[PATCH v1] riscv: kconfig: enable -mtune built kernel
Jisheng Zhang
jszhang at kernel.org
Wed Nov 11 07:13:54 PST 2026
On Tue, Nov 10, 2026 at 02:07:59PM -0600, Andy Chiu wrote:
> On a machine that supports native unaligned access, enabling unaligned
> access code-gen can result in a significant speedup on certain workloads.
> As the adoption of application-level core increases, it has become
> essential to build a kernel utilizing what's available on the platform.
>
> Here are the examples of throughput improvement when the build is
> configured to utilize misaligned access code-gen:
>
> LZ4 compress: +90.6% (Ascalon-X), +35.1% (K3-X100)
> LZ4 decompress: +9.8% (Ascalon-X), +76.6% (K3-X100)
> ZSTD compress: +35.4% (Ascaloon-X), +19.4% (K3-X100)
> ZSTD decompress: +26.0% (Ascalon-X), +7.5% (K3-X100)
>
> btrfs create: +7.4% (Ascalon-X), +4.5% (K3-X100)
> btrfs unlink: +7.2% (Ascalon-X), +2.6% (K3-X100)
how much improvement is from unaliagned access, and how much is from
-mtune. So these numbers don't explain why -mtune is neceesary.
>
> To enable such code-gen, the build system not only has to remove
> -mstrict-align restriction, but also needs to set the proper -mtune cost
> model to emit such accesses. -mstrict-align is gated by NONPORTABLE and
> RISCV_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS, and -mtune=generic-ooo enables the
Following the same reason as arm64, I don't think we should introduce
per-cpu -mtune options into arch/riscv/Kconfig.
IIRC, arm64 intentionally avoided adding -mtune options to Kconfig to
prevent endless per-vendor or even per-cpu option bloat, toolchain
flag churn, and fragmention away from a sigle Image.
>From another side, when someone needs a custom -mtune for a fixed
target, they can pass the already well supported KCFLAGS="-mtune ..."
at build time without needing dedicated Kconfig symbols for every
core.
Furthermore, having an -mtune option silently select NONPORTABLE and
RISCV_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS breaks user expectations. NONPORTABLE
breaks cross platform compatibility, while -mtune is just a compiler
scheduling hint
thanks
> code-gen to emit misaligned accesses.
>
> Add an entry in Kconfig so it allows the build system to select different
> mtune options. Also, select NONPORTABLE and
> RISCV_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS when building with "generic-ooo", and
> "tt-ascalon-d8".
>
> Signed-off-by: Andy Chiu <tchiu at tenstorrent.com>
> ---
> arch/riscv/Kconfig | 62 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> arch/riscv/Makefile | 14 ++++++++++
> 2 files changed, 76 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/riscv/Kconfig b/arch/riscv/Kconfig
> index e7891a2a89da..d53225fead4a 100644
> --- a/arch/riscv/Kconfig
> +++ b/arch/riscv/Kconfig
> @@ -980,8 +980,67 @@ config RISCV_SBI_FWFT_DELEGATE_MISALIGNED
>
> If you don't know what to do here, say N.
>
> +config TOOLCHAIN_HAS_MTUNE_TT_ASCALON_D8
> + def_bool $(cc-option,-mtune=tt-ascalon-d8)
> +
> +choice
> + prompt "CPU tuning (-mtune)"
> + default RISCV_MTUNE_TOOLCHAIN_DEFAULT
> + help
> + Select the microarchitecture the compiler should tune the kernel
> + for. This only affects instruction scheduling and cost models, not
> + the ISA, but some choices also assume fast unaligned accesses and
> + therefore result in a non-portable kernel.
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE_TOOLCHAIN_DEFAULT
> + bool "Toolchain default"
> + help
> + Do not pass -mtune; use whatever the toolchain was configured with.
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE_GENERIC_OOO
> + bool "generic-ooo"
> + depends on $(cc-option,-mtune=generic-ooo)
> + select NONPORTABLE
> + select RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> + help
> + Tune for a generic out-of-order core (-mtune=generic-ooo). This
> + also assumes fast unaligned scalar accesses.
