Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developers Manual Volume 3B, System Programming Guide Part 2
Table Of Contents
- Chapter 18 Debugging and Performance Monitoring
- 18.1 Overview of Debug Support Facilities
- 18.2 Debug Registers
- 18.3 Debug Exceptions
- 18.4 Last Branch Recording Overview
- 18.5 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (Intel® Core™2 Duo and Intel® Atom™ Processor Family)
- 18.6 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (Intel® Core™i7 Processor Family)
- 18.7 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (Processors based on Intel NetBurst® Microarchitecture)
- 18.7.1 CPL-Qualified Branch Trace Mechanism
- 18.7.2 MSR_DEBUGCTLA MSR
- 18.7.3 LBR Stack for Processors Based on Intel NetBurst Microarchitecture
- 18.7.4 Monitoring Branches, Exceptions, and Interrupts
- 18.7.5 Single-Stepping on Branches, Exceptions, and Interrupts
- 18.7.6 Branch Trace Messages
- 18.7.7 Last Exception Records
- 18.7.8 Branch Trace Store (BTS)
- 18.8 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (Intel® Core™ Solo and Intel® Core™ Duo Processors)
- 18.9 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (Pentium M Processors)
- 18.10 Last Branch, Interrupt, and Exception Recording (P6 Family Processors)
- 18.11 Time-Stamp Counter
- 18.12 Performance Monitoring Overview
- 18.13 Architectural Performance Monitoring
- 18.14 Performance Monitoring (Intel® Core™ Solo and Intel® Core™ Duo Processors)
- 18.15 Performance Monitoring (Processors based on Intel® Core™ Microarchitecture)
- 18.16 Performance Monitoring (Processors based on Intel® Atom™ Microarchitecture)
- 18.17 Performance Monitoring for Processors based on Intel® Microarchitecture (Nehalem)
- 18.18 Performance Monitoring (Processors Based on Intel NetBurst microarchitecture)
- 18.18.1 ESCR MSRs
- 18.18.2 Performance Counters
- 18.18.3 CCCR MSRs
- 18.18.4 Debug Store (DS) Mechanism
- 18.18.5 DS Save Area
- 18.18.6 Programming the Performance Counters for Non-Retirement Events
- 18.18.6.1 Selecting Events to Count
- 18.18.6.2 Filtering Events
- 18.18.6.3 Starting Event Counting
- 18.18.6.4 Reading a Performance Counter’s Count
- 18.18.6.5 Halting Event Counting
- 18.18.6.6 Cascading Counters
- 18.18.6.7 EXTENDED CASCADING
- 18.18.6.8 Generating an Interrupt on Overflow
- 18.18.6.9 Counter Usage Guideline
- 18.18.7 At-Retirement Counting
- 18.18.8 Precise Event-Based Sampling (PEBS)
- 18.18.9 Operating System Implications
- 18.19 Performance Monitoring and Intel Hyper- Threading Technology in Processors Based on Intel NetBurst Microarchitecture
- 18.20 Counting Clocks
- 18.21 Performance Monitoring, Branch Profiling and System Events
- 18.22 Performance Monitoring and Dual-Core Technology
- 18.23 Performance Monitoring on 64-bit Intel Xeon Processor MP with Up to 8-MByte L3 Cache
- 18.24 Performance Monitoring on L3 and Caching Bus Controller sub-systems
- 18.25 Performance Monitoring (P6 Family Processor)
- 18.26 Performance Monitoring (Pentium Processors)
- Chapter 19 Introduction to Virtual-Machine Extensions
- Chapter 20 Virtual-Machine Control Structures
- 20.1 Overview
- 20.2 Format of the VMCS Region
- 20.3 Organization of VMCS Data
- 20.4 Guest-State Area
- 20.5 Host-State Area
- 20.6 VM-Execution Control Fields
- 20.6.1 Pin-Based VM-Execution Controls
- 20.6.2 Processor-Based VM-Execution Controls
- 20.6.3 Exception Bitmap
- 20.6.4 I/O-Bitmap Addresses
- 20.6.5 Time-Stamp Counter Offset
- 20.6.6 Guest/Host Masks and Read Shadows for CR0 and CR4
- 20.6.7 CR3-Target Controls
- 20.6.8 Controls for APIC Accesses
- 20.6.9 MSR-Bitmap Address
- 20.6.10 Executive-VMCS Pointer
- 20.6.11 Extended-Page-Table Pointer (EPTP)
- 20.6.12 Virtual-Processor Identifier (VPID)
- 20.7 VM-Exit Control Fields
- 20.8 VM-Entry Control Fields
- 20.9 VM-Exit Information Fields
- 20.10 Software Access to the VMCS and Related Structures
- 20.11 Using VMCLEAR to Initialize a VMCS Region
- Chapter 21 VMX Non-Root Operation
- 21.1 Instructions That Cause VM Exits
- 21.2 APIC-Access VM Exits
- 21.3 Other Causes of VM Exits
- 21.4 Changes to Instruction Behavior in VMX Non- Root Operation
- 21.5 APIC Accesses That Do Not Cause VM Exits
- 21.6 Other Changes in VMX Non-Root Operation
- 21.7 Features Specific to VMX Non-Root Operation
- Chapter 22 VM Entries
- 22.1 Basic VM-Entry Checks
- 22.2 Checks on VMX Controls and Host-State Area
- 22.3 Checking and Loading Guest State
- 22.3.1 Checks on the Guest State Area
