summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/interconnect
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorGeorgi Djakov <georgi.djakov@linaro.org>2019-01-16 19:10:56 +0300
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>2019-01-22 15:37:25 +0300
commit11f1ceca7031deefc1a34236ab7b94360016b71d (patch)
tree36f1f8c883a4d268b8b9e5c55d0b22e85cda8a8e /Documentation/interconnect
parent2ca46ed207d5d4e3c7a183fe11e8a2d02f86e7c6 (diff)
downloadlinux-11f1ceca7031deefc1a34236ab7b94360016b71d.tar.xz
interconnect: Add generic on-chip interconnect API
This patch introduces a new API to get requirements and configure the interconnect buses across the entire chipset to fit with the current demand. The API is using a consumer/provider-based model, where the providers are the interconnect buses and the consumers could be various drivers. The consumers request interconnect resources (path) between endpoints and set the desired constraints on this data flow path. The providers receive requests from consumers and aggregate these requests for all master-slave pairs on that path. Then the providers configure each node along the path to support a bandwidth that satisfies all bandwidth requests that cross through that node. The topology could be complicated and multi-tiered and is SoC specific. Reviewed-by: Evan Green <evgreen@chromium.org> Signed-off-by: Georgi Djakov <georgi.djakov@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/interconnect')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/interconnect/interconnect.rst94
1 files changed, 94 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/interconnect/interconnect.rst b/Documentation/interconnect/interconnect.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b8107dcc4cd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/interconnect/interconnect.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=====================================
+GENERIC SYSTEM INTERCONNECT SUBSYSTEM
+=====================================
+
+Introduction
+------------
+
+This framework is designed to provide a standard kernel interface to control
+the settings of the interconnects on an SoC. These settings can be throughput,
+latency and priority between multiple interconnected devices or functional
+blocks. This can be controlled dynamically in order to save power or provide
+maximum performance.
+
+The interconnect bus is hardware with configurable parameters, which can be
+set on a data path according to the requests received from various drivers.
+An example of interconnect buses are the interconnects between various
+components or functional blocks in chipsets. There can be multiple interconnects
+on an SoC that can be multi-tiered.
+
+Below is a simplified diagram of a real-world SoC interconnect bus topology.
+
+::
+
+ +----------------+ +----------------+
+ | HW Accelerator |--->| M NoC |<---------------+
+ +----------------+ +----------------+ |
+ | | +------------+
+ +-----+ +-------------+ V +------+ | |
+ | DDR | | +--------+ | PCIe | | |
+ +-----+ | | Slaves | +------+ | |
+ ^ ^ | +--------+ | | C NoC |
+ | | V V | |
+ +------------------+ +------------------------+ | | +-----+
+ | |-->| |-->| |-->| CPU |
+ | |-->| |<--| | +-----+
+ | Mem NoC | | S NoC | +------------+
+ | |<--| |---------+ |
+ | |<--| |<------+ | | +--------+
+ +------------------+ +------------------------+ | | +-->| Slaves |
+ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | +--------+
+ | | | | | | V
+ +------+ | +-----+ +-----+ +---------+ +----------------+ +--------+
+ | CPUs | | | GPU | | DSP | | Masters |-->| P NoC |-->| Slaves |
+ +------+ | +-----+ +-----+ +---------+ +----------------+ +--------+
+ |
+ +-------+
+ | Modem |
+ +-------+
+
+Terminology
+-----------
+
+Interconnect provider is the software definition of the interconnect hardware.
+The interconnect providers on the above diagram are M NoC, S NoC, C NoC, P NoC
+and Mem NoC.
+
+Interconnect node is the software definition of the interconnect hardware
+port. Each interconnect provider consists of multiple interconnect nodes,
+which are connected to other SoC components including other interconnect
+providers. The point on the diagram where the CPUs connect to the memory is
+called an interconnect node, which belongs to the Mem NoC interconnect provider.
+
+Interconnect endpoints are the first or the last element of the path. Every
+endpoint is a node, but not every node is an endpoint.
+
+Interconnect path is everything between two endpoints including all the nodes
+that have to be traversed to reach from a source to destination node. It may
+include multiple master-slave pairs across several interconnect providers.
+
+Interconnect consumers are the entities which make use of the data paths exposed
+by the providers. The consumers send requests to providers requesting various
+throughput, latency and priority. Usually the consumers are device drivers, that
+send request based on their needs. An example for a consumer is a video decoder
+that supports various formats and image sizes.
+
+Interconnect providers
+----------------------
+
+Interconnect provider is an entity that implements methods to initialize and
+configure interconnect bus hardware. The interconnect provider drivers should
+be registered with the interconnect provider core.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/interconnect-provider.h
+
+Interconnect consumers
+----------------------
+
+Interconnect consumers are the clients which use the interconnect APIs to
+get paths between endpoints and set their bandwidth/latency/QoS requirements
+for these interconnect paths.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/interconnect.h