Error Detection And Correction (EDAC) Devices¶
Main Concepts used at the EDAC subsystem¶
There are several things to be aware of that aren’t at all obvious, like sockets, *socket sets, banks, rows, chip-select rows, channels, etc...
These are some of the many terms that are thrown about that don’t always mean what people think they mean (Inconceivable!). In the interest of creating a common ground for discussion, terms and their definitions will be established.
- Memory devices
The individual DRAM chips on a memory stick. These devices commonly output 4 and 8 bits each (x4, x8). Grouping several of these in parallel provides the number of bits that the memory controller expects: typically 72 bits, in order to provide 64 bits + 8 bits of ECC data.
- Memory Stick
A printed circuit board that aggregates multiple memory devices in parallel. In general, this is the Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) which gets replaced, in the case of excessive errors. Most often it is also called DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module).
- Memory Socket
A physical connector on the motherboard that accepts a single memory stick. Also called as “slot” on several datasheets.
- Channel
A memory controller channel, responsible to communicate with a group of DIMMs. Each channel has its own independent control (command) and data bus, and can be used independently or grouped with other channels.
- Branch
It is typically the highest hierarchy on a Fully-Buffered DIMM memory controller. Typically, it contains two channels. Two channels at the same branch can be used in single mode or in lockstep mode. When lockstep is enabled, the cacheline is doubled, but it generally brings some performance penalty. Also, it is generally not possible to point to just one memory stick when an error occurs, as the error correction code is calculated using two DIMMs instead of one. Due to that, it is capable of correcting more errors than on single mode.
- Single-channel
The data accessed by the memory controller is contained into one dimm only. E. g. if the data is 64 bits-wide, the data flows to the CPU using one 64 bits parallel access. Typically used with SDR, DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 memories. FB-DIMM and RAMBUS use a different concept for channel, so this concept doesn’t apply there.
- Double-channel
The data size accessed by the memory controller is interlaced into two dimms, accessed at the same time. E. g. if the DIMM is 64 bits-wide (72 bits with ECC), the data flows to the CPU using a 128 bits parallel access.
- Chip-select row
This is the name of the DRAM signal used to select the DRAM ranks to be accessed. Common chip-select rows for single channel are 64 bits, for dual channel 128 bits. It may not be visible by the memory controller, as some DIMM types have a memory buffer that can hide direct access to it from the Memory Controller.
- Single-Ranked stick
A Single-ranked stick has 1 chip-select row of memory. Motherboards commonly drive two chip-select pins to a memory stick. A single-ranked stick, will occupy only one of those rows. The other will be unused.
- Double-Ranked stick
A double-ranked stick has two chip-select rows which access different sets of memory devices. The two rows cannot be accessed concurrently.
- Double-sided stick
DEPRECATED TERM, see Double-Ranked stick.
A double-sided stick has two chip-select rows which access different sets of memory devices. The two rows cannot be accessed concurrently. “Double-sided” is irrespective of the memory devices being mounted on both sides of the memory stick.
- Socket set
All of the memory sticks that are required for a single memory access or all of the memory sticks spanned by a chip-select row. A single socket set has two chip-select rows and if double-sided sticks are used these will occupy those chip-select rows.
- Bank
This term is avoided because it is unclear when needing to distinguish between chip-select rows and socket sets.
Memory Controllers¶
Most of the EDAC core is focused on doing Memory Controller error detection.
The edac_mc_alloc()
. It uses internally the struct mem_ctl_info
to describe the memory controllers, with is an opaque struct for the EDAC
drivers. Only the EDAC core is allowed to touch it.
-
enum
dev_type
¶ describe the type of memory DRAM chips used at the stick
Constants
DEV_UNKNOWN
- Can’t be determined, or MC doesn’t support detect it
DEV_X1
- 1 bit for data
DEV_X2
- 2 bits for data
DEV_X4
- 4 bits for data
DEV_X8
- 8 bits for data
DEV_X16
- 16 bits for data
DEV_X32
- 32 bits for data
DEV_X64
- 64 bits for data
Description
Typical values are x4 and x8.
