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

Table Of Contents
25-40 Vol. 3
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
25.15.6.5 Loading MSRs
The VM-exit MSR-load area is not used by SMM VM exits that activate the dual-
monitor treatment. No MSRs are loaded from that area.
25.15.7 Deactivating the Dual-Monitor Treatment
An SMM monitor may deactivate the dual monitor treatment and return the
processor to default treatment of SMIs and SMM (see Section 25.14). It does this by
executing a VM entry with the “deactivate dual-monitor treatment” VM-entry control
set to 1.
As noted in Section 22.2.1.3 and Section 25.15.4.1, an attempt to deactivate the
dual-monitor treatment fails in the following situations: (1) the processor is not in
SMM; (2) the “entry to SMM” VM-entry control is 1; or (3) the executive-VMCS
pointer does not contain the VMXON pointer (the VM entry is to VMX non-root oper-
ation).
As noted in Section 25.15.4.9, VM entries that deactivate the dual-monitor treat-
ment ignore the SMI bit in the interruptibility-state field of the guest-state area.
Instead, such a VM entry unconditionally unmasks SMIs.
25.16 SMI AND PROCESSOR EXTENDED STATE
MANAGEMENT
On processors that support processor extended states using XSAVE/XRSTOR (see
Chapter 12, “System Programming for Instruction Set Extensions and Processor
Extended States”), the processor does not save any XSAVE/XRSTOR related state on
an SMI. It is the responsibility of the SMM handler code to properly preserve the state
information (including CR4.OSXSAVE, the XFEATURE_ENABLED_MASK register, and
possibly processor extended states using XSAVE/XRSTOR). Therefore, the SMM
handler must follow the rules described in Chapter 12.