From: Pierre Ossman Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 20:10:13 +0000 (-0700) Subject: [PATCH] ISA DMA API documentation X-Git-Tag: v2.6.14-rc1~296 X-Git-Url: https://err.no/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ddb99f3d35b178f0715aab2f9d9ab25f61814347;p=linux-2.6 [PATCH] ISA DMA API documentation Documentation for how the ISA DMA controller is handled in the kernel. Signed-off-by: Pierre Ossman Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- diff --git a/Documentation/DMA-ISA-LPC.txt b/Documentation/DMA-ISA-LPC.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..705f6be92b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/DMA-ISA-LPC.txt @@ -0,0 +1,151 @@ + DMA with ISA and LPC devices + ============================ + + Pierre Ossman + +This document describes how to do DMA transfers using the old ISA DMA +controller. Even though ISA is more or less dead today the LPC bus +uses the same DMA system so it will be around for quite some time. + +Part I - Headers and dependencies +--------------------------------- + +To do ISA style DMA you need to include two headers: + +#include +#include + +The first is the generic DMA API used to convert virtual addresses to +physical addresses (see Documentation/DMA-API.txt for details). + +The second contains the routines specific to ISA DMA transfers. Since +this is not present on all platforms make sure you construct your +Kconfig to be dependent on ISA_DMA_API (not ISA) so that nobody tries +to build your driver on unsupported platforms. + +Part II - Buffer allocation +--------------------------- + +The ISA DMA controller has some very strict requirements on which +memory it can access so extra care must be taken when allocating +buffers. + +(You usually need a special buffer for DMA transfers instead of +transferring directly to and from your normal data structures.) + +The DMA-able address space is the lowest 16 MB of _physical_ memory. +Also the transfer block may not cross page boundaries (which are 64 +or 128 KiB depending on which channel you use). + +In order to allocate a piece of memory that satisfies all these +requirements you pass the flag GFP_DMA to kmalloc. + +Unfortunately the memory available for ISA DMA is scarce so unless you +allocate the memory during boot-up it's a good idea to also pass +__GFP_REPEAT and __GFP_NOWARN to make the allocater try a bit harder. + +(This scarcity also means that you should allocate the buffer as +early as possible and not release it until the driver is unloaded.) + +Part III - Address translation +------------------------------ + +To translate the virtual address to a physical use the normal DMA +API. Do _not_ use isa_virt_to_phys() even though it does the same +thing. The reason for this is that the function isa_virt_to_phys() +will require a Kconfig dependency to ISA, not just ISA_DMA_API which +is really all you need. Remember that even though the DMA controller +has its origins in ISA it is used elsewhere. + +Note: x86_64 had a broken DMA API when it came to ISA but has since +been fixed. If your arch has problems then fix the DMA API instead of +reverting to the ISA functions. + +Part IV - Channels +------------------ + +A normal ISA DMA controller has 8 channels. The lower four are for +8-bit transfers and the upper four are for 16-bit transfers. + +(Actually the DMA controller is really two separate controllers where +channel 4 is used to give DMA access for the second controller (0-3). +This means that of the four 16-bits channels only three are usable.) + +You allocate these in a similar fashion as all basic resources: + +extern int request_dma(unsigned int dmanr, const char * device_id); +extern void free_dma(unsigned int dmanr); + +The ability to use 16-bit or 8-bit transfers is _not_ up to you as a +driver author but depends on what the hardware supports. Check your +specs or test different channels. + +Part V - Transfer data +---------------------- + +Now for the good stuff, the actual DMA transfer. :) + +Before you use any ISA DMA routines you need to claim the DMA lock +using claim_dma_lock(). The reason is that some DMA operations are +not atomic so only one driver may fiddle with the registers at a +time. + +The first time you use the DMA controller you should call +clear_dma_ff(). This clears an internal register in the DMA +controller that is used for the non-atomic operations. As long as you +(and everyone else) uses the locking functions then you only need to +reset this once. + +Next, you tell the controller in which direction you intend to do the +transfer using set_dma_mode(). Currently you have the options +DMA_MODE_READ and DMA_MODE_WRITE. + +Set the address from where the transfer should start (this needs to +be 16-bit aligned for 16-bit transfers) and how many bytes to +transfer. Note that it's _bytes_. The DMA routines will do all the +required translation to values that the DMA controller understands. + +The final step is enabling the DMA channel and releasing the DMA +lock. + +Once the DMA transfer is finished (or timed out) you should disable +the channel again. You should also check get_dma_residue() to make +sure that all data has been transfered. + +Example: + +int flags, residue; + +flags = claim_dma_lock(); + +clear_dma_ff(); + +set_dma_mode(channel, DMA_MODE_WRITE); +set_dma_addr(channel, phys_addr); +set_dma_count(channel, num_bytes); + +dma_enable(channel); + +release_dma_lock(flags); + +while (!device_done()); + +flags = claim_dma_lock(); + +dma_disable(channel); + +residue = dma_get_residue(channel); +if (residue != 0) + printk(KERN_ERR "driver: Incomplete DMA transfer!" + " %d bytes left!\n", residue); + +release_dma_lock(flags); + +Part VI - Suspend/resume +------------------------ + +It is the driver's responsibility to make sure that the machine isn't +suspended while a DMA transfer is in progress. Also, all DMA settings +are lost when the system suspends so if your driver relies on the DMA +controller being in a certain state then you have to restore these +registers upon resume.