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diff --git a/Documentation/DMA-API-HOWTO.txt b/Documentation/DMA-API-HOWTO.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..98ce51796f71 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/DMA-API-HOWTO.txt @@ -0,0 +1,771 @@ + Dynamic DMA mapping Guide + ========================= + + David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com> + Richard Henderson <rth@cygnus.com> + Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com> + +This is a guide to device driver writers on how to use the DMA API +with example pseudo-code. For a concise description of the API, see +DMA-API.txt. + +Most of the 64bit platforms have special hardware that translates bus +addresses (DMA addresses) into physical addresses. This is similar to +how page tables and/or a TLB translates virtual addresses to physical +addresses on a CPU. This is needed so that e.g. PCI devices can +access with a Single Address Cycle (32bit DMA address) any page in the +64bit physical address space. Previously in Linux those 64bit +platforms had to set artificial limits on the maximum RAM size in the +system, so that the virt_to_bus() static scheme works (the DMA address +translation tables were simply filled on bootup to map each bus +address to the physical page __pa(bus_to_virt())). + +So that Linux can use the dynamic DMA mapping, it needs some help from the +drivers, namely it has to take into account that DMA addresses should be +mapped only for the time they are actually used and unmapped after the DMA +transfer. + +The following API will work of course even on platforms where no such +hardware exists. + +Note that the DMA API works with any bus independent of the underlying +microprocessor architecture. You should use the DMA API rather than +the bus specific DMA API (e.g. pci_dma_*). + +First of all, you should make sure + +#include <linux/dma-mapping.h> + +is in your driver. This file will obtain for you the definition of the +dma_addr_t (which can hold any valid DMA address for the platform) +type which should be used everywhere you hold a DMA (bus) address +returned from the DMA mapping functions. + + What memory is DMA'able? + +The first piece of information you must know is what kernel memory can +be used with the DMA mapping facilities. There has been an unwritten +set of rules regarding this, and this text is an attempt to finally +write them down. + +If you acquired your memory via the page allocator +(i.e. __get_free_page*()) or the generic memory allocators +(i.e. kmalloc() or kmem_cache_alloc()) then you may DMA to/from +that memory using the addresses returned from those routines. + +This means specifically that you may _not_ use the memory/addresses +returned from vmalloc() for DMA. It is possible to DMA to the +_underlying_ memory mapped into a vmalloc() area, but this requires +walking page tables to get the physical addresses, and then +translating each of those pages back to a kernel address using +something like __va(). [ EDIT: Update this when we integrate +Gerd Knorr's generic code which does this. ] + +This rule also means that you may use neither kernel image addresses +(items in data/text/bss segments), nor module image addresses, nor +stack addresses for DMA. These could all be mapped somewhere entirely +different than the rest of physical memory. Even if those classes of +memory could physically work with DMA, you'd need to ensure the I/O +buffers were cacheline-aligned. Without that, you'd see cacheline +sharing problems (data corruption) on CPUs with DMA-incoherent caches. +(The CPU could write to one word, DMA would write to a different one +in the same cache line, and one of them could be overwritten.) + +Also, this means that you cannot take the return of a kmap() +call and DMA to/from that. This is similar to vmalloc(). + +What about block I/O and networking buffers? The block I/O and +networking subsystems make sure that the buffers they use are valid +for you to DMA from/to. + + DMA addressing limitations + +Does your device have any DMA addressing limitations? For example, is +your device only capable of driving the low order 24-bits of address? +If so, you need to inform the kernel of this fact. + +By default, the kernel assumes that your device can address the full +32-bits. For a 64-bit capable device, this needs to be increased. +And for a device with limitations, as discussed in the previous +paragraph, it needs to be decreased. + +Special note about PCI: PCI-X specification requires PCI-X devices to +support 64-bit addressing (DAC) for all transactions. And at least +one platform (SGI SN2) requires 64-bit consistent allocations to +operate correctly when the IO bus is in PCI-X mode. + +For correct operation, you must interrogate the kernel in your device +probe routine to see if the DMA controller on the machine can properly +support the DMA addressing limitation