-
enum
hw_event_mc_err_type
¶ type of the detected error
Constants
HW_EVENT_ERR_CORRECTED
- Corrected Error - Indicates that an ECC corrected error was detected
HW_EVENT_ERR_UNCORRECTED
- Uncorrected Error - Indicates an error that can’t be corrected by ECC, but it is not fatal (maybe it is on an unused memory area, or the memory controller could recover from it for example, by re-trying the operation).
HW_EVENT_ERR_DEFERRED
- Deferred Error - Indicates an uncorrectable error whose handling is not urgent. This could be due to hardware data poisoning where the system can continue operation until the poisoned data is consumed. Preemptive measures may also be taken, e.g. offlining pages, etc.
HW_EVENT_ERR_FATAL
- Fatal Error - Uncorrected error that could not be recovered.
HW_EVENT_ERR_INFO
- Informational - The CPER spec defines a forth type of error: informational logs.
-
enum
mem_type
¶ memory types. For a more detailed reference, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM
Constants
MEM_EMPTY
- Empty csrow
MEM_RESERVED
- Reserved csrow type
MEM_UNKNOWN
- Unknown csrow type
MEM_FPM
- FPM - Fast Page Mode, used on systems up to 1995.
MEM_EDO
- EDO - Extended data out, used on systems up to 1998.
MEM_BEDO
- BEDO - Burst Extended data out, an EDO variant.
MEM_SDR
- SDR - Single data rate SDRAM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronous_dynamic_random-access_memory They use 3 pins for chip select: Pins 0 and 2 are for rank 0; pins 1 and 3 are for rank 1, if the memory is dual-rank.
MEM_RDR
- Registered SDR SDRAM
MEM_DDR
- Double data rate SDRAM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR_SDRAM
MEM_RDDR
- Registered Double data rate SDRAM This is a variant of the DDR memories. A registered memory has a buffer inside it, hiding part of the memory details to the memory controller.
MEM_RMBS
- Rambus DRAM, used on a few Pentium III/IV controllers.
MEM_DDR2
- DDR2 RAM, as described at JEDEC JESD79-2F. Those memories are labeled as “PC2-” instead of “PC” to differentiate from DDR.
MEM_FB_DDR2
- Fully-Buffered DDR2, as described at JEDEC Std No. 205 and JESD206. Those memories are accessed per DIMM slot, and not by a chip select signal.
MEM_RDDR2
- Registered DDR2 RAM This is a variant of the DDR2 memories.
MEM_XDR
- Rambus XDR It is an evolution of the original RAMBUS memories, created to compete with DDR2. Weren’t used on any x86 arch, but cell_edac PPC memory controller uses it.
MEM_DDR3
- DDR3 RAM
MEM_RDDR3
- Registered DDR3 RAM This is a variant of the DDR3 memories.
MEM_LRDDR3
- Load-Reduced DDR3 memory.
MEM_DDR4
- Unbuffered DDR4 RAM
MEM_RDDR4
- Registered DDR4 RAM This is a variant of the DDR4 memories.
MEM_LRDDR4
- Load-Reduced DDR4 memory.
MEM_NVDIMM
- Non-volatile RAM
-
enum
edac_type
¶ type - Error Detection and Correction capabilities and mode
Constants
EDAC_UNKNOWN
- Unknown if ECC is available
EDAC_NONE
- Doesn’t support ECC
EDAC_RESERVED
- Reserved ECC type
EDAC_PARITY
- Detects parity errors
EDAC_EC
- Error Checking - no correction
EDAC_SECDED
- Single bit error correction, Double detection
EDAC_S2ECD2ED
- Chipkill x2 devices - do these exist?
