diff options
author | Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org> | 2006-05-22 10:31:37 -0300 |
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committer | Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org> | 2006-06-25 01:59:48 -0300 |
commit | 447d6fb8ccdc3a581a13fe4b5a62c384dc9fd36a (patch) | |
tree | 24163c66d1d1f27241c2a5c640175f3f7f42ce31 /Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt | |
parent | b8d4c235d50f8512bbc9d67730c24da3309b0307 (diff) |
V4L/DVB (3809b): Added missing docs at kernel tree
Date:
From: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
There are some docs at V4L/DVB tree that were never included at kernel.
This patch includes those docs.
Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt | 94 |
1 files changed, 94 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt b/Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..8123e262d5b6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/video4linux/cx2341x/fw-dma.txt @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +This page describes the structures and procedures used by the cx2341x DMA +engine. + +Introduction +============ + +The cx2341x PCI interface is busmaster capable. This means it has a DMA +engine to efficiently transfer large volumes of data between the card and main +memory without requiring help from a CPU. Like most hardware, it must operate +on contiguous physical memory. This is difficult to come by in large quantities +on virtual memory machines. + +Therefore, it also supports a technique called "scatter-gather". The card can +transfer multiple buffers in one operation. Instead of allocating one large +contiguous buffer, the driver can allocate several smaller buffers. + +In practice, I've seen the average transfer to be roughly 80K, but transfers +above 128K were not uncommon, particularly at startup. The 128K figure is +important, because that is the largest block that the kernel can normally +allocate. Even still, 128K blocks are hard to come by, so the driver writer is +urged to choose a smaller block size and learn the scatter-gather technique. + +Mailbox #10 is reserved for DMA transfer information. + +Flow +==== + +This section describes, in general, the order of events when handling DMA +transfers. Detailed information follows this section. + +- The card raises the Encoder interrupt. +- The driver reads the transfer type, offset and size from Mailbox #10. +- The driver constructs the scatter-gather array from enough free dma buffers + to cover the size. +- The driver schedules the DMA transfer via the ScheduleDMAtoHost API call. +- The card raises the DMA Complete interrupt. +- The driver checks the DMA status register for any errors. +- The driver post-processes the newly transferred buffers. + +NOTE! It is possible that the Encoder and DMA Complete interrupts get raised +simultaneously. (End of the last, start of the next, etc.) + +Mailbox #10 +=========== + +The Flags, Command, Return Value and Timeout fields are ignored. + +Name: Mailbox #10 +Results[0]: Type: 0: MPEG. +Results[1]: Offset: The position relative to the card's memory space. +Results[2]: Size: The exact number of bytes to transfer. + +My speculation is that since the StartCapture API has a capture type of "RAW" +available, that the type field will have other values that correspond to YUV +and PCM data. + +Scatter-Gather Array +==================== + +The scatter-gather array is a contiguously allocated block of memory that +tells the card the source and destination of each data-block to transfer. +Card "addresses" are derived from the offset supplied by Mailbox #10. Host +addresses are the physical memory location of the target DMA buffer. + +Each S-G array element is a struct of three 32-bit words. The first word is +the source address, the second is the destination address. Both take up the +entire 32 bits. The lowest 16 bits of the third word is the transfer byte +count. The high-bit of the third word is the "last" flag. The last-flag tells +the card to raise the DMA_DONE interrupt. From hard personal experience, if +you forget to set this bit, the card will still "work" but the stream will +most likely get corrupted. + +The transfer count must be a multiple of 256. Therefore, the driver will need +to track how much data in the target buffer is valid and deal with it +accordingly. + +Array Element: + +- 32-bit Source Address +- 32-bit Destination Address +- 16-bit reserved (high bit is the last flag) +- 16-bit byte count + +DMA Transfer Status +=================== + +Register 0x0004 holds the DMA Transfer Status: + +Bit +4 Scatter-Gather array error +3 DMA write error +2 DMA read error +1 write completed +0 read completed |