summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/NOTES
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'NOTES')
-rw-r--r--NOTES311
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 311 deletions
diff --git a/NOTES b/NOTES
deleted file mode 100644
index d87bbfc..0000000
--- a/NOTES
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,311 +0,0 @@
-Memory Addressing
-=================
- There is 3 types of addresses: virtual, physical, and bus. For DMA a bus
- address is used. However, on x86 physical and bus addresses are the same (on
- other architectures it is not guaranteed). Anyway, this assumption is still
- used by xdma driver, it uses phiscal address for DMA access. I have ported
- in the same way. Now, we need to provide additionaly bus-addresses in kmem
- abstraction and use it in NWL DMA implementation.
-
-DMA Access Synchronization
-==========================
- - At driver level, few types of buffers are supported:
- * SIMPLE - non-reusable buffers, the use infomation can be used for cleanup
- after crashed applications.
- * EXCLUSIVE - reusable buffers which can be mmaped by a single appliction
- only. There is two modes of these buffers:
- + Buffers in a STANDARD mode are created for a single DMA operation and
- if such buffer is detected while trying to reuse, the last operation
- has failed and reset is needed.
- + Buffers in a PERSISTENT mode are preserved between invocations of
- control application and cleaned up only after the PERSISTENT flag is
- removed
- * SHARED - reusable buffers shared by multiple processes. Not really
- needed at the moment.
-
- KMEM_FLAG_HW - indicates that buffer can be used by hardware, acually this
- means that DMA will be enabled afterwards. The driver is not able to check
- if it really was enable and therefore will block any attempt to release
- buffer until KMEM_HW_FLAG is passed to kmem_free routine as well. The later
- should only called with KMEM_HW_FLAG after the DMA engine is stopped. Then,
- the driver can be realesd by kmem_free if ref count reaches 0.
-
- KMEM_FLAG_EXCLUSIVE - prevents multiple processes mmaping the buffer
- simultaneously. This is used to prevent multiple processes use the same
- DMA engine at the same time. When passed to kmem_free, allows to clean
- buffers with lost clients even for shared buffers.
-
- KMEM_FLAG_REUSE - requires reuse of existing buffer. If reusable buffer is
- found (non-reusable buffers, i.e. allocated without KMEM_FLAG_REUSE are
- ignored), it is returned instead of allocation. Three types of usage
- counters are used. At moment of allocation, the HW reference is set if
- neccessary. The usage counter is increased by kmem_alloc function and
- decreased by kmem_free. Finally, the reference is obtained at returned
- during mmap/munmap. So, on kmem_free, we do not clean
- a) buffers with reference count above zero or hardware reference set.
- REUSE flag should be supplied, overwise the error is returned
- b) PERSISTENT buffer. REUSE flash should be supplied, overwise the
- error is returned
- c) non-exclusive buffers with usage counter above zero (For exclusive
- buffer the value of usage counter above zero just means that application
- have failed without cleaning buffers first. There is no easy way to
- detect that for shared buffers, so it is left as manual operation in
- this case)
- d) any buffer if KMEM_FLAG_REUSE was provided to function
- During module unload, only buffers with references can prevent cleanup. In
- this case the only possiblity to free the driver is to call kmem_free
- passing FORCE flags.
-
- KMEM_FLAG_PERSISTENT - if passed to allocation routine, changes mode of
- buffer to PERSISTENT, if passed to free routine, vice-versa changes mode
- of buffer to NORMAL. Basically, if we call 'pci --dma-start' this flag
- should be passed to alloc and if we call 'pci --dma-stop' it should be
- passed to free. In other case, the flag should not be present.
-
- If application crashed, the munmap while be still called cleaning software
- references. However, the hardware reference will stay since it is not clear
- if hardware channel was closed or not. To lift hardware reference, the
- application can be re-executed (or dma_stop called, for instance).
- * If there is no hardware reference, the buffers will be reused by next
- call to application and for EXCLUSIVE buffer cleaned at the end. For SHARED
- buffers they will be cleaned during module cleanup only (no active
- references).
- * The buffer will be reused by next call which can result in wrong behaviour
- if buffer left in incoherent stage. This should be handled on upper level.
-
- - At pcilib/kmem level synchronization of multiple buffers is performed
- * The HW reference and following modes should be consistent between member
- parts: REUSABLE, PERSISTENT, EXCLUSIVE (only HW reference and PERSISTENT
- mode should be checked, others are handled on dirver level)
- * It is fine if only part of buffers are reused and others are newly
- allocated. However, on higher level this can be checked and resulting
- in failure.