your device has. It is good +style to do this even if your device holds the default setting, +because this shows that you did think about these issues wrt. your +device. + +The query is performed via a call to dma_set_mask(): + + int dma_set_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask); + +The query for consistent allocations is performed via a call to +dma_set_coherent_mask(): + + int dma_set_coherent_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask); + +Here, dev is a pointer to the device struct of your device, and mask +is a bit mask describing which bits of an address your device +supports. It returns zero if your card can perform DMA properly on +the machine given the address mask you provided. In general, the +device struct of your device is embedded in the bus specific device +struct of your device. For example, a pointer to the device struct of +your PCI device is pdev->dev (pdev is a pointer to the PCI device +struct of your device). + +If it returns non-zero, your device cannot perform DMA properly on +this platform, and attempting to do so will result in undefined +behavior. You must either use a different mask, or not use DMA. + +This means that in the failure case, you have three options: + +1) Use another DMA mask, if possible (see below). +2) Use some non-DMA mode for data transfer, if possible. +3) Ignore this device and do not initialize it. + +It is recommended that your driver print a kernel KERN_WARNING message +when you end up performing either #2 or #3. In this manner, if a user +of your driver reports that performance is bad or that the device is not +even detected, you can ask them for the kernel messages to find out +exactly why. + +The standard 32-bit addressing device would do something like this: + + if (dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) { + printk(KERN_WARNING + "mydev: No suitable DMA available.\n"); + goto ignore_this_device; + } + +Another common scenario is a 64-bit capable device. The approach here +is to try for 64-bit addressing, but back down to a 32-bit mask that +should not fail. The kernel may fail the 64-bit mask not because the +platform is not capable of 64-bit addressing. Rather, it may fail in +this case simply because 32-bit addressing is done more efficiently +than 64-bit addressing. For example, Sparc64 PCI SAC addressing is +more efficient than DAC addressing. + +Here is how you would handle a 64-bit capable device which can drive +all 64-bits when accessing streaming DMA: + + int using_dac; + + if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(64))) { + using_dac = 1; + } else if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) { + using_dac = 0; + } else { + printk(KERN_WARNING + "mydev: No suitable DMA available.\n"); + goto ignore_this_device; + } + +If a card is capable of using 64-bit consistent allocations as well, +the case would look like this: + + int using_dac, consistent_using_dac; + + if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(64))) { + using_dac = 1; + consistent_using_dac = 1; + dma_set_coherent_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(64)); + } else if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) { + using_dac = 0; + consistent_using_dac = 0; + dma_set_coherent_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32)); + } else { + printk(KERN_WARNING + "mydev: No suitable DMA available.\n"); + goto ignore_this_device; + } + +dma_set_coherent_mask() will always be able to set the same or a +smaller mask as dma_set_mask(). However for the rare case that a +device driver only uses consistent allocations, one would have to +check the return value from dma_set_coherent_mask(). + +Finally, if your device can only drive the low 24-bits of +address you might do something like: + + if (dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(24))) { + printk(KERN_WARNING + "mydev: 24-bit DMA addressing not available.\n"); + goto ignore_this_device; + } + +When dma_set_mask() is successful, and returns zero, the kernel saves +away this mask you have provided. The kernel will use this +information later when you make DMA mappings. + +There is a case which we are aware of at this time, which is worth +mentioning in this documentation. If your device supports multiple +functions (for example a sound card provides playback and record +functions) and the various different functions have _different_ +DMA addressing limitations, you may wish to probe each mask and +only provide the functionality which the machine can handle. It +is important that the last call to dma_set_mask() be for the +most specific mask. + +Here is pseudo-code showing how this might be done: + + #define PLAYBACK_ADDRESS_BITS DMA_BIT_MASK(32) + #define RECORD_ADDRESS_BITS DMA_BIT_MASK(24) + + struct my_sound_card *card; + struct device *dev; + + ... + if (!dma_set_mask(dev, PLAYBACK_ADDRESS_BITS)) { + card->playback_enabled = 1; + } else { + card->playback_enabled = 0; + printk(KERN_WARNING "%s: Playback disabled due to DMA limitations.