[PATCH 1/1] armv8: reduce core errata dispatch work

Josh Law josh2 at disroot.org
Sun May 24 14:38:22 CEST 2026


apply_core_errata() currently runs both Cortex A53 and A57 part
checks even when no matching erratum is built in. For boards with no
ARM core errata, that means two MIDR_EL1 reads and two comparisons
on every CPU entry before lowlevel_init().

Only build the dispatch code when one of the supported errata is
enabled. When A57 errata are enabled, read MIDR_EL1 once and reuse
the extracted part number.

Measured on qemu_arm64_defconfig and ls2080aqds_qspi_defconfig:

Case                         before   after
qemu start.o text bytes      392      336
qemu linked text bytes       1437007  1436963
qemu dispatch instructions   15       1
ls2080 start.o text bytes    600      576
ls2080 dispatch instructions 33       26

A KVM virt microbench using the same dispatch instruction sequences
and one million calls gave:

Case            before ticks/call  after ticks/call  speedup
no errata path  27.09              20.78             1.30x
A57 miss path   28.93              26.50             1.09x

Signed-off-by: Josh Law <josh2 at disroot.org>
---
 arch/arm/cpu/armv8/start.S | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/start.S b/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/start.S
index 40c342e97e9..5c847ed0f85 100644
--- a/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/start.S
+++ b/arch/arm/cpu/armv8/start.S
@@ -209,30 +209,41 @@ master_cpu:
 
 /*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
 
+#if defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_826974) || defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_828024) || \
+	defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_829520) || defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_833069) || \
+	defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_833471)
+#define ARMV8_CORTEX_A57_ERRATA
+#endif
+
 WEAK(apply_core_errata)
 
+#if defined(CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_855873) || defined(ARMV8_CORTEX_A57_ERRATA)
 	mov	x29, lr			/* Save LR */
 	/* For now, we support Cortex-A53, Cortex-A57 specific errata */
+	mrs	x0, midr_el1
+	ubfx	x1, x0, #4, #12		/* CPU part number */
 
-	/* Check if we are running on a Cortex-A53 core */
-	branch_if_a53_core x0, apply_a53_core_errata
+#ifdef CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_855873
+	cmp	x1, #0xD03		/* Cortex-A53 MPCore processor */
+	b.eq	apply_a53_core_errata
+#endif
 
-	/* Check if we are running on a Cortex-A57 core */
-	branch_if_a57_core x0, apply_a57_core_errata
+#ifdef ARMV8_CORTEX_A57_ERRATA
+	cmp	x1, #0xD07		/* Cortex-A57 MPCore processor */
+	b.eq	apply_a57_core_errata
+#endif
 0:
 	mov	lr, x29			/* Restore LR */
+#endif
 	ret
 
-apply_a53_core_errata:
-
 #ifdef CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_855873
-	mrs	x0, midr_el1
+apply_a53_core_errata:
 	tst	x0, #(0xf << 20)
 	b.ne	0b
 
-	mrs	x0, midr_el1
-	and	x0, x0, #0xf
-	cmp	x0, #3
+	and	x1, x0, #0xf
+	cmp	x1, #3
 	b.lt	0b
 
 	mrs	x0, S3_1_c15_c2_0	/* cpuactlr_el1 */
@@ -240,9 +251,10 @@ apply_a53_core_errata:
 	orr	x0, x0, #1 << 44
 	msr	S3_1_c15_c2_0, x0	/* cpuactlr_el1 */
 	isb
-#endif
 	b 0b
+#endif
 
+#ifdef ARMV8_CORTEX_A57_ERRATA
 apply_a57_core_errata:
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_ARM_ERRATA_828024
@@ -294,6 +306,7 @@ apply_a57_core_errata:
 	isb
 #endif
 	b 0b
+#endif
 ENDPROC(apply_core_errata)
 
 /*-----------------------------------------------------------------------*/
-- 
2.47.3



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