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0001 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
0002 
0003 =====================================
0004 Asynchronous Transfers/Transforms API
0005 =====================================
0006 
0007 .. Contents
0008 
0009   1. INTRODUCTION
0010 
0011   2 GENEALOGY
0012 
0013   3 USAGE
0014   3.1 General format of the API
0015   3.2 Supported operations
0016   3.3 Descriptor management
0017   3.4 When does the operation execute?
0018   3.5 When does the operation complete?
0019   3.6 Constraints
0020   3.7 Example
0021 
0022   4 DMAENGINE DRIVER DEVELOPER NOTES
0023   4.1 Conformance points
0024   4.2 "My application needs exclusive control of hardware channels"
0025 
0026   5 SOURCE
0027 
0028 1. Introduction
0029 ===============
0030 
0031 The async_tx API provides methods for describing a chain of asynchronous
0032 bulk memory transfers/transforms with support for inter-transactional
0033 dependencies.  It is implemented as a dmaengine client that smooths over
0034 the details of different hardware offload engine implementations.  Code
0035 that is written to the API can optimize for asynchronous operation and
0036 the API will fit the chain of operations to the available offload
0037 resources.
0038 
0039 2.Genealogy
0040 ===========
0041 
0042 The API was initially designed to offload the memory copy and
0043 xor-parity-calculations of the md-raid5 driver using the offload engines
0044 present in the Intel(R) Xscale series of I/O processors.  It also built
0045 on the 'dmaengine' layer developed for offloading memory copies in the
0046 network stack using Intel(R) I/OAT engines.  The following design
0047 features surfaced as a result:
0048 
0049 1. implicit synchronous path: users of the API do not need to know if
0050    the platform they are running on has offload capabilities.  The
0051    operation will be offloaded when an engine is available and carried out
0052    in software otherwise.
0053 2. cross channel dependency chains: the API allows a chain of dependent
0054    operations to be submitted, like xor->copy->xor in the raid5 case.  The
0055    API automatically handles cases where the transition from one operation
0056    to another implies a hardware channel switch.
0057 3. dmaengine extensions to support multiple clients and operation types
0058    beyond 'memcpy'
0059 
0060 3. Usage
0061 ========
0062 
0063 3.1 General format of the API
0064 -----------------------------
0065 
0066 ::
0067 
0068   struct dma_async_tx_descriptor *
0069   async_<operation>(<op specific parameters>, struct async_submit ctl *submit)
0070 
0071 3.2 Supported operations
0072 ------------------------
0073 
0074 ========  ====================================================================
0075 memcpy    memory copy between a source and a destination buffer
0076 memset    fill a destination buffer with a byte value
0077 xor       xor a series of source buffers and write the result to a
0078           destination buffer
0079 xor_val   xor a series of source buffers and set a flag if the
0080           result is zero.  The implementation attempts to prevent
0081           writes to memory
0082 pq        generate the p+q (raid6 syndrome) from a series of source buffers
0083 pq_val    validate that a p and or q buffer are in sync with a given series of
0084           sources
0085 datap     (raid6_datap_recov) recover a raid6 data block and the p block
0086           from the given sources
0087 2data     (raid6_2data_recov) recover 2 raid6 data blocks from the given
0088           sources
0089 ========  ====================================================================
0090 
0091 3.3 Descriptor management
0092 -------------------------
0093 
0094 The return value is non-NULL and points to a 'descriptor' when the operation
0095 has been queued to execute asynchronously.  Descriptors are recycled
0096 resources, under control of the offload engine driver, to be reused as
0097 operations complete.  When an application needs to submit a chain of
0098 operations it must guarantee that the descriptor is not automatically recycled
0099 before the dependency is submitted.  This requires that all descriptors be
0100 acknowledged by the application before the offload engine driver is allowed to
0101 recycle (or free) the descriptor.  A descriptor can be acked by one of the
0102 following methods:
0103 
0104 1. setting the ASYNC_TX_ACK flag if no child operations are to be submitted
0105 2. submitting an unacknowledged descriptor as a dependency to another
0106    async_tx call will implicitly set the acknowledged state.
0107 3. calling async_tx_ack() on the descriptor.
0108 
0109 3.4 When does the operation execute?
0110 ------------------------------------
0111 
0112 Operations do not immediately issue after return from the
0113 async_<operation> call.  Offload engine drivers batch operations to
0114 improve performance by reducing the number of mmio cycles needed to
0115 manage the channel.  Once a driver-specific threshold is met the driver
0116 automatically issues pending operations.  An application can force this
0117 event by calling async_tx_issue_pending_all().  This operates on all
0118 channels since the application has no knowledge of channel to operation
0119 mapping.
0120 
0121 3.5 When does the operation complete?
0122 -------------------------------------
0123 
0124 There are two methods for an application to learn about the completion
0125 of an operation.
0126 
0127 1. Call dma_wait_for_async_tx().  This call causes the CPU to spin while
0128    it polls for the completion of the operation.  It handles dependency
0129    chains and issuing pending operations.
0130 2. Specify a completion callback.  The callback routine runs in tasklet
0131    context if the offload engine driver supports interrupts, or it is
0132    called in application context if the operation is carried out
0133    synchronously in software.  The callback can be set in the call to
0134    async_<operation>, or when the application needs to submit a chain of
0135    unknown length it can use the async_trigger_callback() routine to set a
0136    completion interrupt/callback at the end of the chain.