\n", + card->name); + } + if (!dma_set_mask(dev, RECORD_ADDRESS_BITS)) { + card->record_enabled = 1; + } else { + card->record_enabled = 0; + printk(KERN_WARNING "%s: Record disabled due to DMA limitations.\n", + card->name); + } + +A sound card was used as an example here because this genre of PCI +devices seems to be littered with ISA chips given a PCI front end, +and thus retaining the 16MB DMA addressing limitations of ISA. + + Types of DMA mappings + +There are two types of DMA mappings: + +- Consistent DMA mappings which are usually mapped at driver + initialization, unmapped at the end and for which the hardware should + guarantee that the device and the CPU can access the data + in parallel and will see updates made by each other without any + explicit software flushing. + + Think of "consistent" as "synchronous" or "coherent". + + The current default is to return consistent memory in the low 32 + bits of the bus space. However, for future compatibility you should + set the consistent mask even if this default is fine for your + driver. + + Good examples of what to use consistent mappings for are: + + - Network card DMA ring descriptors. + - SCSI adapter mailbox command data structures. + - Device firmware microcode executed out of + main memory. + + The invariant these examples all require is that any CPU store + to memory is immediately visible to the device, and vice + versa. Consistent mappings guarantee this. + + IMPORTANT: Consistent DMA memory does not preclude the usage of + proper memory barriers. The CPU may reorder stores to + consistent memory just as it may normal memory. Example: + if it is important for the device to see the first word + of a descriptor updated before the second, you must do + something like: + + desc->word0 = address; + wmb(); + desc->word1 = DESC_VALID; + + in order to get correct behavior on all platforms. + + Also, on some platforms your driver may need to flush CPU write + buffers in much the same way as it needs to flush write buffers + found in PCI bridges (such as by reading a register's value + after writing it). + +- Streaming DMA mappings which are usually mapped for one DMA + transfer, unmapped right after it (unless you use dma_sync_* below) + and for which hardware can optimize for sequential accesses. + + This of "streaming" as "asynchronous" or "outside the coherency + domain". + + Good examples of what to use streaming mappings for are: + + - Networking buffers transmitted/received by a device. + - Filesystem buffers written/read by a SCSI device. + + The interfaces for using this type of mapping were designed in + such a way that an implementation can make whatever performance + optimizations the hardware allows. To this end, when using + such mappings you must be explicit about what you want to happen. + +Neither type of DMA mapping has alignment restrictions that come from +the underlying bus, although some devices may have such restrictions. +Also, systems with caches that aren't DMA-coherent will work better +when the underlying buffers don't share cache lines with other data. + + + Using Consistent DMA mappings. + +To allocate and map large (PAGE_SIZE or so) consistent DMA regions, +you should do: + + dma_addr_t dma_handle; + + cpu_addr = dma_alloc_coherent(dev, size, &dma_handle, gfp); + +where device is a struct device *. This may be called in interrupt +context with the GFP_ATOMIC flag. + +Size is the length of the region you want to allocate, in bytes. + +This routine will allocate RAM for that region, so it acts similarly to +__get_free_pages (but takes size instead of a page order). If your +driver needs regions sized smaller than a page, you may prefer using +the dma_pool interface, described below. + +The consistent DMA mapping interfaces, for non-NULL dev, will by +default return a DMA address which is 32-bit addressable. Even if the +device indicates (via DMA mask) that it may address the upper 32-bits, +consistent allocation will only return > 32-bit addresses for DMA if +the consistent DMA mask has been explicitly changed via +dma_set_coherent_mask(). This is true of the dma_pool interface as +well. + +dma_alloc_coherent returns two values: the virtual address which you +can use to access it from the CPU and dma_handle which you pass to the +card. + +The cpu return address and the DMA bus master address are both +guaranteed to be aligned to the smallest PAGE_SIZE order which +is greater than or equal to the requested size. This invariant +exists (for example) to guarantee that if you allocate a chunk +which is smaller than or equal to 64 kilobytes, the extent of the +buffer you receive will not cross a 64K boundary. + +To unmap and free such a DMA region, you call: + + dma_free_coherent(dev, size, cpu_addr, dma_handle); + +where dev, size are the same as in