Model-Specific Registers (MSRs)
19
21329L/0—December 1999
AMD-K6
Processor BIOS Design
Write Allocate Enable 15-to-16-Mbyte.
The WAE15M bit is used to
enable write allocations for the memory write cycles that
address the 1 Mbyte of memory between 15 Mbytes and 16
Mbytes. This bit must be set to 1 to allow write allocates in this
memory area. This sub-mechanism of the WAELIM provides a
memory hole to prevent write allocates. This memory hole is
provided to account for a small number of uncommon
memory-mapped I/O adapters that use this particular memory
address space. If the system contains one of these peripherals,
the bit should be set to 0 (even if the WAE15M bit is set to 0,
write allocates can still occur between 15 Mbytes and 16
Mbytes due to the “Write to a Cacheable Page” and “Write to a
Sector” mechanisms). The WAE15M bit is ignored if the value
in the WAELIM field is set to less than 16 Mbytes.
By definition, write allocations are not performed in the
memory area between 640 Kbytes and 1 Mbyte unless the
processor determines a pending write cycle is cacheable by
means of “Write to a Cacheable Page” or “Write to a Sector.” It
is not safe to perform write allocations between 640 Kbytes and
1 Mbyte (000A_0000h to 000F_FFFFh) because it is considered
a noncacheable region of memory.
SYSCALL/SYSRET
Target Address
Register (STAR)
All steppings (F:0) of the AMD-K6-2 processor Model 8 and the
AMD-K6-III processor Model 9 implement the STAR register.
This register contains the target EIP address used by the
SYSCALL instruction and the 16-bit code and stack segment
selector bases used by the SYSCALL and SYSRET instructions.
Figure 4 shows the format of the STAR register, and Table 8
defines the function of each field of the STAR register. The
STAR register is MSR C000_0081h. For more information about
SYSCALL/SYSRET, see the
AMD-K6
Processor SYSCALL and
SYSRET Instruction Specification Application Note
, order# 21086.
Figure 4. SYSCALL/SYSRET Target Address Register (STAR)—MSR C000_0081h (Models 8 and 9)
31
0
63
Target EIP Address
32
47
48
SYSCALL CS Selector and SS
Selector Base
SYSRET CS Selector and SS
Selector Base