- 22.3.1.1 Checks on Guest Control Registers, Debug Registers, and MSRs
- 22.3.1.2 Checks on Guest Segment Registers
- 22.3.1.3 Checks on Guest Descriptor-Table Registers
- 22.3.1.4 Checks on Guest RIP and RFLAGS
- 22.3.1.5 Checks on Guest Non-Register State
- 22.3.1.6 Checks on Guest Page-Directory-Pointer-Table Entries
- 22.3.2 Loading Guest State
- 22.3.3 Clearing Address-Range Monitoring
- 22.3.1 Checks on the Guest State Area
- 22.4 Loading MSRs
- 22.5 Event Injection
- 22.6 Special Features of VM Entry
- 22.6.1 Interruptibility State
- 22.6.2 Activity State
- 22.6.3 Delivery of Pending Debug Exceptions after VM Entry
- 22.6.4 VMX-Preemption Timer
- 22.6.5 Interrupt-Window Exiting
- 22.6.6 NMI-Window Exiting
- 22.6.7 VM Exits Induced by the TPR Shadow
- 22.6.8 Pending MTF VM Exits
- 22.6.9 VM Entries and Advanced Debugging Features
- 22.7 VM-Entry Failures During or After Loading Guest State
- 22.8 Machine Checks During VM Entry
- Chapter 23 VM Exits
- 23.1 Architectural State Before a VM Exit
- 23.2 Recording VM-Exit Information and Updating VM-Entry Control Fields
- 23.3 Saving Guest State
- 23.4 Saving MSRs
- 23.5 Loading Host State
- 23.5.1 Loading Host Control Registers, Debug Registers, MSRs
- 23.5.2 Loading Host Segment and Descriptor-Table Registers
- 23.5.3 Loading Host RIP, RSP, and RFLAGS
- 23.5.4 Checking and Loading Host Page-Directory-Pointer-Table Entries
- 23.5.5 Updating Non-Register State
- 23.5.6 Clearing Address-Range Monitoring
- 23.6 Loading MSRs
- 23.7 VMX Aborts
- 23.8 Machine Check During VM Exit
- Chapter 24 Support for Address Translation
- 24.1 Virtual Processor Identifiers (VPIDs)
- 24.2 Extended Page Tables (EPT)
- 24.3 Caching Translation Information
- Chapter 25 System Management
- 25.1 System Management Mode Overview
- 25.2 System Management Interrupt (SMI)
- 25.3 Switching Between SMM and the Other Processor Operating Modes
- 25.4 SMRAM
- 25.5 SMI Handler Execution Environment
- 25.6 Exceptions and Interrupts Within SMM
- 25.7 Managing Synchronous and Asynchronous System Management Interrupts
- 25.8 NMI Handling While in SMM
- 25.9 SMM Revision Identifier
- 25.10 Auto HALT Restart
- 25.11 SMBASE Relocation
- 25.12 I/O Instruction Restart
- 25.13 SMM Multiple-Processor Considerations
- 25.14 Default Treatment of SMIs and SMM with VMX Operation and SMX Operation
- 25.15 Dual-Monitor Treatment of SMIs and SMM
- 25.15.1 Dual-Monitor Treatment Overview
- 25.15.2 SMM VM Exits
- 25.15.3 Operation of an SMM Monitor
- 25.15.4 VM Entries that Return from SMM
- 25.15.4.1 Checks on the Executive-VMCS Pointer Field
- 25.15.4.2 Checks on VM-Execution Control Fields
- 25.15.4.3 Checks on VM-Entry Control Fields
- 25.15.4.4 Checks on Guest Non-Register State
- 25.15.4.5 Loading Guest State
- 25.15.4.6 VMX-Preemption Timer
- 25.15.4.7 Updating the Current-VMCS and SMM-Transfer VMCS Pointers
- 25.15.4.8 VM Exits Induced by VM Entry
- 25.15.4.9 SMI Blocking
- 25.15.4.10 Failures of VM Entries That Return from SMM
- 25.15.5 Enabling the Dual-Monitor Treatment
- 25.15.6 Activating the Dual-Monitor Treatment
- 25.15.7 Deactivating the Dual-Monitor Treatment
- 25.16 SMI and Processor Extended State Management
- Chapter 26 Virtual-Machine Monitor Programming Considerations
- 26.1 VMX System Programming Overview
- 26.2 Supporting Processor Operating Modes in Guest Environments
- 26.3 Managing VMCS Regions and Pointers
- 26.4 Using VMX Instructions
- 26.5 VMM Setup & Tear Down
- 26.6 Preparation and Launching a Virtual Machine
- 26.7 Handling of VM Exits
- 26.8 Multi-Processor Considerations
- 26.9 32-Bit and 64-Bit Guest Environments
- 26.10 Handling Model Specific Registers
- 26.11 Handling Accesses to Control Registers
- 26.12 Performance Considerations
- Chapter 27 Virtualization of System Resources
- 27.1 Overview
- 27.2 Virtualization Support for Debugging Facilities
- 27.3 Memory Virtualization
- 27.4 Microcode Update Facility
- Chapter 28 Handling Boundary Conditions in a Virtual Machine Monitor
- Appendix A Performance-Monitoring Events
- A.1 Architectural Performance-Monitoring Events
- A.2 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Intel® Core™i7 Processor Family
- A.3 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Xeon® Processor 5200, 5400 Series and Intel® Core™2 Extreme ProcessorS QX 9000 Series
- A.4 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Xeon® Processor 3000, 3200, 5100, 5300 Series and Intel® Core™2 Duo ProcessorS