the above call and cpu_addr and +dma_handle are the values dma_alloc_coherent returned to you. +This function may not be called in interrupt context. + +If your driver needs lots of smaller memory regions, you can write +custom code to subdivide pages returned by dma_alloc_coherent, +or you can use the dma_pool API to do that. A dma_pool is like +a kmem_cache, but it uses dma_alloc_coherent not __get_free_pages. +Also, it understands common hardware constraints for alignment, +like queue heads needing to be aligned on N byte boundaries. + +Create a dma_pool like this: + + struct dma_pool *pool; + + pool = dma_pool_create(name, dev, size, align, alloc); + +The "name" is for diagnostics (like a kmem_cache name); dev and size +are as above. The device's hardware alignment requirement for this +type of data is "align" (which is expressed in bytes, and must be a +power of two). If your device has no boundary crossing restrictions, +pass 0 for alloc; passing 4096 says memory allocated from this pool +must not cross 4KByte boundaries (but at that time it may be better to +go for dma_alloc_coherent directly instead). + +Allocate memory from a dma pool like this: + + cpu_addr = dma_pool_alloc(pool, flags, &dma_handle); + +flags are SLAB_KERNEL if blocking is permitted (not in_interrupt nor +holding SMP locks), SLAB_ATOMIC otherwise. Like dma_alloc_coherent, +this returns two values, cpu_addr and dma_handle. + +Free memory that was allocated from a dma_pool like this: + + dma_pool_free(pool, cpu_addr, dma_handle); + +where pool is what you passed to dma_pool_alloc, and cpu_addr and +dma_handle are the values dma_pool_alloc returned. This function +may be called in interrupt context. + +Destroy a dma_pool by calling: + + dma_pool_destroy(pool); + +Make sure you've called dma_pool_free for all memory allocated +from a pool before you destroy the pool. This function may not +be called in interrupt context. + + DMA Direction + +The interfaces described in subsequent portions of this document +take a DMA direction argument, which is an integer and takes on +one of the following values: + + DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL + DMA_TO_DEVICE + DMA_FROM_DEVICE + DMA_NONE + +One should provide the exact DMA direction if you know it. + +DMA_TO_DEVICE means "from main memory to the device" +DMA_FROM_DEVICE means "from the device to main memory" +It is the direction in which the data moves during the DMA +transfer. + +You are _strongly_ encouraged to specify this as precisely +as you possibly can. + +If you absolutely cannot know the direction of the DMA transfer, +specify DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL. It means that the DMA can go in +either direction. The platform guarantees that you may legally +specify this, and that it will work, but this may be at the +cost of performance for example. + +The value DMA_NONE is to be used for debugging. One can +hold this in a data structure before you come to know the +precise direction, and this will help catch cases where your +direction tracking logic has failed to set things up properly. + +Another advantage of specifying this value precisely (outside of +potential platform-specific optimizations of such) is for debugging. +Some platforms actually have a write permission boolean which DMA +mappings can be marked with, much like page protections in the user +program address space. Such platforms can and do report errors in the +kernel logs when the DMA controller hardware detects violation of the +permission setting. + +Only streaming mappings specify a direction, consistent mappings +implicitly have a direction attribute setting of +DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL. + +The SCSI subsystem tells you the direction to use in the +'sc_data_direction' member of the SCSI command your driver is +working on. + +For Networking drivers, it's a rather simple affair. For transmit +packets, map/unmap them with the DMA_TO_DEVICE direction +specifier. For receive packets, just the opposite, map/unmap them +with the DMA_FROM_DEVICE direction specifier. + + Using Streaming DMA mappings + +The streaming DMA mapping routines can be called from interrupt +context. There are two versions of each map/unmap, one which will +map/unmap a single memory region, and one which will map/unmap a +scatterlist. + +To map a single region, you do: + + struct device *dev = &my_dev->dev; + dma_addr_t dma_handle; + void *addr = buffer->ptr; + size_t size = buffer->len; + + dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction); + +and to unmap it: + + dma_unmap_single(dev, dma_handle, size, direction); + +You should call dma_unmap_single when the DMA activity is finished, e.g. +from the interrupt which told you that the DMA transfer is done. + +Using cpu pointers like this for single mappings has a disadvantage, +you cannot reference HIGHMEM memory in this way. Thus, there is a +map/unmap interface pair akin to dma_{map,unmap}_single. These +interfaces deal with page/offset pairs instead of cpu pointers. +Specifically: + + struct device *dev = &my_dev->dev; + dma_addr_t dma_handle; + struct page *page = buffer->page; + unsigned long offset = buffer->offset; + size_t size = buffer->len; + + dma_handle = dma_map_page(dev, page, offset, size, direction); + + ... + + dma_unmap_page(dev, dma_handle, size, direction); + +Here, "offset" means byte offset within the given page. + +With scatterlists, you map a region gathered from several regions by: + + int i, count = dma_map_sg(dev, sglist, nents, direction); + struct scatterlist *sg; + + for_each_sg(sglist, sg, count, i) { + hw_address[i] = sg_dma_address(sg); + hw_len[i] = sg_dma_len(sg); + } + +where nents is the number of entries in the sglist. + +The implementation is free to merge several consecutive sglist entries +into one (e.g. if DMA mapping is done with PAGE_SIZE granularity, any +consecutive sglist entries can be merged into one provided the first one +ends and the second one starts on a page boundary - in fact this is a huge +advantage for cards which either cannot do scatter-gather or have very +limited number of scatter-gather entries) and returns the actual number +of sg entries it mapped them to. On failure 0 is returned. + +Then you should loop count times (note: this can be less than nents times) +and use sg_dma_address() and sg_dma_len() macros where you previously +accessed sg->address and sg->length as shown above. + +To unmap a scatterlist, just call: + + dma_unmap_sg(dev, sglist, nents, direction); + +Again, make sure DMA activity has already finished. + +PLEASE NOTE: The 'nents' argument to the dma_unmap_sg call must be + the _same_ one you passed into the dma_map_sg call, + it should _NOT_ be the 'count' value _returned_ from the + dma_map_sg call. + +Every dma_map_{single,sg} call should have its dma_unmap_{single,sg} +counterpart, because the bus address space is a shared resource (although +in some ports the mapping is per each BUS so less devices contend for the +same bus address space) and you could render the machine unusable by eating +all bus addresses. + +If you need to use the same streaming DMA region multiple times and touch +the data in between the DMA transfers, the buffer needs to be synced +properly in order for the cpu and device to see the most uptodate and +correct copy of the DMA buffer. + +So, firstly, just map it with dma_map_{single,sg}, and after each DMA +transfer call either: + + dma_sync_single_for_cpu(dev, dma_handle, size, direction); + +or: + + dma_sync_sg_for_cpu(dev, sglist, nents, direction); + +as appropriate. + +Then, if you wish to let the device get at the DMA area again, +finish accessing the data with the cpu, and then before actually +giving the buffer to the hardware call either: + + dma_sync_single_for_device(dev, dma_handle, size, direction); + +or: + + dma_sync_sg_for_device(dev, sglist, nents, direction); + +as appropriate. + +After the last DMA transfer call one of the DMA unmap routines +dma_unmap_{single,sg}. If you don't touch the data from the first dma_map_* +call till dma_unmap_*, then you don't have to call the dma_sync_* +routines at all. + +Here is pseudo code which shows a situation in which you would need +to use the dma_sync_*() interfaces. + + my_card_setup_receive_buffer(struct my_card *cp, char *buffer, int len) + { + dma_addr_t mapping; + + mapping = dma_map_single(cp->dev, buffer, len, DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + + cp->rx_buf = buffer; + cp->rx_len = len; + cp->rx_dma = mapping; + + give_rx_buf_to_card(cp); + } + + ... + + my_card_interrupt_handler(int irq, void *devid, struct pt_regs *regs) + { + struct my_card *cp = devid; + + ... + if (read_card_status(cp) == RX_BUF_TRANSFERRED) { + struct my_card_header *hp; + + /* Examine the header to see if we wish + * to accept the data. But synchronize + * the DMA transfer with the CPU first + * so that we see updated contents. + */ + dma_sync_single_for_cpu(&cp->dev, cp->rx_dma, + cp->rx_len, + DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + + /* Now it is safe to examine the buffer. */ + hp = (struct my_card_header *) cp->rx_buf; + if (header_is_ok(hp)) { + dma_unmap_single(&cp->dev, cp->rx_dma, cp->rx_len, + DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + pass_to_upper_layers(cp->rx_buf); + make_and_setup_new_rx_buf(cp); + } else { + /* Just sync the buffer and give it back + * to the card. + */ + dma_sync_single_for_device(&cp->dev, + cp->rx_dma, + cp->rx_len, + DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + give_rx_buf_to_card(cp); + } + } + } + +Drivers converted fully to this interface should not use virt_to_bus any +longer, nor should they use bus_to_virt. Some drivers have to be changed a +little bit, because there is no longer an equivalent to bus_to_virt in the +dynamic DMA