EDAC_S4ECD4ED
- Chipkill x4 devices
EDAC_S8ECD8ED
- Chipkill x8 devices
EDAC_S16ECD16ED
- Chipkill x16 devices
-
enum
scrub_type
¶ scrubbing capabilities
Constants
SCRUB_UNKNOWN
- Unknown if scrubber is available
SCRUB_NONE
- No scrubber
SCRUB_SW_PROG
- SW progressive (sequential) scrubbing
SCRUB_SW_SRC
- Software scrub only errors
SCRUB_SW_PROG_SRC
- Progressive software scrub from an error
SCRUB_SW_TUNABLE
- Software scrub frequency is tunable
SCRUB_HW_PROG
- HW progressive (sequential) scrubbing
SCRUB_HW_SRC
- Hardware scrub only errors
SCRUB_HW_PROG_SRC
- Progressive hardware scrub from an error
SCRUB_HW_TUNABLE
- Hardware scrub frequency is tunable
-
enum
edac_mc_layer_type
¶ memory controller hierarchy layer
Constants
EDAC_MC_LAYER_BRANCH
- memory layer is named “branch”
EDAC_MC_LAYER_CHANNEL
- memory layer is named “channel”
EDAC_MC_LAYER_SLOT
- memory layer is named “slot”
EDAC_MC_LAYER_CHIP_SELECT
- memory layer is named “chip select”
EDAC_MC_LAYER_ALL_MEM
- memory layout is unknown. All memory is mapped as a single memory area. This is used when retrieving errors from a firmware driven driver.
Description
This enum is used by the drivers to tell edac_mc_sysfs what name should be used when describing a memory stick location.
-
struct
edac_mc_layer
¶ describes the memory controller hierarchy
Definition
struct edac_mc_layer {
enum edac_mc_layer_type type;
unsigned size;
bool is_virt_csrow;
};
Members
type
- layer type
size
- number of components per layer. For example, if the channel layer has two channels, size = 2
is_virt_csrow
- This layer is part of the “csrow” when old API compatibility mode is enabled. Otherwise, it is a channel
-
EDAC_DIMM_OFF
(layers, nlayers, layer0, layer1, layer2)¶ Macro responsible to get a pointer offset inside a pointer array for the element given by [layer0,layer1,layer2] position
Parameters
layers
- a struct edac_mc_layer array, describing how many elements were allocated for each layer
nlayers
- Number of layers at the layers array
layer0
- layer0 position
layer1
- layer1 position. Unused if n_layers < 2
layer2
- layer2 position. Unused if n_layers < 3
Description
For 1 layer, this macro returns “var[layer0] - var”;
For 2 layers, this macro is similar to allocate a bi-dimensional array and to return “var[layer0][layer1] - var”;
For 3 layers, this macro is similar to allocate a tri-dimensional array and to return “var[layer0][layer1][layer2] - var”.
A loop could be used here to make it more generic, but, as we only have 3 layers, this is a little faster.
By design, layers can never be 0 or more than 3. If that ever happens, a NULL is returned, causing an OOPS during the memory allocation routine, with would point to the developer that he’s doing something wrong.
-
EDAC_DIMM_PTR
(layers, var, nlayers, layer0, layer1, layer2)¶ Macro responsible to get a pointer inside a pointer array for the element given by [layer0,layer1,layer2] position
Parameters
layers
- a struct edac_mc_layer array, describing how many elements were allocated for each layer
var
- name of the var where we want to get the pointer (like mci->dimms)
nlayers
- Number of layers at the layers array
layer0
- layer0 position
layer1
- layer1 position. Unused if n_layers < 2
layer2
- layer2 position. Unused if n_layers < 3
Description
For 1 layer, this macro returns “var[layer0]”;
For 2 layers, this macro is similar to allocate a bi-dimensional array and to return “var[layer0][layer1]”;
For 3 layers, this macro is similar to allocate a tri-dimensional array and to return “var[layer0][layer1][layer2]”;
-
struct
rank_info
¶ contains the information for one DIMM rank
Definition
struct rank_info {
int chan_idx;
struct csrow_info *csrow;
struct dimm_info *dimm;
u32 ce_count;
};
Members
chan_idx
- channel number where the rank is (typically, 0 or 1)
csrow
- A pointer to the chip select row structure (the parent structure). The location of the rank is given by the (csrow->csrow_idx, chan_idx) vector.
dimm
- A pointer to the DIMM structure, where the DIMM label information is stored.
ce_count
- number of correctable errors for this rank
Description
- FIXME: Currently, the EDAC core model will assume one DIMM per rank.