- A.5 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Atom™ ProcessorS
- A.6 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Core™ Solo and Intel® Core™ Duo ProcessorS
- A.7 Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon Processor Performance-Monitoring Events
- A.8 Performance Monitoring Events for Intel® Pentium® M ProcessorS
- A.9 P6 Family Processor Performance- Monitoring Events
- A.10 Pentium Processor Performance- Monitoring Events
- Appendix B Model-Specific Registers (MSRs)
- B.1 Architectural MSRs
- B.2 MSRs In the Intel® Core™ 2 Processor Family
- B.3 MSRs In the Intel® Atom™ Processor Family
- B.4 MSRs In the Intel® Microarchitecture (Nehalem)
- B.5 MSRs In the Pentium® 4 and Intel® Xeon® Processors
- B.6 MSRs In Intel® Core™ Solo and Intel® Core™ Duo Processors
- B.7 MSRs In the Pentium M Processor
- B.8 MSRs In the P6 Family Processors
- B.9 MSRs in Pentium Processors
- Appendix C MP Initialization For P6 Family Processors
- Appendix D Programming the LINT0 and LINT1 Inputs
- Appendix E Interpreting Machine-Check Error Codes
- E.1 Incremental Decoding Information: Processor Family 06H Machine Error Codes For Machine Check
- E.2 Incremental Decoding Information: Intel Core 2 Processor Family Machine Error Codes For Machine Check
- E.3 Incremental Decoding Information: Processor Family with CPUID DisplayFamily_DisplayModel Signature 06_1AH, Machine Error Codes For Machine Check
- E.4 Incremental Decoding Information: Processor Family 0FH Machine Error Codes For Machine Check
- Appendix F APIC Bus Message Formats
- Appendix G VMX Capability Reporting Facility
- Appendix H Field Encoding in VMCS
- Appendix I VMX Basic Exit Reasons

Vol. 3 18-5
DEBUGGING AND PERFORMANCE MONITORING
Certain debug exceptions may clear bits 0-3. The remaining contents of the DR6
register are never cleared by the processor. To avoid confusion in identifying debug
exceptions, debug handlers should clear the register before returning to the inter-
rupted task.
18.2.4 Debug Control Register (DR7)
The debug control register (DR7) enables or disables breakpoints and sets break-
point conditions (see Figure 18-1). The flags and fields in this register control the
following things:
• L0 through L3 (local breakpoint enable) flags (bits 0, 2, 4, and 6) —
Enables (when set) the breakpoint condition for the associated breakpoint for the
current task. When a breakpoint condition is detected and its associated Ln flag
is set, a debug exception is generated. The processor automatically clears these
flags on every task switch to avoid unwanted breakpoint conditions in the new
task.
• G0 through G3 (global breakpoint enable) flags (bits 1, 3, 5, and 7) —
Enables (when set) the breakpoint condition for the associated breakpoint for all
tasks. When a breakpoint condition is detected and its associated Gn flag is set,
a debug exception is generated. The processor does not clear these flags on a
task switch, allowing a breakpoint to be enabled for all tasks.
• LE and GE (local and global exact breakpoint enable) flags (bits 8, 9) —
This feature is not supported in the P6 family processors, later IA-32 processors,
and Intel 64 processors. When set, these flags cause the processor to detect the
exact instruction that caused a data breakpoint condition. For backward and
forward compatibility with other Intel processors, we recommend that the LE and
GE flags be set to 1 if exact breakpoints are required.
• GD (general detect enable) flag (bit 13) — Enables (when set) debug-
register protection, which causes a debug exception to be generated prior to any
MOV instruction that accesses a debug register. When such a condition is
detected, the BD flag in debug status register DR6 is set prior to generating the
exception. This condition is provided to support in-circuit emulators.
When the emulator needs to access the debug registers, emulator software can
set the GD flag to prevent interference from the program currently executing on
the processor.
The processor clears the GD flag upon entering to the debug exception handler,
to allow the handler access to the debug registers.
• R/W0 through R/W3 (read/write) fields (bits 16, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28,
and 29) — Specifies the breakpoint condition for the corresponding breakpoint.
The DE (debug extensions) flag in control register CR4 determines how the bits in
the R/Wn fields are interpreted. When the DE flag is set, the processor interprets
bits as follows: