Re: [RFC 0/2] dw_mmc: add multislot support

[Ulf Hansson]

[...]

>
> 2. Add missing stuff to support multislot mode in DesignWare MMC driver.
>  * Add missing slot switch to __dw_mci_start_request() function.
>  * Refactor set_ios function:
>    a) Calculate common clock which is
>       suitable for all slots instead of directly use clock value
>       provided by mmc core. We calculate common clock as the minimum
>       among each used slot clocks. This clock is calculated in
>       dw_mci_calc_common_clock() function which is called
>       from set_ios()
>    b) Disable clock only if no other slots are ON.
>    c) Setup clock directly in set_ios() only if no other slots
>       are ON. Otherwise adjust clock in __dw_mci_start_request()
>       function before slot switch.
>    d) Move timings and bus_width setup to separate funcions.
>  * Use timing field in each slot structure instead of common field in
>    host structure.
>  * Add locks to serialize access to registers.

Sorry, but this is a hack to *try* to make multi-slot work and this
isn't sufficient. There were good reasons to why the earlier
non-working multi slot support was removed from dw_mmc.

Let me elaborate a bit for your understanding. The core uses a host
lock (mmc_claim|release_host()) to serialize operations and commands,
as to confirm to the SD/SDIO/(e)MMC specs. The above changes gives no
guarantees for this. To make that work, we would need a "mmc bus lock"
to be managed by the core.

However, inventing a "mmc bus lock" would lead to other problems
related to I/O scheduling for upper layers - it simply breaks. For
example, I/O requests for one card/slot can then starve I/O requests
reaching another card/slot.

[...]

Kind regards
Uffe