- This is a bad assumption, but it makes this patch easier. Later patches in this series will fix this issue.
-
struct
edac_raw_error_desc
¶ Raw error report structure
Definition
struct edac_raw_error_desc {
char location[LOCATION_SIZE];
char label[(EDAC_MC_LABEL_LEN + 1 + sizeof(OTHER_LABEL)) * EDAC_MAX_LABELS];
long grain;
u16 error_count;
int top_layer;
int mid_layer;
int low_layer;
unsigned long page_frame_number;
unsigned long offset_in_page;
unsigned long syndrome;
const char *msg;
const char *other_detail;
bool enable_per_layer_report;
};
Members
location
- location of the error
label
- label of the affected DIMM(s)
grain
- minimum granularity for an error report, in bytes
error_count
- number of errors of the same type
top_layer
- top layer of the error (layer[0])
mid_layer
- middle layer of the error (layer[1])
low_layer
- low layer of the error (layer[2])
page_frame_number
- page where the error happened
offset_in_page
- page offset
syndrome
- syndrome of the error (or 0 if unknown or if the syndrome is not applicable)
msg
- error message
other_detail
- other driver-specific detail about the error
enable_per_layer_report
- if false, the error affects all layers (typically, a memory controller error)
-
struct mem_ctl_info *
edac_mc_alloc
(unsigned mc_num, unsigned n_layers, struct edac_mc_layer * layers, unsigned sz_pvt)¶ Allocate and partially fill a struct
mem_ctl_info
.
Parameters
unsigned mc_num
- Memory controller number
unsigned n_layers
- Number of MC hierarchy layers
struct edac_mc_layer * layers
- Describes each layer as seen by the Memory Controller
unsigned sz_pvt
- size of private storage needed
Description
Everything is kmalloc’ed as one big chunk - more efficient. Only can be used if all structures have the same lifetime - otherwise you have to allocate and initialize your own structures.
Use edac_mc_free()
to free mc structures allocated by this function.
Note
drivers handle multi-rank memories in different ways: in some drivers, one multi-rank memory stick is mapped as one entry, while, in others, a single multi-rank memory stick would be mapped into several entries. Currently, this function will allocate multiple struct dimm_info on such scenarios, as grouping the multiple ranks require drivers change.
Return
On success, return a pointer to struct mem_ctl_info pointer;NULL
otherwise
-
const char *
edac_get_owner
(void)¶ Return the owner’s mod_name of EDAC MC
Parameters
void
- no arguments
Return
Pointer to mod_name string when EDAC MC is owned. NULL otherwise.
-
void
edac_mc_free
(struct mem_ctl_info * mci)¶ Frees a previously allocated mci structure
Parameters
struct mem_ctl_info * mci
- pointer to a struct mem_ctl_info structure
-
bool
edac_has_mcs
(void)¶ Check if any MCs have been allocated.
Parameters
void
- no arguments
Return
True if MC instances have been registered successfully. False otherwise.
-
struct mem_ctl_info *
edac_mc_find
(int idx)¶ Search for a mem_ctl_info structure whose index is idx.
Parameters
int idx
- index to be seek
Description
If found, return a pointer to the structure. Else return NULL.
-
struct mem_ctl_info *
find_mci_by_dev
(struct device * dev)¶ Scan list of controllers looking for the one that manages the dev device.
Parameters
struct device * dev
- pointer to a struct device related with the MCI
Return
on success, returns a pointer to struct mem_ctl_info
;
NULL
otherwise.
