Re: [PATCH v5 02/10] docs: driver-api: Add I3C documentation

[Randy Dunlap]

Hi,

On 06/22/2018 03:49 AM, Boris Brezillon wrote:
> Add the I3C documentation describing the protocol, the master driver API
> and the device driver API.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Boris Brezillon <boris.brezillon@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Changes in v5:
> - Remove useless conf.py file
> - Add SPDX headers
> 
> Changes in v2:
> - Moved out of patch "i3c: Add core I3C infrastructure"
> - Add link to the I3C spec
> - Move rst files in Documentation/driver-api/i3c/
> ---
>  Documentation/driver-api/i3c/device-driver-api.rst |   9 +
>  Documentation/driver-api/i3c/index.rst             |  11 ++
>  Documentation/driver-api/i3c/master-driver-api.rst |  10 +
>  Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst          | 203 +++++++++++++++++++++
>  Documentation/driver-api/index.rst                 |   1 +
>  5 files changed, 234 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/i3c/device-driver-api.rst
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/i3c/index.rst
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/i3c/master-driver-api.rst
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst


> diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..a768afa7f12a
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/i3c/protocol.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
> +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +============
> +I3C protocol
> +============
> +
> +Disclaimer
> +==========
> +
> +This chapter will focus on aspects that matter to software developers. For
> +everything hardware related (like how things are transmitted on the bus, how
> +collisions are prevented, ...) please have a look at the I3C specification.
> +
> +This document is just a brief introduction to the I3C protocol and the concepts
> +it brings on the table. If you need more information, please refer to the MIPI

      brings to the table.

> +I3C specification (can be downloaded here
> +http://resources.mipi.org/mipi-i3c-v1-download).
> +
> +Introduction
> +============
> +
> +The I3C (pronounced 'eye-three-see') is a MIPI standardized protocol designed
> +to overcome I2C limitations (limited speed, external signals needed for
> +interrupts, no automatic detection of the devices connected to the bus, ...)
> +while remaining power-efficient.
> +
> +I3C Bus
> +=======
> +
> +An I3C bus is made of several I3C devices and possibly some I2C devices as
> +well, but let's focus on I3C devices for now.
> +
> +An I3C device on the I3C bus can have one of the following roles:
> +
> +* Master: the device is driving the bus. It's the one in charge of initiating
> +  transactions or deciding who is allowed to talk on the bus (slave generated
> +  events are possible in I3C, see below).
> +* Slave: the device acts as a slave, and is not able to send frames to another
> +  slave on the bus. The device can still send events to the master on
> +  its own initiative if the master allowed it.
> +
> +I3C is a multi-master protocol, so there might be several masters on a bus,
> +though only one device can act as a master at a given time. In order to gain
> +bus ownership, a master has to follow a specific procedure.
> +
> +Each device on the I3C bus has to be assigned a dynamic address to be able to
> +communicate. Until this is done, the device should only respond to a limited
> +set of commands. If it has a static address (also called legacy I2C address),
> +the device can reply to I2C transfers.
> +
> +In addition to these per-device addresses, the protocol defines a broadcast
> +address in order to address all devices on the bus.
> +
> +Once a dynamic address has been assigned to a device, this address will be used
> +for any direct communication with the device. Note that even after being
> +assigned a dynamic address, the device should still process broadcast messages.
> +
> +I3C Device discovery
> +====================
> +
> +The I3C protocol defines a mechanism to automatically discover devices present
> +on the bus, their capabilities and the functionalities they provide. In this
> +regard I3C is closer to a discoverable bus like USB than it is to I2C or SPI.
> +
> +The discovery mechanism is called DAA (Dynamic Address Assignment), because it
> +not only discovers devices but also assigns them a dynamic address.
> +
> +During DAA, each I3C device reports 3 important things:
> +
> +* BCR: Bus Characteristic Register. This 8-bit register describes the device bus
> +  related capabilities
> +* DCR: Device Characteristic Register. This 8-bit register describes the
> +  functionalities provided by the device
> +* Provisional ID: A 48-bit unique identifier. On a given bus there should be no
> +  Provisional ID collision, otherwise the discovery mechanism may fail.
> +
> +I3C slave events
> +================
> +
> +The I3C protocol allows slaves to generate events on their own, and thus allows
> +them to take temporary control of the bus.
> +
> +This mechanism is called IBI for In Band Interrupts, and as stated in the name,
> +it allows devices to generate interrupts without requiring an external signal.
> +
> +During DAA, each device on the bus has been assigned an address, and this
> +address will serve as a priority identifier to determine who wins if 2 different
> +devices are generating an interrupt at the same moment on the bus (the lower the
> +dynamic address the higher the priority).
> +
> +Masters are allowed to inhibit interrupts if they want to. This inhibition
> +request can be broadcasted (applies to all devices) or sent to a specific

           can be broadcast

> +device.
> +
> +I3C Hot-Join
> +============
> +
> +The Hot-Join mechanism is similart to USB hotplug. This mechanism allows