-
- Treatment of inconsistencies:
- * Buffers are in PRESISTENT mode, but newly allocated, OK
- * Buffers are reused, but are not in PERSISTENT mode (for EXCLUSIVE buffers
- this means that application has crashed during the last execution), OK
- * Some of buffers are reused (not just REUSABLE, but actually reused),
- others - not, OK until
- a) either PERSISTENT flag is set or reused buffers are non-PERSISTENT
- b) either HW flag is set or reused buffers does not hold HW reference
- * PERSISTENT mode inconsistency, FAIL (even if we are going to set
- PERSISTENT mode anyway)
- * HW reference inconsistency, FAIL (even if we are going to set
- HW flag anyway)
-
- On allocation error at some of the buffer, call clean routine and
- * Preserve PERSISTENT mode and HW reference if buffers held them before
- unsuccessful kmem initialization. Until the last failed block, the blocks
- of kmem should be consistent. The HW/PERSISTENT flags should be removed
- if all reused blocks were in HW/PERSISTENT mode. The last block needs
- special treatment. The flags may be removed for the block if it was
- HW/PERSISTENT state (and others not).
- * Remove REUSE flag, we want to clean if allowed by current buffer status
- * EXCLUSIVE flag is not important for kmem_free routine.
-
- - At DMA level
- There is 4 components of DMA access:
- * DMA engine enabled/disabled
- * DMA engine IRQs enabled/disabled - always enabled at startup
- * Memory buffers
- * Ring start/stop pointers
-
- To prevent multiple processes accessing DMA engine in parallel, the first
- action is buffer initialization which will fail if buffers already used
- * Always with REUSE, EXCLUSIVE, and HW flags
- * Optionally with PERSISTENT flag (if DMA_PERSISTENT flag is set)
- If another DMA app is running, the buffer allocation will fail (no dma_stop
- is executed in this case)
-
- Depending on PRESERVE flag, kmem_free will be called with REUSE flag
- keeping buffer in memory (this is redundant since HW flag is enough) or HW
- flag indicating that DMA engine is stopped and buffer could be cleaned.
- PERSISTENT flag is defined by DMA_PERSISTENT flag passed to stop routine.
-
- PRESERVE flag is enforced if DMA_PERSISTENT is not passed to dma_stop
- routine and either it:
- a) Explicitely set by DMA_PERMANENT flag passed to dma_start
- function
- b) Implicitely set if DMA engine is already enabled during dma_start,
- all buffers are reused, and are in persistent mode.
- If PRESERVE flag is on, the engine will not be stopped at the end of
- execution (and buffers will stay because of HW flag).
-
- If buffers are reused and are already in PERSISTENT mode, DMA engine was on
- before dma_start (PRESERVE flag is ignored, because it can be enforced),
- ring pointers are calculated from LAST_BD and states of ring elements.
- If previous application crashed (i.e. buffers may be corrupted). Two
- cases are possible:
- * If during the call buffers were in non-PERSISTENT mode, it can be
- easily detected - buffers are reused, but are not in PERSISTENT mode
- (or at least was not before we set them to). In this case we just
- reinitialize all buffers.
- * If during the call buffers were in PERSISTENT mode, it is up to
- user to check their consistency and restart DMA engine.]
-
- IRQs are enabled and disabled at each call
-
-DMA Reads
-=========
-standard: default reading mode, reads a single full packet
-multipacket: reads all available packets
-waiting multipacket: reads all available packets, after finishing the
- last one waiting if new data arrives
-exact read: read exactly specified number of bytes (should be
- only supported if it is multiple of packets, otherwise
- error should be returned)
-ignore packets: autoterminate each buffer, depends on engine
- configuration
-
- To handle differnt cases, the value returned by callback function instructs
-the DMA library how long to wait for the next data to appear before timing
-out. The following variants are possible:
-terminate: just bail out
-check: no timeout, just check if there is data, otherwise
- terminate
-timeout: standard DMA timeout, normaly used while receiving
- fragments of packet: in this case it is expected
- that device has already prepared data and only
- the performance of DMA engine limits transfer speed
-wait: wait until the data is prepared by the device, this
- timeout is specified as argument to the dma_stream
- function (standard DMA timeout is used by default)
-
- first | new_pkt | bufer
- --------------------------
-standard wait | term | timeout
-multiple packets wait | check | timeout - DMA_READ_FLAG_MULTIPACKET
-waiting multipacket wait | wait | timeout - DMA_READ_FLAG_WAIT
-exact wait | wait/term | timeout - limited by size parameter
-ignore packets wait | wait/check| wait/check - just autoterminated
-
-Shall we do a special handling in case of overflow?
-
-
-Buffering
-=========
- The DMA addresses are limited to 32 bits (~4GB for everything). This means we
- can't really use DMA pages are sole buffers. Therefore, a second thread, with
- a realtime scheduling policy if possible, will be spawned and will copy the
- data from the DMA pages into the allocated buffers. On expiration of duration
- or number of events set by autostop call, this thread will be stopped but
- processing in streaming mode will continue until all copyied data is passed
- to the callbacks.
-
- To avoid stalls, the IPECamera requires data to be read continuously read out.