-
struct mem_ctl_info *
edac_mc_del_mc
(struct device * dev)¶ Remove sysfs entries for mci structure associated with dev and remove mci structure from global list.
Parameters
struct device * dev
- Pointer to struct
device
representing mci structure to remove.
Return
pointer to removed mci structure, or NULL
if device not found.
-
int
edac_mc_find_csrow_by_page
(struct mem_ctl_info * mci, unsigned long page)¶ Ancillary routine to identify what csrow contains a memory page.
Parameters
struct mem_ctl_info * mci
- pointer to a struct mem_ctl_info structure
unsigned long page
- memory page to find
Return
on success, returns the csrow. -1 if not found.
-
void
edac_raw_mc_handle_error
(const enum hw_event_mc_err_type type, struct mem_ctl_info * mci, struct edac_raw_error_desc * e)¶ Reports a memory event to userspace without doing anything to discover the error location.
Parameters
const enum hw_event_mc_err_type type
- severity of the error (CE/UE/Fatal)
struct mem_ctl_info * mci
- a struct mem_ctl_info pointer
struct edac_raw_error_desc * e
- error description
Description
This raw function is used internally by edac_mc_handle_error()
. It should
only be called directly when the hardware error come directly from BIOS,
like in the case of APEI GHES driver.
-
void
edac_mc_handle_error
(const enum hw_event_mc_err_type type, struct mem_ctl_info * mci, const u16 error_count, const unsigned long page_frame_number, const unsigned long offset_in_page, const unsigned long syndrome, const int top_layer, const int mid_layer, const int low_layer, const char * msg, const char * other_detail)¶ Reports a memory event to userspace.
Parameters
const enum hw_event_mc_err_type type
- severity of the error (CE/UE/Fatal)
struct mem_ctl_info * mci
- a struct mem_ctl_info pointer
const u16 error_count
- Number of errors of the same type
const unsigned long page_frame_number
- mem page where the error occurred
const unsigned long offset_in_page
- offset of the error inside the page
const unsigned long syndrome
- ECC syndrome
const int top_layer
- Memory layer[0] position
const int mid_layer
- Memory layer[1] position
const int low_layer
- Memory layer[2] position
const char * msg
- Message meaningful to the end users that explains the event
const char * other_detail
- Technical details about the event that may help hardware manufacturers and EDAC developers to analyse the event
PCI Controllers¶
The EDAC subsystem provides a mechanism to handle PCI controllers by calling
the edac_pci_alloc_ctl_info()
. It will use the struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
to describe the PCI controllers.
-
struct edac_pci_ctl_info *
edac_pci_alloc_ctl_info
(unsigned int sz_pvt, const char * edac_pci_name)¶
Parameters
unsigned int sz_pvt
- size of the private info at struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
const char * edac_pci_name
- name of the PCI device
Description
Thealloc()
function for the ‘edac_pci’ control info structure.
The chip driver will allocate one of these for each edac_pci it is going to control/register with the EDAC CORE.
Return
a pointer to struct edac_pci_ctl_info
on success; NULL
otherwise.
-
void
edac_pci_free_ctl_info
(struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci)¶
Parameters
struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci
- pointer to struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
Description
Last action on the pci control structure.
Calls the remove sysfs information, which will unregister
this control struct’s kobj. When that kobj’s ref count
goes to zero, its release function will be call and then
kfree()
the memory.
-
int
edac_pci_alloc_index
(void)¶
Parameters
void
- no arguments
Return
allocated index number
-
int
edac_pci_add_device
(struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci, int edac_idx)¶
Parameters
struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci
- pointer to the edac_device structure to be added to the list
int edac_idx
- A unique numeric identifier to be assigned to the ‘edac_pci’ structure.
Description
edac_pci global list and create sysfs entries associated with edac_pci structure.