mapping scheme - you have to always store the DMA addresses +returned by the dma_alloc_coherent, dma_pool_alloc, and dma_map_single +calls (dma_map_sg stores them in the scatterlist itself if the platform +supports dynamic DMA mapping in hardware) in your driver structures and/or +in the card registers. + +All drivers should be using these interfaces with no exceptions. It +is planned to completely remove virt_to_bus() and bus_to_virt() as +they are entirely deprecated. Some ports already do not provide these +as it is impossible to correctly support them. + + Handling Errors + +DMA address space is limited on some architectures and an allocation +failure can be determined by: + +- checking if dma_alloc_coherent returns NULL or dma_map_sg returns 0 + +- checking the returned dma_addr_t of dma_map_single and dma_map_page + by using dma_mapping_error(): + + dma_addr_t dma_handle; + + dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction); + if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle)) { + /* + * reduce current DMA mapping usage, + * delay and try again later or + * reset driver. + */ + } + +Networking drivers must call dev_kfree_skb to free the socket buffer +and return NETDEV_TX_OK if the DMA mapping fails on the transmit hook +(ndo_start_xmit). This means that the socket buffer is just dropped in +the failure case. + +SCSI drivers must return SCSI_MLQUEUE_HOST_BUSY if the DMA mapping +fails in the queuecommand hook. This means that the SCSI subsystem +passes the command to the driver again later. + + Optimizing Unmap State Space Consumption + +On many platforms, dma_unmap_{single,page}() is simply a nop. +Therefore, keeping track of the mapping address and length is a waste +of space. Instead of filling your drivers up with ifdefs and the like +to "work around" this (which would defeat the whole purpose of a +portable API) the following facilities are provided. + +Actually, instead of describing the macros one by one, we'll +transform some example code. + +1) Use DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_{ADDR,LEN} in state saving structures. + Example, before: + + struct ring_state { + struct sk_buff *skb; + dma_addr_t mapping; + __u32 len; + }; + + after: + + struct ring_state { + struct sk_buff *skb; + DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_ADDR(mapping); + DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_LEN(len); + }; + +2) Use dma_unmap_{addr,len}_set to set these values. + Example, before: + + ringp->mapping = FOO; + ringp->len = BAR; + + after: + + dma_unmap_addr_set(ringp, mapping, FOO); + dma_unmap_len_set(ringp, len, BAR); + +3) Use dma_unmap_{addr,len} to access these values. + Example, before: + + dma_unmap_single(dev, ringp->mapping, ringp->len, + DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + + after: + + dma_unmap_single(dev, + dma_unmap_addr(ringp, mapping), + dma_unmap_len(ringp, len), + DMA_FROM_DEVICE); + +It really should be self-explanatory. We treat the ADDR and LEN +separately, because it is possible for an implementation to only +need the address in order to perform the unmap operation. + + Platform Issues + +If you are just writing drivers for Linux and do not maintain +an architecture port for the kernel, you can safely skip down +to "Closing". + +1) Struct scatterlist requirements. + + Don't invent the architecture specific struct scatterlist; just use + <asm-generic/scatterlist.h>. You need to enable + CONFIG_NEED_SG_DMA_LENGTH if the architecture supports IOMMUs + (including software IOMMU). + +2) ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN + + Architectures must ensure that kmalloc'ed buffer is + DMA-safe. Drivers and subsystems depend on it. If an architecture + isn't fully DMA-coherent (i.e. hardware doesn't ensure that data in + the CPU cache is identical to data in main memory), + ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN must be set so that the memory allocator + makes sure that kmalloc'ed buffer doesn't share a cache line with + the others. See arch/arm/include/asm/cache.h as an example. + + Note that ARCH_KMALLOC_MINALIGN is about DMA memory alignment + constraints. You don't need to worry about the architecture data + alignment constraints (e.g. the alignment constraints about 64-bit + objects). + + Closing + +This document, and the API itself, would not be in its current +form without the feedback and suggestions from numerous individuals. +We would like to specifically mention, in no particular order, the +following people: + + Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk> + Leo Dagum <dagum@barrel.engr.sgi.com> + Ralf Baechle <ralf@oss.sgi.com> + Grant Grundler <grundler@cup.hp.com> + Jay Estabrook <Jay.Estabrook@compaq.com> + Thomas Sailer <sailer@ife.ee.ethz.ch> + Andrea Arcangeli <andrea@suse.de> + Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com> + David Mosberger-Tang <davidm@hpl.hp.com> |