                             similar

> +slaves to join the bus after it has been initialized by the master.
> +
> +This covers the following use cases:
> +
> +* the device is not powered when the bus is probed
> +* the device is hotplugged on the bus through an extension board
> +
> +This mechanism is relying on slave events to inform the master that a new
> +device joined the bus and is waiting for a dynamic address.
> +
> +The master is then free to address the request as it wishes: ignore it or
> +assign a dynamic address to the slave.
> +
> +I3C transfer types
> +==================
> +
> +If you omit SMBus (which is just a standardization on how to access registers
> +exposed by I2C devices), I2C has only one transfer type.
> +
> +I3C defines 3 different classes of transfer in addition to I2C transfers which
> +are here for backward compatibility with I2C devices.
> +
> +I3C CCC commands
> +----------------
> +
> +CCC (Common Command Code) commands are meant to be used for anything that is
> +related to bus management and all features that are common to a set of devices.
> +
> +CCC commands contain an 8-bit CCC id describing the command that is executed.

preferably s/id/ID/

> +The MSB of this id specifies whether this is a broadcast command (bit7 = 0) or a

ditto, s/id/ID/

> +unicast one (bit7 = 1).
> +
> +The command ID can be followed by a payload. Depending on the command, this
> +payload is either sent by the master sending the command (write CCC command),
> +or sent by the slave receiving the command (read CCC command). Of course, read
> +accesses only apply to unicast commands.
> +Note that, when sending a CCC command to a specific device, the device address
> +is passed in the first byte of the payload.
> +
> +The payload length is not explicitly passed on the bus, and should be extracted
> +from the CCC id.

s/id/ID/

> +
> +Note that vendors can use a dedicated range of CCC ids for their own commands

                                                      IDs

> +(0x61-0x7f and 0xe0-0xef).
> +
> +I3C Private SDR transfers
> +-------------------------
> +
> +Private SDR (Single Data Rate) transfers should be used for anything that is
> +device specific and does not require high transfer speed.
> +
> +It is the equivalent of I2C transfers but in the I3C world. Each transfer is
> +passed the device address (dynamic address assigned during DAA), a payload
> +and a direction.
> +
> +The only difference with I2C is that the transfer is much faster (typical SCL

what is SCL?  It's not used anywhere else in this doc.

> +frequency is 12.5MHz).
> +
> +I3C HDR commands
> +----------------
> +
> +HDR commands should be used for anything that is device specific and requires
> +high transfer speed.
> +
> +The first thing attached to an HDR command is the HDR mode. There are currently
> +3 different modes defined by the I3C specification (refer to the specification
> +for more details):
> +
> +* HDR-DDR: Double Data Rate mode
> +* HDR-TSP: Ternary Symbol Pure. Only usable on busses with no I2C devices
> +* HDR-TSL: Ternary Symbol Legacy. Usable on busses with I2C devices
> +
> +When sending an HDR command, the whole bus has to enter HDR mode, which is done
> +using a broadcast CCC command.
> +Once the bus has entered a specific HDR mode, the master sends the HDR command.
> +An HDR command is made of:
> +
> +* one 16-bits command word
> +* N 16-bits data words

I supposed the I3C spec will tell me the byte order of these words on the bus?
or this doc could tell us here.

> +
> +Those words may be wrapped with specific preambles/post-ambles which depend on
> +the chosen HDR mode and are detailed here (see the specification for more
> +details).
> +
> +The 16-bits command word is made of:
> +
> +* bit[15]: direction bit, read is 1 write is 0

                             read is 1, write is 0

> +* bit[14:8]: command code. Identifies the command being executed, the amount of
> +  data words and their meaning
> +* bit[7:1]: I3C address of the device this command is addressed to
> +* bit[0]: reserved/parity-bit
> +
> +Backward compatibility with I2C devices
> +=======================================
> +
> +The I3C protocol has been designed to be backward compatible with I2C devices.
> +This backward compatibility allows one to connect a mix of I2C and I3C devices
> +on the same bus, though, in order to be really efficient, I2C devices should
> +be equipped with 50 ns spike filters.
> +
> +I2C devices can't be discovered like I3C ones and have to be statically
> +declared. In order to let the master know what these devices are capable of
> +(both in terms of bus related limitations and functionalities), the software
> +has to provide some information, which is done through the LVR (Legacy I2C
> +Virtual Register).

and you can add (if you want to):
Reviewed-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

thanks,
-- 
~Randy