
AMD-K5 Processor
67
21062E/0—June 1997
AMD K86 Family BIOS and Software Tools Developers Guide
Preliminary Information
Virtual-8086 Mode
Extensions (VME)
The Virtual-8086 Mode Extensions (VME) bit in CR4 (bit 0)
enable performance enhancements for 8086 programs running
as protected tasks in Virtual-8086 mode. These extensions
include:
I
Virtualizing maskable external interrupt control and
notification via the VIF and VIP bits in EFLAGS
Selectively intercepting software interrupts (INT
n
instructions) via the Interrupt Redirection Bitmap (IRB) in
the Task State Segment (TSS)
I
Interrupt Redirection in Virtual-8086 Mode Without VME Extensions.
8086
programs expect to have full access to the interrupt flag (IF) in
the EFLAGS register, which enables maskable external
interrupts via the INTR signal. When 8086 programs run in
Virtual-8086 mode on a 386 or 486 processor, they run as
protected tasks and access to the IF flag must be controlled by
the operating system on a task-by-task basis to prevent
corruption of system resources.
Without the VME extensions available on the AMD-K5
processor, the operating system controls Virtual-8086 mode
access to the IF flag by trapping instructions that can read or
write this flag. These instructions include STI, CLI, PUSHF,
POPF, INT
n
, and IRET. This method prevents changes to the
real IF when the I/O privilege level (IOPL) in EFLAGS is less
than 3, the privilege level at which all Virtual-8086 tasks run.
The operating system maintains an image of the IF flag for each
Virtual-8086 program by emulating the instructions that read
or write IF. When an external maskable interrupt occurs, the
3
PWT
Page Writethrough
Specifies writeback or writethrough cache protocol for all loca-
tions in the page mapped by this page-table entry. Whether a
location is actually cached in a writeback or writethrough state
also depends on several other factors.
0 = writeback, 1 = writethrough.
0 = user (any CPL), 1 = supervisor (CPL < 3).
0 = read or execute, 1 = write, read, or execute.
0 = not valid, 1 = valid.
2
1
0
U/S
W/R
P
User/Supervisor
Write/Read
Present
Note:
*
The AMD-K5 processor supports global paging only on Models 1, 2, and 3, with a Stepping of 4 or greater.
Table 21. Page-Table Entry (PTE) Fields (continued)
Bit
Mnemonic
Description
Function