0137 
0138 3.6 Constraints
0139 ---------------
0140 
0141 1. Calls to async_<operation> are not permitted in IRQ context.  Other
0142    contexts are permitted provided constraint #2 is not violated.
0143 2. Completion callback routines cannot submit new operations.  This
0144    results in recursion in the synchronous case and spin_locks being
0145    acquired twice in the asynchronous case.
0146 
0147 3.7 Example
0148 -----------
0149 
0150 Perform a xor->copy->xor operation where each operation depends on the
0151 result from the previous operation::
0152 
0153     void callback(void *param)
0154     {
0155             struct completion *cmp = param;
0156 
0157             complete(cmp);
0158     }
0159 
0160     void run_xor_copy_xor(struct page **xor_srcs,
0161                         int xor_src_cnt,
0162                         struct page *xor_dest,
0163                         size_t xor_len,
0164                         struct page *copy_src,
0165                         struct page *copy_dest,
0166                         size_t copy_len)
0167     {
0168             struct dma_async_tx_descriptor *tx;
0169             addr_conv_t addr_conv[xor_src_cnt];
0170             struct async_submit_ctl submit;
0171             addr_conv_t addr_conv[NDISKS];
0172             struct completion cmp;
0173 
0174             init_async_submit(&submit, ASYNC_TX_XOR_DROP_DST, NULL, NULL, NULL,
0175                             addr_conv);
0176             tx = async_xor(xor_dest, xor_srcs, 0, xor_src_cnt, xor_len, &submit)
0177 
0178             submit->depend_tx = tx;
0179             tx = async_memcpy(copy_dest, copy_src, 0, 0, copy_len, &submit);
0180 
0181             init_completion(&cmp);
0182             init_async_submit(&submit, ASYNC_TX_XOR_DROP_DST | ASYNC_TX_ACK, tx,
0183                             callback, &cmp, addr_conv);
0184             tx = async_xor(xor_dest, xor_srcs, 0, xor_src_cnt, xor_len, &submit);
0185 
0186             async_tx_issue_pending_all();
0187 
0188             wait_for_completion(&cmp);
0189     }
0190 
0191 See include/linux/async_tx.h for more information on the flags.  See the
0192 ops_run_* and ops_complete_* routines in drivers/md/raid5.c for more
0193 implementation examples.
0194 
0195 4. Driver Development Notes
0196 ===========================
0197 
0198 4.1 Conformance points
0199 ----------------------
0200 
0201 There are a few conformance points required in dmaengine drivers to
0202 accommodate assumptions made by applications using the async_tx API:
0203 
0204 1. Completion callbacks are expected to happen in tasklet context
0205 2. dma_async_tx_descriptor fields are never manipulated in IRQ context
0206 3. Use async_tx_run_dependencies() in the descriptor clean up path to
0207    handle submission of dependent operations
0208 
0209 4.2 "My application needs exclusive control of hardware channels"
0210 -----------------------------------------------------------------
0211 
0212 Primarily this requirement arises from cases where a DMA engine driver
0213 is being used to support device-to-memory operations.  A channel that is
0214 performing these operations cannot, for many platform specific reasons,
0215 be shared.  For these cases the dma_request_channel() interface is
0216 provided.
0217 
0218 The interface is::
0219 
0220   struct dma_chan *dma_request_channel(dma_cap_mask_t mask,
0221                                        dma_filter_fn filter_fn,
0222                                        void *filter_param);
0223 
0224 Where dma_filter_fn is defined as::
0225 
0226   typedef bool (*dma_filter_fn)(struct dma_chan *chan, void *filter_param);
0227 
0228 When the optional 'filter_fn' parameter is set to NULL
0229 dma_request_channel simply returns the first channel that satisfies the
0230 capability mask.  Otherwise, when the mask parameter is insufficient for
0231 specifying the necessary channel, the filter_fn routine can be used to
0232 disposition the available channels in the system. The filter_fn routine
0233 is called once for each free channel in the system.  Upon seeing a
0234 suitable channel filter_fn returns DMA_ACK which flags that channel to
0235 be the return value from dma_request_channel.  A channel allocated via
0236 this interface is exclusive to the caller, until dma_release_channel()
0237 is called.
0238 
0239 The DMA_PRIVATE capability flag is used to tag dma devices that should
0240 not be used by the general-purpose allocator.  It can be set at
0241 initialization time if it is known that a channel will always be
0242 private.  Alternatively, it is set when dma_request_channel() finds an
0243 unused "public" channel.
0244 
0245 A couple caveats to note when implementing a driver and consumer:
0246 
0247 1. Once a channel has been privately allocated it will no longer be
0248    considered by the general-purpose allocator even after a call to
0249    dma_release_channel().
0250 2. Since capabilities are specified at the device level a dma_device
0251    with multiple channels will either have all channels public, or all
0252    channels private.
0253 
0254 5. Source
0255 ---------
0256 
0257 include/linux/dmaengine.h:
0258     core header file for DMA drivers and api users
0259 drivers/dma/dmaengine.c:
0260     offload engine channel management routines
0261 drivers/dma/:
0262     location for offload engine drivers
0263 include/linux/async_tx.h:
0264     core header file for the async_tx api
0265 crypto/async_tx/async_tx.c:
0266     async_tx interface to dmaengine and common code
0267 crypto/async_tx/async_memcpy.c:
0268     copy offload
0269 crypto/async_tx/async_xor.c:
0270     xor and xor zero sum offload