1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 =====================================
4 Virtual Memory Layout on RISC-V Linux
5 =====================================
7 :Author: Alexandre Ghiti <alex@ghiti.fr>
8 :Date: 12 February 2021
10 This document describes the virtual memory layout used by the RISC-V Linux
13 RISC-V Linux Kernel 32bit
14 =========================
16 RISC-V Linux Kernel SV32
17 ------------------------
21 RISC-V Linux Kernel 64bit
22 =========================
24 The RISC-V privileged architecture document states that the 64bit addresses
25 "must have bits 63–48 all equal to bit 47, or else a page-fault exception will
26 occur.": that splits the virtual address space into 2 halves separated by a very
27 big hole, the lower half is where the userspace resides, the upper half is where
28 the RISC-V Linux Kernel resides.
30 RISC-V Linux Kernel SV39
31 ------------------------
35 ========================================================================================================================
36 Start addr | Offset | End addr | Size | VM area description
37 ========================================================================================================================
39 0000000000000000 | 0 | 0000003fffffffff | 256 GB | user-space virtual memory, different per mm
40 __________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
42 0000004000000000 | +256 GB | ffffffbfffffffff | ~16M TB | ... huge, almost 64 bits wide hole of non-canonical
43 | | | | virtual memory addresses up to the -256 GB
44 | | | | starting offset of kernel mappings.
45 __________________|____________|__________________|_________|___________________________________________________________
47 | Kernel-space virtual memory, shared between all processes:
48 ____________________________________________________________|___________________________________________________________
50 ffffffc000000000 | -256 GB | ffffffc7ffffffff | 32 GB | kasan
51 ffffffcefee00000 | -196 GB | ffffffcefeffffff | 2 MB | fixmap
52 ffffffceff000000 | -196 GB | ffffffceffffffff | 16 MB | PCI io
53 ffffffcf00000000 | -196 GB | ffffffcfffffffff | 4 GB | vmemmap
54 ffffffd000000000 | -192 GB | ffffffdfffffffff | 64 GB | vmalloc/ioremap space
55 ffffffe000000000 | -128 GB | ffffffff7fffffff | 124 GB | direct mapping of all physical memory
56 __________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________
59 ____________________________________________________________|____________________________________________________________
61 ffffffff00000000 | -4 GB | ffffffff7fffffff | 2 GB | modules, BPF
62 ffffffff80000000 | -2 GB | ffffffffffffffff | 2 GB | kernel
63 __________________|____________|__________________|_________|____________________________________________________________