Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 17 May 2012 15:20:39 +0200
From:      Svatopluk Kraus <onwahe@gmail.com>
To:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   ARM + CACHE_LINE_SIZE + DMA
Message-ID:  <CAFHCsPUdZXGKFvmVGgaEUsfhwd28mNVGaY84ExcJp=ogQxzPJQ@mail.gmail.com>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi,

I'm working on DMA bus implementation for ARM11mpcore platform. I've
looked at implementation in ARM tree, but IMHO it only works with some
assumptions. There is a problem with DMA on memory block which is not
aligned on CACHE_LINE_SIZE (start and end) if memory is not coherent.

Let's have a buffer for DMA which is no aligned on CACHE_LINE_SIZE.
Then first cache line associated with the buffer can be divided into
two parts, A and B, where A is a memory we know nothing about it and B
is buffer memory. The same stands for last cache line associatted with
the buffer. We have no problem if a memory is coherent. Otherwise it
depends on memory attributes.

1. [no cache] attribute
No problem as memory is coherent.

2. [write throught] attribute
The part A can be invalidated without loss of any data. It's not problem too.

3. [write back] attribute
In general, there is no way how to keep both parts consistent. At the
start of DMA transaction, the cache line is written back and
invalidated. However, as we know nothing about memory associated with
part A of the cache line, the cache line can be filled again at any
time and messing up DMA transaction if flushed. Even if the cache line
is only filled but not flushed during DMA transaction, we must make it
coherent with memory after that. There is a trick with saving part A
of the line into temporary buffer, invalidating the line, and
restoring part A in current ARM (MIPS) implementation. However, if
somebody is writting to memory associated with part A of the line
during this trick, the part A will be messed up. Moreover, the part A
can be part of another DMA transaction.

To safely use DMA with no coherent memory, a memory with [no cache] or
[write throught] attributes can be used without problem. A memory with
[write back] attribute must be aligned on CACHE_LINE_SIZE.

However, for example mbuf, a buffer for DMA can be part of a structure
which can be aligned on CACHE_LINE_SIZE, but not the buffer itself. We
can know that nobody will write to the structure during DMA
transaction, so it's safe to use the buffer event if it's not aligned
on CACHE_LINE_SIZE.

So, in practice, if DMA buffer is not aligned on CACHE_LINE_SIZE and
we want to avoid bounce pages overhead, we must support additional
information to DMA transaction. It should be easy to support the
information about drivers data buffers. However, what about OS data
buffers like mentioned mbufs?

The question is following. Is or can be guaranteed for all or at least
well-known OS data buffers which can be part of DMA access that the
not CACHE_LINE_SIZE aligned buffers are surrounded by data which
belongs to the same object as the buffer and the data is not written
by OS when given to a driver?

Any answer is appreciated. However, 'bounce pages' is not an answer.

Thanks, Svata



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CAFHCsPUdZXGKFvmVGgaEUsfhwd28mNVGaY84ExcJp=ogQxzPJQ>