 Non-cacheable, non-idempotent, strongly-ordered (I/O ordering), I/O
- 3 Reserved for future standard use

But the physical region marked to skip caching in cache implementation (current state) should be enough for now.

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ppisa commented Oct 29, 2025

Not so critical for now, but should be solved in the longer time perspective. SRET can be executed even in M mode. So the type of the return should be propagated to the control_state->exception_return in the Core::memory(const ExecuteInterstage &dt). It is question if to add signal which goes through all stages (more readable) or to use bit from instruction for local decode of the type. MRET should not be allowed in system mode. In general, I think that current version does not mark system level instructions and access to the system and machine mode CSRs as invalid in U mode. So some masking would be required on the decode level in future. Some more flags needs to be added into enum InstructionFlags to allow that checking and flags_to_check and it should then be updated on mode transition.

The behavior of xRET instructions is described in 3.1.6.1. Privilege and Global Interrupt-Enable Stack in mstatus register. When SRET is executed in M mode then it executes the same as in the S mode but it
should clear MPRV=0. This is to allow emulate some system level operations in machine level code.

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ppisa commented Oct 29, 2025

It seems that TLBs are updated from the start of the system. The TLB and its updates should be enable only when root register is set. And they should not be updated in M mode at all.

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jdupak commented Oct 29, 2025

There is one actual issue from CI: you cannot use ftruncate. It fails compilation on Win.

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jdupak commented Oct 30, 2025

There is one actual issue from CI: you cannot use ftruncate. It fails compilation on Win.

Never mind, this is broken on master. I will fix that. It does not block this PR.

@nemecad nemecad force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch 3 times, most recently from c846a9e to 442a091 Compare November 2, 2025 16:54
@nemecad nemecad force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch 2 times, most recently from 3238c4f to 62777b5 Compare November 9, 2025 16:02
@jdupak jdupak force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from 62777b5 to 6c37dd9 Compare November 10, 2025 19:23
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jdupak commented Nov 10, 2025

@nemecad notice that I force pushed your branch - there is zero diff at the end but all spurious format changes should be gone now. My apologies for introducing them.

CC @ppisa should be now easier to review

@jdupak jdupak force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from 6c37dd9 to 861f836 Compare November 11, 2025 07:16
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Thanks to @nemecad for the virtual memory implementation. The code is clean and readable in general. Thanks to @jdupak for review and formatting.

There are some minor issues to resolve or discuss. Same some suggestion to history cleanup but I think that we can merge code soon.

To speedup discussion, I would like to meet or call with @nemecad.

But congratulation to good job generally. As the next step I would like to discuss possibility to work on Sv39 which would allow to test some more real operating system scenarios.


namespace machine {

static bool is_mmio_region(uint64_t virt) {
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This function should be removed from the history. The logic is corrected by the commit 667bd4f
But it would be much better, if it does not appear in the history at all.

return false;
}

static Address bypass_mmio(Address vaddr) {
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dtto

mem = machine->cache_data();
}
} else {
if (access_through_cache == 2) {
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The modes should be changed to proper enum to make code readable.

The field name access_through_cache should be adjusted. Something like mem_access_kind, mem_access_level or some better name name.

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The proposed enum and when I think about use there could be interesting to to have option to look to memory at virtual level even when CPU is in machine mode, because the you can observe what hypervisor or SBI does with some or system memory

enum MemoryAccessAtLevel {
        MEM_ACC_AS_CPU = 0,
        MEM_ACC_VIRT_ADDR = 1,
        MEM_ACC_PHYS_ADDR = 2,
        MEM_ACC_PHYS_ADDR_SKIP_CACHES = 3,
        MEM_ACC_AS_MACHINE = 4,
   };

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This commit and previous one should be squashed or kept but location of the test files as they are introduced in the previous commit should be already the final one. The move is abundant in new component history.

flags = (enum InstructionFlags)im.flags;
alu_op = im.alu;
mem_ctl = im.mem_ctl;
if (flags & IMF_CSR) {
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I agree with this additional logic to map CSR to required privilege level. But see proposed testing remark.

