Re: [PATCH] dma: sun4i: expose block size and wait cycle configuration to DMA users

From: Vinod Koul
Date: Fri Mar 11 2016 - 01:20:45 EST


On Wed, Mar 09, 2016 at 11:14:34AM +0100, Boris Brezillon wrote:
> > > > > > + * struct sun4i_dma_chan_config - DMA channel config
> > > > > > + *
> > > > > > + * @para: contains information about block size and time before checking
> > > > > > + * DRQ line. This is device specific and only applicable to dedicated
> > > > > > + * DMA channels
> > > > >
> > > > > What information, can you elobrate.. And why can't you use existing
> > > > > dma_slave_config for this?
> > > >
> > > > Block size is related to the device FIFO size. I guess it allows the
> > > > DMA channel to launch a transfer of X bytes without having to check the
> > > > DRQ line (the line telling the DMA engine it can transfer more data
> > > > to/from the device). The wait cycles information is apparently related
> > > > to the number of clks the engine should wait before polling/checking
> > > > the DRQ line status between each block transfer. I'm not sure what it
> > > > saves to put WAIT_CYCLES() to something != 1, but in their BSP,
> > > > Allwinner tweak that depending on the device.
> >
> > we already have block size aka src/dst_maxburst, why not use that one.
>
> Okay, but then remains the question "how should we choose the real burst
> size?". The block size described in Allwinner datasheet is not the
> number of words you will transmit without being preempted by other
> master -> slave requests, it's the number of bytes that can be
> transmitted without checking the DRQ line.
> IOW, block_size = burst_size * X

Thats fine, API expects words for this and also a width value. Client shoudl
pass both and for programming you should use bytes converted from words and
width.

--
~Vinod