Return
0 on Success, or an error code on failure
Parameters
struct device * dev
- Pointer to ‘struct device’ representing edac_pci structure to remove
Description
Remove sysfs entries for specified edac_pci structure and then remove edac_pci structure from global list
Return
Pointer to removed edac_pci structure, orNULL
if device not found
Parameters
struct device * dev
- pointer to struct
device
; const char * mod_name
- name of the PCI device
Description
A generic constructor for a PCI parity polling device Some systems have more than one domain of PCI busses. For systems with one domain, then this API will provide for a generic poller.
This routine calls the edac_pci_alloc_ctl_info()
for
the generic device, with default values
Return
- Pointer to struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
on success,NULL
on - failure.
-
void
edac_pci_release_generic_ctl
(struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci)¶
Parameters
struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci
- pointer to struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
Description
The release function of a generic EDAC PCI polling device
-
int
edac_pci_create_sysfs
(struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci)¶
Parameters
struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci
- pointer to struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
Description
Create the controls/attributes for the specified EDAC PCI device
-
void
edac_pci_remove_sysfs
(struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci)¶
Parameters
struct edac_pci_ctl_info * pci
- pointer to struct
edac_pci_ctl_info
Description
remove the controls and attributes for this EDAC PCI device
EDAC Blocks¶
The EDAC subsystem also provides a generic mechanism to report errors on
other parts of the hardware via edac_device_alloc_ctl_info()
function.
The structures edac_dev_sysfs_block_attribute
,
edac_device_block
, edac_device_instance
and
edac_device_ctl_info
provide a generic or abstract ‘edac_device’
representation at sysfs.
This set of structures and the code that implements the APIs for the same, provide for registering EDAC type devices which are NOT standard memory or PCI, like:
- CPU caches (L1 and L2)
- DMA engines
- Core CPU switches
- Fabric switch units
- PCIe interface controllers
- other EDAC/ECC type devices that can be monitored for errors, etc.
It allows for a 2 level set of hierarchy.
For example, a cache could be composed of L1, L2 and L3 levels of cache. Each CPU core would have its own L1 cache, while sharing L2 and maybe L3 caches. On such case, those can be represented via the following sysfs nodes:
/sys/devices/system/edac/..
pci/ <existing pci directory (if available)>
mc/ <existing memory device directory>
cpu/cpu0/.. <L1 and L2 block directory>
/L1-cache/ce_count
/ue_count
/L2-cache/ce_count
/ue_count
cpu/cpu1/.. <L1 and L2 block directory>
/L1-cache/ce_count
/ue_count
/L2-cache/ce_count
/ue_count
...
the L1 and L2 directories would be "edac_device_block's"
-
int
edac_device_add_device
(struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev)¶
Parameters
struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev
- pointer to edac_device structure to be added to the list ‘edac_device’ structure.
Description
edac_device global list and create sysfs entries associated with edac_device structure.
Return
0 on Success, or an error code on failure
Parameters
struct device * dev
- Pointer to struct
device
representing the edac device structure to remove.
Description
Remove sysfs entries for specified edac_device structure and then remove edac_device structure from global list
Return
Pointer to removed edac_device structure, orNULL
if device not found.
-
void
edac_device_handle_ue
(struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev, int inst_nr, int block_nr, const char * msg)¶
Parameters
struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev
- pointer to struct
edac_device_ctl_info
int inst_nr
- number of the instance where the UE error happened
int block_nr
- number of the block where the UE error happened
const char * msg
- message to be printed
Description
perform a common output and handling of an ‘edac_dev’ UE event
-
void
edac_device_handle_ce
(struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev, int inst_nr, int block_nr, const char * msg)¶
Parameters
struct edac_device_ctl_info * edac_dev
- pointer to struct
edac_device_ctl_info
int inst_nr
- number of the instance where the CE error happened
int block_nr
- number of the block where the CE error happened
const char * msg
- message to be printed
Description
perform a common output and handling of an ‘edac_dev’ CE event
-
int
edac_device_alloc_index
(void)¶
Parameters
void
- no arguments
Return
allocated index number