ExceptionCause excause = dt.excause;

dt.inst.flags_alu_op_mem_ctl(flags, alu_op, mem_ctl);
auto current_priv = state.current_privilege();
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I would suggest to use some masking there. Ideally included directly by updates of check_inst_flags_val and check_inst_flags_mask when which would be updated when the privilege level changes. This would allow speedup and even check on individual instruction level when mret, sret etc, can be augmented by required privilege level directly in the instruction table. This common illegal instruction processing is possible because privilege violation should lead to regular illegal instruction exception. See

2.1. CSR Address Mapping Conventions

Instructions that access a non-existent CSR are reserved. Attempts to access a CSR without appropriate privilege level raise illegal-instruction exceptions or, as described in Section 21.6.1, virtual-instruction exceptions. Attempts to write a read-only register raise illegal-instruction exceptions. read/write register might also contain some bits that are read-only, in which case writes to the read-
only bits are ignored.

jdupak and others added 4 commits November 13, 2025 10:26
Add tracking of the hart's current privilege level to the core state so code
handling exceptions/returns and visualization can read/update it from the
central CoreState structure.
The next supervisor CSRs has been added:
  sstatus, stvec, sscratch, sepc, scause, stval, satp
Write handler has been added as well. It presents sstatus
as a masked view of mstatus so supervisor-visible bits stay
in sync.
@nemecad nemecad force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from 861f836 to b5940e8 Compare November 14, 2025 12:11
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I have added comments and documented some which has been already expressed in discussion.

I have noticed some problems in rv32ui-p-fence_i official RISC-V tests. It is in cached variant regardless of pipeline/single-cycle and 32/64/bits variants. @jdupak it is strange that the failure of given/single official test does not propagate to failure of whole test series.

Problem seems to appear in some change after Machine: add supervisor CSRs and status handling commit or it could be introduced by my rearrangement of the changes.

rv32ui-p-fence_i: ERROR
[INFO]  machine.ProgramLoader:	Loaded executable: 32bit
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB[I] constructed; sets=16 way=1
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB[D] constructed; sets=16 way=1
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB: SATP changed → flushed all; new SATP=0x00000000
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB: SATP changed → flushed all; new SATP=0x00000000
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB: SATP changed → flushed all; new SATP=0x00000000
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB: SATP changed → flushed all; new SATP=0x00000000
[INFO]  machine.BranchPredictor:	Initialized branch predictor: None
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB[D]: flushed all entries
[INFO]  machine.TLB:	TLB[I]: flushed all entries
[DEBUG] machine.core:	Exception cause 11 instruction PC 0x80000180 next PC 0x80000184 jump branch PC 0x8000017cregisters PC 0x80000184 mem ref 0x00000000

Machine stopped on ECALL_M exception.

mem = machine->cache_data();
}
} else {
if (access_through_cache == 2) {
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The proposed enum and when I think about use there could be interesting to to have option to look to memory at virtual level even when CPU is in machine mode, because the you can observe what hypervisor or SBI does with some or system memory

enum MemoryAccessAtLevel {
        MEM_ACC_AS_CPU = 0,
        MEM_ACC_VIRT_ADDR = 1,
        MEM_ACC_PHYS_ADDR = 2,
        MEM_ACC_PHYS_ADDR_SKIP_CACHES = 3,
        MEM_ACC_AS_MACHINE = 4,
   };

}
if (auto data_tlb = dynamic_cast<TLB *>(mem_data)) {
data_tlb->on_privilege_changed(restored);
}
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The dynamic cast are the last resort and the core should know (ideally) nothing about TLB except some control instructions to commands propagation.

One option is to add standard (synchronous) signal emit at set_current_privilege in the Core (it is QObject) and interconnect this signal to TLBs.

But when I think about it, then the right solution is to modify memory access FrontendMemory::write_ctl and FrontendMemory::read_ctl to propagate some control signals. Probably by pointer which can be null or may be with default parameters when passed by value (some struct which fits into 32 bits or uint in such case). These additional signals should propagate the privilege level and asid. This is how it is done o real CPUs. I.e., when the processor chips exposed bus to external MMU (68020) or when the buses are routed into FPGA fabric today. The control signals should be privilege level and current ASID. ASID should be held in core state and synchronized by some signal from CSR writes...

The TLB::on_privilege_changed should not be needed and for sure it should not flush TLB entries. It would cause extreme overhead for system calls and machine exceptions. The TLB flushes are maintained by operation system when page tables are modified or there is change of mapping of memory contexts to ASIDs. Seven switch to other memory context does not need the flush when ASIDs are unique.


#include "common/logging.h"
#include "execute/alu.h"
#include "memory/tlb/tlb.h"
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The TLB integration has to be solved such way that internal core logic does not need know how it works and how it is implemented. Same for tests etc.

