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-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst17
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
index b799a43da6..39bd6ecce7 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/pm/intel_idle.rst
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ and ``idle=nomwait``. If any of them is present in the kernel command line, the
``MWAIT`` instruction is not allowed to be used, so the initialization of
``intel_idle`` will fail.
-Apart from that there are four module parameters recognized by ``intel_idle``
+Apart from that there are five module parameters recognized by ``intel_idle``
itself that can be set via the kernel command line (they cannot be updated via
sysfs, so that is the only way to change their values).
@@ -216,6 +216,21 @@ are ignored).
The idle states disabled this way can be enabled (on a per-CPU basis) from user
space via ``sysfs``.
+The ``ibrs_off`` module parameter is a boolean flag (defaults to
+false). If set, it is used to control if IBRS (Indirect Branch Restricted
+Speculation) should be turned off when the CPU enters an idle state.
+This flag does not affect CPUs that use Enhanced IBRS which can remain
+on with little performance impact.
+
+For some CPUs, IBRS will be selected as mitigation for Spectre v2 and Retbleed
+security vulnerabilities by default. Leaving the IBRS mode on while idling may
+have a performance impact on its sibling CPU. The IBRS mode will be turned off
+by default when the CPU enters into a deep idle state, but not in some
+shallower ones. Setting the ``ibrs_off`` module parameter will force the IBRS
+mode to off when the CPU is in any one of the available idle states. This may
+help performance of a sibling CPU at the expense of a slightly higher wakeup
+latency for the idle CPU.
+
.. _intel-idle-core-and-package-idle-states: