[PATCH v2 2/2] ARM: permit non-nested kernel mode NEON in softirq context

[Ard Biesheuvel]

We currently only permit kernel mode NEON in process context, to avoid
the need to preserve/restore the NEON register file when taking an
exception while running in the kernel.

Like we did on arm64, we can relax this restriction substantially, by
permitting kernel mode NEON from softirq context, while ensuring that
softirq processing is disabled when the NEON is being used in task
context. This guarantees that only NEON context belonging to user space
needs to be preserved and restored, which is already taken care of.

This is especially relevant for network encryption, where incoming
frames are typically handled in softirq context, and deferring software
decryption to a kernel thread or falling back to C code are both
undesirable from a performance PoV.

Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ardb at kernel.org>
---
 arch/arm/include/asm/simd.h |  8 ++++++++
 arch/arm/vfp/vfpmodule.c    | 13 ++++++-------
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm/include/asm/simd.h b/arch/arm/include/asm/simd.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000..82191dbd7e78a036
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arch/arm/include/asm/simd.h
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+
+#include <linux/hardirq.h>
+
+static __must_check inline bool may_use_simd(void)
+{
+	return IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_KERNEL_MODE_NEON) && !in_hardirq();
+}
diff --git a/arch/arm/vfp/vfpmodule.c b/arch/arm/vfp/vfpmodule.c
index 8f5bc672b4aac04a..4e1a786df76df157 100644
--- a/arch/arm/vfp/vfpmodule.c
+++ b/arch/arm/vfp/vfpmodule.c
@@ -723,12 +723,12 @@ void kernel_neon_begin(void)
 	local_bh_disable();
 
 	/*
-	 * Kernel mode NEON is only allowed outside of interrupt context
-	 * with preemption disabled. This will make sure that the kernel
-	 * mode NEON register contents never need to be preserved.
+	 * Kernel mode NEON is only allowed outside of hardirq context with
+	 * preemption and softirq processing disabled. This will make sure that
+	 * the kernel mode NEON register contents never need to be preserved.
 	 */
-	BUG_ON(in_interrupt());
-	cpu = get_cpu();
+	BUG_ON(in_hardirq());
+	cpu = __smp_processor_id();
 
 	fpexc = fmrx(FPEXC) | FPEXC_EN;
 	fmxr(FPEXC, fpexc);
@@ -744,7 +744,6 @@ void kernel_neon_begin(void)
 		vfp_save_state(vfp_current_hw_state[cpu], fpexc);
 #endif
 	vfp_current_hw_state[cpu] = NULL;
-	local_bh_enable();
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_neon_begin);
 
@@ -752,7 +751,7 @@ void kernel_neon_end(void)
 {
 	/* Disable the NEON/VFP unit. */
 	fmxr(FPEXC, fmrx(FPEXC) & ~FPEXC_EN);
-	put_cpu();
+	local_bh_enable();
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(kernel_neon_end);
 
-- 
2.35.1