TLBType type;
const TLBConfig tlb_config;
uint32_t current_satp_raw = 0;
CSR::PrivilegeLevel current_priv_ = CSR::PrivilegeLevel::MACHINE;
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The logic should be solved such way, that this field is not needed.

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There can be use for keeping some last access privilege level and ASID or something similar for visualization purposes. But for sure not for real work.

namespace machine {

inline bool is_mode_enabled_in_satp(uint32_t satp_raw) {
return (satp_raw & (1u << 31)) != 0;
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I do not like this inline there. It should go probably into TLB header.

return InstructionFlags(flags_to_check);
}

static CSR::PrivilegeLevel decode_xret_type_from_inst(const Instruction &inst) {
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This should be solved some other way. I would suggest to not solve this at decode level at all and left decision on ControlState::read and write or at least to the memory stage where illegal-instruction exception exception would be raised. It cannot be through standard exception signal from CSR, it has to be too late. It has to be by return value or some other way, optional pointer to status return. The illegal-instruction exception should be raised even if write to read only register is attempted and even when non-existent registers is addressed. All these information cannot be gathered at decode state. It would cost too much.

There is related discussion about RISC-V standard, which allows some situations where accesses to non existent/unspecified CSRs are reserved, but conclusion is that it should result in illegal-instruction as well except for some exotic arrangements

riscv/riscv-isa-manual#1116

// Mark illegal if current privilege is lower than encoded xRET type (e.g. MRET executed in S-mode)
if (state.current_privilege() < inst_xret_priv) {
excause = EXCAUSE_INSN_ILLEGAL;
}
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This change should not be needed. Should be solved by

const InstructionFlags check_inst_flags_val;
const InstructionFlags check_inst_flags_mask;

manipulation in set_current_privilege and snntation of the instructions by required mode IMF_PRIV_S, IMF_PRIV_H, IMF_PRIV_M in decoding tables.

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Thank you for your detailed feedback. I appreciate it and have made some changes based on your review. I would be grateful for any further feedback.

jdupak and others added 8 commits November 19, 2025 20:23
Implements a set-associative Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)
with replacement policies, Page-Table Walker,
and adds SV32-specific definitions.
Add privilege level mapping to the GUI so the current
hart privilege (UNPRIV, SUPERV, HYPERV, MACHINE) is displayed
in core state visualization.
Extend NewDialog with controls for virtual memory setup,
including TLB number of sets, associativity, and replacement
policy.
Introduce new components for displaying and tracking TLB
state similar to cache. TLBViewBlock and TLBAddressBlock
render per-set and per-way TLB contents, updated on tlb_update
signals. TLBViewScene assembles these views based on associativity.
TLBDock integrates into the GUI, showing hit/miss counts, memory
accesses, stall cycles, hit rate, and speed improvement, with live updates from the TLB.
Introduce an "As CPU (VMA)" access option in the cached
access selector to render memory contents as observed
by the CPU through the frontend interface.
Add a set of small assembly tests that exercise the SV32 page-table walker,
SATP enablement and the new TLB code. The tests create a root page
table and map a virtual page at 0xC4000000, then exercise several scenarios.
The tests verify page-table walker behaviour, SATP switching and TLB
caching/flush logic. Tests were written based on the consultation.
Ensure that TLBs are only updated when the root register is set,
and disable TLB updates while running in Machine mode.
…ion checks

Decode MRET/SRET/URET in the decode stage, carry the return
type through the interstage registers, and pass it
to ControlState::exception_return in the memory stage.
Extend instruction metadata with privilege flags (IMF_PRIV_M/H/S)
for privileged operations and use them for masking.
@nemecad nemecad force-pushed the feature/sv32-vm-tlb-ptw-cleanup branch from b5940e8 to 0fc627f Compare November 19, 2025 19:40
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Thanks for the updated version and work. In general it looks well except delivery of AccessMode along the way of address through the hierarchy.

@jdupak has updated master to use libelfin which passes even Windows tests now. So the TLB work should be rebased on that. He can help with doing tat with formatting so decide if he should do rebase the first and then you attempt tor resolve AccessMode or if that is processed vice-versa.

