drm/tegra: Add driver documentation

Adds some driver documentation for Tegra. It provides a short overview
of the hardware and software architectures.

Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <treding@nvidia.com>
Acked-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>
Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <treding@nvidia.com>

2 files changed, 179 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/index.rst b/Documentation/gpu/index.rst
index c572f092739e..feae37fa7ca3 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/index.rst
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ Linux GPU Driver Developer's Guide
    drm-uapi
    i915
    meson
+   tegra
    tinydrm
    vc4
    vga-switcheroo
diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/tegra.rst b/Documentation/gpu/tegra.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d2ed8938ca43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/tegra.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,178 @@
+===============================================
+ drm/tegra NVIDIA Tegra GPU and display driver
+===============================================
+
+NVIDIA Tegra SoCs support a set of display, graphics and video functions via
+the host1x controller. host1x supplies command streams, gathered from a push
+buffer provided directly by the CPU, to its clients via channels. Software,
+or blocks amongst themselves, can use syncpoints for synchronization.
+
+Up until, but not including, Tegra124 (aka Tegra K1) the drm/tegra driver
+supports the built-in GPU, comprised of the gr2d and gr3d engines. Starting
+with Tegra124 the GPU is based on the NVIDIA desktop GPU architecture and
+supported by the drm/nouveau driver.
+
+The drm/tegra driver supports NVIDIA Tegra SoC generations since Tegra20. It
+has three parts:
+
+  - A host1x driver that provides infrastructure and access to the host1x
+    services.
+
+  - A KMS driver that supports the display controllers as well as a number of
+    outputs, such as RGB, HDMI, DSI, and DisplayPort.
+
+  - A set of custom userspace IOCTLs that can be used to submit jobs to the
+    GPU and video engines via host1x.
+
+Driver Infrastructure
+=====================
+
+The various host1x clients need to be bound together into a logical device in
+order to expose their functionality to users. The infrastructure that supports
+this is implemented in the host1x driver. When a driver is registered with the
+infrastructure it provides a list of compatible strings specifying the devices
+that it needs. The infrastructure creates a logical device and scan the device
+tree for matching device nodes, adding the required clients to a list. Drivers
+for individual clients register with the infrastructure as well and are added
+to the logical host1x device.
+
+Once all clients are available, the infrastructure will initialize the logical
+device using a driver-provided function which will set up the bits specific to
+the subsystem and in turn initialize each of its clients.
+
+Similarly, when one of the clients is unregistered, the infrastructure will
+destroy the logical device by calling back into the driver, which ensures that
+the subsystem specific bits are torn down and the clients destroyed in turn.
+
+Host1x Infrastructure Reference
+-------------------------------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/host1x.h
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/host1x/bus.c
+   :export:
+
+Host1x Syncpoint Reference
+--------------------------
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/host1x/syncpt.c
+   :export:
+
+KMS driver
+==========
+
+The display hardware has remained mostly backwards compatible over the various
+Tegra SoC generations, up until Tegra186 which introduces several changes that
+make it difficult to support with a parameterized driver.
+
+Display Controllers
+-------------------
+
+Tegra SoCs have two display controllers, each of which can be associated with
+zero or more outputs. Outputs can also share a single display controller, but
+only if they run with compatible display timings. Two display controllers can
+also share a single framebuffer, allowing cloned configurations even if modes
+on two outputs don't match. A display controller is modelled as a CRTC in KMS
+terms.
+
+On Tegra186, the number of display controllers has been increased to three. A
+display controller can no longer drive all of the outputs. While two of these
+controllers can drive both DSI outputs and both SOR outputs, the third cannot
+drive any DSI.
+
+Windows
+~~~~~~~
+
+A display controller controls a set of windows that can be used to composite
+multiple buffers onto the screen. While it is possible to assign arbitrary Z
+ordering to individual windows (by programming the corresponding blending
+registers), this is currently not supported by the driver. Instead, it will
+assume a fixed Z ordering of the windows (window A is the root window, that
+is, the lowest, while windows B and C are overlaid on top of window A). The
+overlay windows support multiple pixel formats and can automatically convert
+from YUV to RGB at scanout time. This makes them useful for displaying video
+content. In KMS, each window is modelled as a plane. Each display controller
+has a hardware cursor that is exposed as a cursor plane.
+
+Outputs
+-------
+
+The type and number of supported outputs varies between Tegra SoC generations.
+All generations support at least HDMI. While earlier generations supported the
+very simple RGB interfaces (one per display controller), recent generations no
+longer do and instead provide standard interfaces such as DSI and eDP/DP.
+
+Outputs are modelled as a composite encoder/connector pair.
+
+RGB/LVDS
+~~~~~~~~
+
+This interface is no longer available since Tegra124. It has been replaced by
+the more standard DSI and eDP interfaces.
+
+HDMI
+~~~~
+
+HDMI is supported on all Tegra SoCs. Starting with Tegra210, HDMI is provided
+by the versatile SOR output, which supports eDP, DP and HDMI. The SOR is able
+to support HDMI 2.0, though support for this is currently not merged.
+
+DSI
+~~~
+
+Although Tegra has supported DSI since Tegra30, the controller has changed in
+several ways in Tegra114. Since none of the publicly available development
+boards prior to Dalmore (Tegra114) have made use of DSI, only Tegra114 and
+later are supported by the drm/tegra driver.
+
+eDP/DP
+~~~~~~
+
+eDP was first introduced in Tegra124 where it was used to drive the display
+panel for notebook form factors. Tegra210 added support for full DisplayPort
+support, though this is currently not implemented in the drm/tegra driver.
+
+Userspace Interface
+===================
+
+The userspace interface provided by drm/tegra allows applications to create
+GEM buffers, access and control syncpoints as well as submit command streams
+to host1x.
+
+GEM Buffers
+-----------
+
+The ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GEM_CREATE`` IOCTL is used to create a GEM buffer object
+with Tegra-specific flags. This is useful for buffers that should be tiled, or
+that are to be scanned out upside down (useful for 3D content).
+
+After a GEM buffer object has been created, its memory can be mapped by an
+application using the mmap offset returned by the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GEM_MMAP``
+IOCTL.
+
+Syncpoints
+----------
+
+The current value of a syncpoint can be obtained by executing the
+``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_READ`` IOCTL. Incrementing the syncpoint is achieved
+using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_INCR`` IOCTL.
+
+Userspace can also request blocking on a syncpoint. To do so, it needs to
+execute the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_WAIT`` IOCTL, specifying the value of
+the syncpoint to wait for. The kernel will release the application when the
+syncpoint reaches that value or after a specified timeout.
+
+Command Stream Submission
+-------------------------
+
+Before an application can submit command streams to host1x it needs to open a
+channel to an engine using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_OPEN_CHANNEL`` IOCTL. Client
+IDs are used to identify the target of the channel. When a channel is no
+longer needed, it can be closed using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_CLOSE_CHANNEL``
+IOCTL. To retrieve the syncpoint associated with a channel, an application
+can use the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GET_SYNCPT``.
+
+After opening a channel, submitting command streams is easy. The application
+writes commands into the memory backing a GEM buffer object and passes these
+to the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SUBMIT`` IOCTL along with various other parameters,
+such as the syncpoints or relocations used in the job submission.