Merge branch 'topic/docs-next' into v4l_for_linus

* topic/docs-next: (322 commits)
  [media] cx23885-cardlist.rst: add a new card
  [media] doc-rst: add some needed escape codes
  [media] doc-rst: kapi: use :c:func: instead of :cpp:func
  doc-rst: kernel-doc: fix a change introduced by mistake
  [media] v4l2-ioctl.h add debug info for struct v4l2_ioctl_ops
  [media] dvb_ringbuffer.h: some documentation improvements
  [media] v4l2-ctrls.h: fully document the header file
  [media] doc-rst: Fix some typedef ugly warnings
  [media] doc-rst: reorganize the kAPI v4l2 chapters
  [media] rename v4l2-framework.rst to v4l2-intro.rst
  [media] move V4L2 clocks to a separate .rst file
  [media] v4l2-fh.rst: add cross references and markups
  [media] v4l2-fh.rst: add fh contents from v4l2-framework.rst
  [media] v4l2-fh.h: add documentation for it
  [media] v4l2-event.rst: add cross-references and markups
  [media] v4l2-event.h: document all functions
  [media] v4l2-event.rst: add text from v4l2-framework.rst
  [media] v4l2-framework.rst: remove videobuf quick chapter
  [media] v4l2-dev: add cross-references and improve markup
  [media] doc-rst: move v4l2-dev doc to a separate file
  ...

1 files changed, 33 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/media/uapi/mediactl/media-controller-intro.rst b/Documentation/media/uapi/mediactl/media-controller-intro.rst
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+.. -*- coding: utf-8; mode: rst -*-
+
+.. _media-controller-intro:
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+Media devices increasingly handle multiple related functions. Many USB
+cameras include microphones, video capture hardware can also output
+video, or SoC camera interfaces also perform memory-to-memory operations
+similar to video codecs.
+
+Independent functions, even when implemented in the same hardware, can
+be modelled as separate devices. A USB camera with a microphone will be
+presented to userspace applications as V4L2 and ALSA capture devices.
+The devices' relationships (when using a webcam, end-users shouldn't
+have to manually select the associated USB microphone), while not made
+available directly to applications by the drivers, can usually be
+retrieved from sysfs.
+
+With more and more advanced SoC devices being introduced, the current
+approach will not scale. Device topologies are getting increasingly
+complex and can't always be represented by a tree structure. Hardware
+blocks are shared between different functions, creating dependencies
+between seemingly unrelated devices.
+
+Kernel abstraction APIs such as V4L2 and ALSA provide means for
+applications to access hardware parameters. As newer hardware expose an
+increasingly high number of those parameters, drivers need to guess what
+applications really require based on limited information, thereby
+implementing policies that belong to userspace.
+
+The media controller API aims at solving those problems.