[[nodiscard]] RegisterValue read_ctl(enum AccessControl ctl, Address source) const;
[[nodiscard]] RegisterValue read_ctl(enum AccessControl ctl, Address source, uint32_t ctrl_info = 0) const;

virtual void handle_control_signal(uint32_t ctrl_info) { Q_UNUSED(ctrl_info); }
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I think that control signals should not be processed by separate function, they should be passed along through the memory front-ends hierarchy. So there should be no handle_control_signal method.

bool write_uXX(Address address, uintXX_t value, AccessEffects type = ae::REGULAR)

uintXX_t read_uXX(Address address, AccessEffects type = ae::REGULAR) const;

and related templates

template<typename T> T read_generic(Address address, AccessEffects type) const;

template<typename T> bool write_generic(Address address, T value, AccessEffects type);
should be updated and ctrl_info should be added afteraddress or before address parameter.

ctrl_info should have some defined type. It can be realized internally by uint32_t or something similar to make it optimally mapped. But may it be fields with specified bit-sizes are enough. The It would worth to keep whole size at most at 32 bits.

The type should hold ASID, 16 bits in maximum even for sv39 and sv48. The privilege level, 2 bits and uncached, 1 bit.

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The type name could be something like AccessMode.

[[nodiscard]] virtual LocationStatus location_status(Address address) const;
[[nodiscard]] virtual uint32_t get_change_counter() const = 0;

static inline CSR::PrivilegeLevel unpack_priv(uint32_t token) {
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These operations should be methods of AccessMode type.

}

void TLB::handle_control_signal(uint32_t ctrl_info) {
CSR::PrivilegeLevel priv = unpack_priv(ctrl_info);
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This should not be needed at the end. The AccessMode reaches TLB thorugh read and write.

QString::number(ctl));
}
}
handle_control_signal(ctrl_info);
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Should not be required there. ctrl_info has to be propagated into functions to realize access. I would suggest to add parameter ctrl_info or better AccesMode mode before value to keep order addeess, mode consistent for read and write.

QString::number(ctl));
}
}
const_cast<FrontendMemory *>(this)->handle_control_signal(ctrl_info);
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This location has effect for correct accesses because they return from the function as result of switch processing. You need to switch TLB mode before access even if it should be done by this separate function. But I discourage this. Mode signals should continue along address and data through hierarchy.

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The mode should be delivered to

Address TLB::translate_virtual_to_physical(Address vaddr)

in TLB case from

    WriteResult write(Address dst, const void *src, size_t sz, WriteOptions opts) override {
        return translate_and_write(dst, src, sz, opts);
    }
    ReadResult read(void *dst, Address src, size_t sz, ReadOptions opts) const override {
        return const_cast<TLB *>(this)->translate_and_read(dst, src, sz, opts);
    }

The translate_virtual_to_physical should check permissions as well from the mode.

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Thank you for your detailed feedback. I think it would be better if @jdupak did rebase first, and then I would make other changes.

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ppisa commented Dec 3, 2025

Then there is another option and to define type AddressWithMode which would combine and inherit from Address and AccessMode and that way it can be passed through front-end hierarchy with minimal modifications and some automatic promotion is made it can be even assigned by Address. @jdupak do you have opinion about this? But it is questionable what should be defined as AccessMode in such case, so it is better if that causes errors. Because from point of memory viewers it is best to have the highest privilege but then it automatically disables translation. So probably current mode should be copied into AddressWithMode from core state in memory view. But that is only relevant in MEM_ACC_AS_CPU, in other cases M mode is OK a cache disable is not required because it is controlled by through cache options etc...

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ppisa commented Dec 4, 2025

When I think about CRS access privileges, then it is question if the register number to privilege should be resolved in Instruction::flags_alu_op_mem_ctl at all. The standard defines, that unimplemented CSR registers access should result in unimplemented instruction exception. This means that this exception should be reported directly by control_state->read in Core::decode and or control_state->write in Core::memory. It can be done directly by read/write function through signal or by return value. It is already implemented by C++ exception in

RegisterValue ControlState::read(Address address, PrivilegeLevel current_priv) const
void ControlState::write(Address address, RegisterValue value, PrivilegeLevel current_priv)
size_t ControlState::get_register_internal_id(Address address)

It should be changed to emulated core exception in the corresponding instruction. It can be done by returning information about CSR access error to decode and memory stages and converted to exception there or it can be solved by caching of C++ exception there and converting it to exception in matching instruction.

When the code is rebased and some prototype of AddressWithMode or other change is prepared, we can meet and discuss that together to find the right solution for CSR and finalize privilege effects in TLB.

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3 participants