Notes on System Management Mode [SMM]

SMM:
SMM [System Management Mode] is an operating mode entered through the assertion of the SMI# pin. The processor upon detecting a SMI# saves the processor state in SMRAM [The base address of the SMRAM is obtained form an internal SMBASE register. The reset value of SMBASE register is 0x30000]. The processor saves several architectural values into the SMRAM (like the values of CR0, CR3, CR4 etc) when it enters SMM. To exit out of SMM , software executes a RSM(resume) instruction. During the RSM instruction, the processor reloads the architectural state from SMRAM and gets back to the state it was prior to the SMI#.
Here is a loosely defined algorithm for entering and exiting SMM:
1.Processor is executing a task (say T).
2.SMI# is detected by the processor.
3.Processor saves all information pertaining to task T in the SMRAM. It issues SMI_ENTER_ACK bus cycle and enters SMM.
4.Processor executes code from the SMM space[starting at address 0x38000]
5.When it executes the RSM instruction, the processor reloads the prior architectural state from SMRAM and then issues SMI_EXIT_ACK bus cycle and exits SMM.
6.Processor resumes executing the task T.

During Step 5, while the processor loads architectural state, it performs few checks on the state being loaded:
1.It checks the reserved bits of CR4.
2.It checks CR0 register for illegal combinations. For eg: CR0.PG=1 and CR0.PE=0 or CR0.CD=0 and and NW=1 .
If the checks above fail, then the processor enters shutdown.
[Note: there may be additional checks performed. CR0 and CR4 values in SMRAM should be left untouched by the SMM handler. These checks exist to make sure that the handler does not modify values to put the processor in an incompatible state after the execution of RSM].