[POWERPC] Add fast little-endian switch system call

This adds a system call on 64-bit platforms for switching between
little-endian and big-endian modes that is much faster than doing a
prctl call.  This system call is handled as a special case right at
the start of the system call entry code, and because it is a special
case, it uses a system call number which is out of the range of
normal system calls, namely 0x1ebe.

Measurements with lmbench on a 4.2GHz POWER6 showed no measurable
change in the speed of normal system calls with this patch.

Switching endianness with this new system call takes around 60ns on a
4.2GHz POWER6, compared with around 300ns to switch endian mode with a
prctl.  This can provide a significant performance advantage for
emulators for little-endian architectures that want to switch between
big-endian and little-endian mode frequently, e.g. because they are
generating instructions sequences on the fly and they want to run
those sequences in little-endian mode.

The other thing about this system call is that it doesn't clobber as
many registers as a normal system call.  It only clobbers r12.

Signed-off-by: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/head_64.S b/arch/powerpc/kernel/head_64.S
index 215973a..024805e 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/head_64.S
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/head_64.S
@@ -239,6 +239,10 @@ instruction_access_slb_pSeries:
 	.globl	system_call_pSeries
 system_call_pSeries:
 	HMT_MEDIUM
+BEGIN_FTR_SECTION
+	cmpdi	r0,0x1ebe
+	beq-	1f
+END_FTR_SECTION_IFSET(CPU_FTR_REAL_LE)
 	mr	r9,r13
 	mfmsr	r10
 	mfspr	r13,SPRN_SPRG3
@@ -253,6 +257,13 @@ system_call_pSeries:
 	rfid
 	b	.	/* prevent speculative execution */
 
+/* Fast LE/BE switch system call */
+1:	mfspr	r12,SPRN_SRR1
+	xori	r12,r12,MSR_LE
+	mtspr	SPRN_SRR1,r12
+	rfid		/* return to userspace */
+	b	.
+
 	STD_EXCEPTION_PSERIES(0xd00, single_step)
 	STD_EXCEPTION_PSERIES(0xe00, trap_0e)