Re: [PATCH 15/15] mm/hmm: use device driver encoding for HMM pfn v2

[John Hubbard]

On 03/21/2018 08:52 AM, Jerome Glisse wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 09:39:27PM -0700, John Hubbard wrote:
>> On 03/19/2018 07:00 PM, jglisse@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>> From: JÃrÃme Glisse <jglisse@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> [...]
> 

<snip>

>>
>> Let's just keep it simple, and go back to the bitmap flags!
> 
> This simplify nouveau code and it is the reason why i did that patch.
> I am sure it can simplify NVidia uvm code, i can look into it if you
> want to give pointers. Idea here is that HMM can fill array with some-
> thing that match device driver internal format and avoid the conversion
> step from HMM format to driver format (saving CPU cycles and memory
> doing so). I am open to alternative that give the same end result.
> 
> [Just because code is worth 2^32 words :)
> 
> Without this patch:
>     int nouveau_do_fault(..., ulong addr, unsigned npages, ...)
>     {
>         uint64_t *hmm_pfns, *nouveau_pfns;
> 
>         hmm_pfns = kmalloc(sizeof(uint64_t) * npages, GFP_KERNEL);
>         nouveau_pfns = kmalloc(sizeof(uint64_t) * npages, GFP_KERNEL);
>         hmm_vma_fault(..., hmm_pfns, ...);
> 
>         for (i = 0; i < npages; ++i) {
>             nouveau_pfns[i] = nouveau_pfn_from_hmm_pfn(hmm_pfns[i]);
>         }
>         ...
>     }
> 
> With this patch:
>     int nouveau_do_fault(..., ulong addr, unsigned npages, ...)
>     {
>         uint64_t *nouveau_pfns;
> 
>         nouveau_pfns = kmalloc(sizeof(uint64_t) * npages, GFP_KERNEL);
>         hmm_vma_fault(..., nouveau_pfns, ...);
> 
>         ...
>     }
> 
> Benefit from this patch is quite obvious to me. Down the road with bit
> more integration between HMM and IOMMU/DMA this can turn into something
> directly ready for hardware consumptions.
> 
> Note that you could argue that i can convert nouveau to use HMM format
> but this would not work, first because it requires a lot of changes in
> nouuveau, second because HMM do not have all the flags needed by the
> drivers (nor does HMM need them). HMM being the helper here, i feel it
> is up to HMM to adapt to drivers than the other way around.]
> 

OK, if this simplifies Nouveau and potentially other drivers, then I'll 
drop my earlier objections! Thanks for explaining what's going on, in detail.

thanks,
-- 
John Hubbard
NVIDIA