[RFCv1 5/6] PASR: Add Documentation

From: Maxime Coquelin
Date: Mon Jan 30 2012 - 08:36:15 EST


Signed-off-by: Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/pasr.txt | 183 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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+Partial Array Self-Refresh Framework
+
+(C) 2012 Maxime Coquelin <maxime.coquelin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ST-Ericsson.
+
+CONTENT
+1. Introduction
+2. Command-line parameters
+3. Allocators patching
+4. PASR platform drivers
+
+
+1. Introduction
+
+PASR Frameworks brings support for the Partial Array Self-Refresh DDR power
+management feature. PASR has been introduced in LP-DDR2, and is also present
+in DDR3.
+
+PASR provides 4 modes:
+
+* Single-Ended: Only 1/1, 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 are refreshed, masking starting at
+ the end of the DDR die.
+
+* Double-Ended: Same as Single-Ended, but refresh-masking does not start
+ necessairly at the end of the DDR die.
+
+* Bank-Selective: Refresh of each bank of a die can be masked or unmasked via
+ a dedicated DDR register (MR16). This mode is convenient for DDR configured
+ in BRC (Bank-Row-Column) mode.
+
+* Segment-Selective: Refresh of each segment of a die can be masked or unmasked
+ via a dedicated DDR register (MR17). This mode is convenient for DDR configured
+ in RBC (Row-Bank-Column) mode.
+
+The role of this framework is to stop the refresh of unused memory to enhance
+DDR power consumption.
+
+It supports Bank-Selective and Segment-Selective modes, as the more adapted to
+modern OSes.
+
+At early boot stage, a representation of the physical DDR layout is built:
+
+ Die 0
+_______________________________
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 0 I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 1 I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment ... I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment n I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+|______________________________|
+ ...
+
+ Die n
+_______________________________
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 0 I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 1 I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment ... I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment n I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+|______________________________|
+
+The first level is a table where elements represent a die:
+* Base address,
+* Number of segments,
+* Table representing banks/segments,
+* MR16/MR17 refresh mask,
+* DDR Controller callback to update MR16/MR17 refresh mask.
+
+The second level is the section tables representing the banks or segments,
+depending on hardware configuration:
+* Base address,
+* Unused memory size counter,
+* Possible pointer to another section it depends on (E.g. Interleaving)
+
+When some memory becomes unused, the allocator owning this memory calls the PASR
+Framework's pasr_put(phys_addr, size) function. The framework finds the
+sections impacted and updates their counters accordingly.
+If a section counter reach the section size, the refresh of the section is
+masked. If the corresponding section has a dependency with another section
+(E.g. because of DDR interleaving, see figure below), it checks the "paired" section is also
+unused before updating the refresh mask.
+
+When some unused memory is requested by the allocator, the allocator owning
+this memory calls the PASR Framework's pasr_get(phys_addr, size) function. The
+framework find the section impacted and updates their counters accordingly.
+If before the update, the section counter was to the section size, the refrewh
+of the section is unmasked. If the corresponding section has a dependency with
+another section, it also unmask the refresh of the other section.
+
+Interleaving example:
+
+ Die 0
+_______________________________
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 0 I |<----|
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I Bank or Segment 1 I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I Bank or Segment ... I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I Bank or Segment n I | |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+|______________________________| |
+ |
+ Die 1 |
+_______________________________ |
+| I--------------------------I | |
+| I Bank or Segment 0 I |<----|
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment 1 I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment ... I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+| I Bank or Segment n I |
+| I--------------------------I |
+|______________________________|
+
+In the above example, bank 0 of die 0 is interleaved with bank0 of die 0.
+The interleaving is done in HW by inverting some addresses lines. The goal is
+to improve DDR bandwidth.
+Practically, one buffer seen as contiguous by the kernel might be spread
+into two DDR dies physically.
+
+
+2. Command-line parameters
+
+To buid the DDR physical layout representation, two parameters are requested:
+
+* ddr_die (mandatory): Should be added for every DDR dies present in the system.
+ - Usage: ddr_die=xxx[M|G]@yyy[M|G] where xxx represents the size and yyy
+ the base address of the die. E.g.: ddr_die=512M@0 ddr_die=512M@512M
+
+* interleaved (optionnal): Should be added for every interleaved dependencies.
+ - Usage: interleaved=xxx[M|G]@yyy[M|G]:zzz[M|G] where xxx is the size of
+ the interleaved area between the adresses yyy and zzz. E.g
+ interleaved=256M@0:512M
+
+
+3. Allocator patching
+
+Any allocators might call the PASR Framework for DDR power savings. Currently,
+only Linux Buddy allocator is patched, but HWMEM and PMEM physically
+contiguous memory allocators will follow.
+
+Linux Buddy allocator porting uses Buddy specificities to reduce the overhead
+induced by the PASR Framework counter updates. Indeed, the PASR Framework is
+called only when MAX_ORDER (4MB page blocs by default) buddies are
+inserted/removed from the free lists.
+
+To port PASR FW into a new allocator:
+
+* Call pasr_put(phys_addr, size) each time a memory chunk becomes unused.
+* Call pasr_get(phys_addr, size) each time a memory chunk becomes used.
+
+4. PASR platform drivers
+
+The MR16/MR17 PASR mask registers are generally accessible through the DDR
+controller. At probe time, the DDR controller driver should register the
+callback used by PASR Framework to apply the refresh mask for every DDR die
+using pasr_register_mask_function(die_addr, callback, cookie).
+
+The callback passed to apply mask must not sleep since it can me called in
+interrupt contexts.
+
--
1.7.8

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