- For this reason, there is no locks in the readout thread. It will simplify
- overwrite the old frames if data is not copied out timely. To handle this case
- after getting the data and processing it, the calling application should use
- return_data function and check return code. This function may return error
- indicating that the data was overwritten meanwhile. Hence, the data is
- corrupted and shoud be droped by the application. The copy_data function
- performs this check and user application can be sure it get coherent data
- in this case.
-
- There is a way to avoid this problem. For raw data, the rawdata callback
- can be requested. This callback blocks execution of readout thread and
- data may be treated safely by calling application. However, this may
- cause problems to electronics. Therefore, only memcpy should be performed
- on the data normally.
-
- The reconstructed data, however, may be safely accessed. As described above,
- the raw data will be continuously overwritten by the reader thread. However,
- reconstructed data, upon the get_data call, will be protected by the mutex.
-
-
-Register Access Synchronization
-===============================
- We need to serialize access to the registers by the different running
- applications and handle case when registers are accessed indirectly by
- writting PCI BARs (DMA implementations, for instance).
-
- - Module-assisted locking:
- * During initialization the locking context is created (which is basicaly
- a kmem_handle of type LOCK_PAGE.
- * This locking context is passed to the kernel module along with lock type
- (LOCK_BANK) and lock item (BANK ADDRESS). If lock context is already owns
- lock on the specified bank, just reference number is increased, otherwise
- we are trying to obtain new lock.
- * Kernel module just iterates over all registered lock pages and checks if
- any holds the specified lock. if not, the lock is obtained and registered
- in the our lock page.
- * This allows to share access between multiple threads of single application
- (by using the same lock page) or protect (by using own lock pages by each of
- the threads)
- * Either on application cleanup or if application crashed, the memory mapping
- of lock page is removed and, hence, locks are freed.
-
- - Multiple-ways of accessing registers
- Because of reference counting, we can successfully obtain locks multiple
- times if necessary. The following locks are protecting register access:
- a) Global register_read/write lock bank before executing implementation
- b) DMA bank is locked by global DMA functions. So we can access the
- registers using plain PCI bar read/write.
- c) Sequence of register operations can be protected with pcilib_lock_bank
- function
- Reading raw register space or PCI bank is not locked.
- * Ok. We can detect banks which will be affected by PCI read/write and
- lock them. But shall we do it?
-
-Register/DMA Configuration
-==========================
- - XML description of registers
- - Formal XML-based (or non XML-based) language for DMA implementation.
- a) Writting/Reading register values
- b) Wait until <register1>=<value> on <register2>=<value> report error
- c) ... ?
-
-IRQ Handling
-============
- IRQ types: DMA IRQ, Event IRQ, other types
- IRQ hardware source: To allow purely user-space implementation, as general
- rule, only a single (standard) source should be used.
- IRQ source: The dma/event engines, however, may detail this hardware source
- and produce real IRQ source basing on the values of registers. For example,
- for DMA IRQs the source may present engine number and for Event IRQs the
- source may present event type.
-
- Only types can be enabled or disabled. The sources are enabled/disabled
- by enabling/disabling correspondent DMA engines or Event types. The expected
- workflow is following:
- * We enabling IRQs in user-space (normally setting some registers). Normally,
- just an Event IRQs, the DMA if necessary will be managed by DMA engine itself.
- * We waiting for standard IRQ from hardware (driver)
- * In the user space, we are checking registers to find out the real source
- of IRQ (driver reports us just hardware source), generating appropriate
- events, and acknowledge IRQ. This is dependent on implementation and should
- be managed inside event API.
-
- I.e. the driver implements just two methods pcilib_wait_irq(hw_source),
- pcilib_clear_irq(hw_source). Only a few hardware IRQ sources are defined.
- In most cirstumances, the IRQ_SOURCE_DEFAULT is used.
-
- The DMA engine may provide 3 additional methods, to enable, disable,
- and acknowledge IRQ.
-
- ... To be decided in details upon the need...
-
-Updating Firmware
-=================
- - JTag should be connected to USB connector on the board (next to Ethernet)
- - The computer should be tourned off and on before programming
- - The environment variable should be loaded
- . /home/uros/.bashrc
- - The application is called 'impact'
- No project is needed, cancel initial proposals (No/Cancel)
- Double-click on "Boundary Scan"
- Right click in the right window and select "Init Chain"
- We don't want to select bit file now (Yes and, then, click Cancel)
- Right click on second (right) item and choose "Assign new CF file"
- Select a bit file. Answer No, we don't want to attach SPI to SPI Prom
- Select xv6vlx240t and program it
- - Shutdown and start computer
-
- Firmware are in
- v.2: /home/uros/Repo/UFO2_last_good_version_UFO2.bit
- v.3: /home/uros/Repo/UFO3
- Step5 - best working revision
- Step6 - last revision
-
- \ No newline at end of file