Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developers Manual Volume 3B, System Programming Guide Part 2

Table Of Contents
25-2 Vol. 3
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
All interrupts normally handled by the operating system are disabled upon entry
into SMM.
The RSM instruction can be executed only in SMM.
SMM is similar to real-address mode in that there are no privilege levels or address
mapping. An SMM program can address up to 4 GBytes of memory and can execute
all I/O and applicable system instructions. See Section 25.5 for more information
about the SMM execution environment.
NOTES
The physical address extension (PAE) mechanism introduced in the
P6 family processors is not supported when a processor is in SMM.
The IA-32e mode address-translation mechanism is not supported in
SMM. See Section 3.10 of Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures
Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 3A.
25.1.1 System Management Mode and VMX Operation
Traditionally, SMM services system management interrupts and then resumes
program execution (back to the software stack consisting of executive and applica-
tion software; see Section 25.2 through Section 25.13).
A virtual machine monitor (VMM) using VMX can act as a host to multiple virtual
machines and each virtual machine can support its own software stack of executive
and application software. On processors that support VMX, virtual-machine exten-
sions may use system-management interrupts (SMIs) and system-management
mode (SMM) in one of two ways:
Default treatment. System firmware handles SMIs. The processor saves archi-
tectural states and critical states relevant to VMX operation upon entering SMM.
When the firmware completes servicing SMIs, it uses RSM to resume VMX
operation.
Dual-monitor treatment. Two VM monitors collaborate to control the servicing
of SMIs: one VMM operates outside of SMM to provide basic virtualization in
support for guests; the other VMM operates inside SMM (while in VMX operation)
to support system-management functions. The former is referred to as
executive monitor, the latter SMM monitor.
1
The default treatment is described in Section 25.14, “Default Treatment of SMIs and
SMM with VMX Operation and SMX Operation”. Dual-monitor treatment of SMM is
described in Section 25.15, “Dual-Monitor Treatment of SMIs and SMM”.
1. The dual-monitor treatment may not be supported by all processors. Software should consult the
VMX capability MSR IA32_VMX_BASIC (see Appendix G.1) to determine whether it is supported.