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE_TT_ASCALON
> + bool "Tenstorrent Ascalon"
> + depends on TOOLCHAIN_HAS_MTUNE_TT_ASCALON_D8
> + select NONPORTABLE
> + select RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> + help
> + Tune for the Tenstorrent Ascalon core (-mtune=tt-ascalon-d8). This
> + also assumes fast unaligned scalar accesses.
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE_CUSTOM
> + bool "Custom"
> + help
> + Pass -mtune=<RISCV_MTUNE> to the compiler.
> +
> +endchoice
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE
> + string "Custom -mtune value" if RISCV_MTUNE_CUSTOM
> + default "generic-ooo" if RISCV_MTUNE_GENERIC_OOO
> + default "tt-ascalon-d8" if RISCV_MTUNE_TT_ASCALON
> + default ""
> + help
> + The value passed to -mtune=, e.g. "sifive-7-series". Only
> + editable when the "Custom" CPU tuning is selected, in which case
> + it must not be empty or the build will fail.
> +
> +config RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> + bool
> + help
> + Selected by -mtune choices that imply fast unaligned scalar
> + accesses. Forces RISCV_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS.
> +
> choice
> prompt "Unaligned Accesses Support"
> + default RISCV_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS if RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> default RISCV_PROBE_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
> help
> This determines the level of support for unaligned accesses. This
> @@ -991,6 +1050,7 @@ choice
>
> config RISCV_PROBE_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
> bool "Probe for hardware unaligned access support"
> + depends on !RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> select RISCV_SCALAR_MISALIGNED
> help
> During boot, the kernel will run a series of tests to determine the
> @@ -1002,6 +1062,7 @@ config RISCV_PROBE_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
>
> config RISCV_EMULATED_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
> bool "Emulate unaligned access where system support is missing"
> + depends on !RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> select RISCV_SCALAR_MISALIGNED
> help
> If unaligned memory accesses trap into the kernel as they are not
> @@ -1012,6 +1073,7 @@ config RISCV_EMULATED_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
> config RISCV_SLOW_UNALIGNED_ACCESS
> bool "Assume the system supports slow unaligned memory accesses"
> depends on NONPORTABLE
> + depends on !RISCV_MTUNE_FAST_UNALIGNED
> help
> Assume that the system supports slow unaligned memory accesses. The
> kernel and userspace programs may not be able to run at all on systems
> diff --git a/arch/riscv/Makefile b/arch/riscv/Makefile
> index 44f5a439741a..08f1a32228ef 100644
> --- a/arch/riscv/Makefile
> +++ b/arch/riscv/Makefile
> @@ -89,6 +89,11 @@ CC_FLAGS_FPU := -march=$(shell echo $(riscv-march-y) | sed -E 's/(rv32ima|rv64i
>
> KBUILD_CFLAGS += -mno-save-restore
>
> +riscv-mtune := $(CONFIG_RISCV_MTUNE:"%"=%)
> +ifneq ($(riscv-mtune),)
> +KBUILD_CFLAGS += -mtune=$(riscv-mtune)
> +endif
> +
> ifeq ($(CONFIG_CMODEL_MEDLOW),y)
> KBUILD_CFLAGS += -mcmodel=medlow
> endif
> @@ -149,6 +154,15 @@ KBUILD_IMAGE := $(boot)/$(boot-image-y)
> libs-y += arch/riscv/lib/
> libs-$(CONFIG_EFI_STUB) += $(objtree)/drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/lib.a
>
> +archprepare: checkmtune
> +PHONY += checkmtune
> +checkmtune:
> +ifeq ($(CONFIG_RISCV_MTUNE_CUSTOM)$(riscv-mtune),y)
> + @echo '*** CONFIG_RISCV_MTUNE_CUSTOM is set but CONFIG_RISCV_MTUNE is empty.' >&2
> + @echo '*** Set the custom -mtune value or pick another CPU tuning.' >&2
> + @false
> +endif
> +
> ifeq ($(KBUILD_EXTMOD),)
> ifeq ($(CONFIG_MMU),y)
> prepare: vdso_prepare
> --
> 2.43.0
>
>
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