DMOVER(9) | Kernel Developer's Manual | DMOVER(9)

# NAME

`dmover_backend_register`, `dmover_backend_unregister`, `dmover_session_create`, `dmover_session_destroy`, `dmover_request_alloc`, `dmover_request_free`, `dmover_process`, `dmover_done` —
hardware-assisted data mover interface

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <dev/dmover/dmovervar.h>`

Client interface routines:

int
`dmover_session_create`(const char *, struct dmover_session **);

void
`dmover_session_destroy`(struct dmover_session *);

struct dmover_request *
`dmover_request_alloc`(struct dmover_session *, dmover_buffer *);

void
`dmover_request_free`(struct dmover_request *);

void
`dmover_process`(struct dmover_request *);

Back-end interface routines:

void
`dmover_backend_register`(struct dmover_backend *);

void
`dmover_backend_unregister`(struct dmover_backend *);

void
`dmover_done`(struct dmover_request *);

# DESCRIPTION

The `dmover` facility provides an interface to hardware-assisted data movers. This can be used to copy data from one location in memory to another, clear a region of memory, fill a region of memory with a pattern, and perform simple operations on multiple regions of memory, such as an XOR, without intervention by the CPU.

The drivers for hardware-assisted data movers present themselves to `dmover` by registering their capabilities. When a client wishes to use a `dmover` function, it creates a session for that function, which identifies back-ends capable of performing that function. The client then enqueues requests on that session, which the back-ends process asynchronously. The client may choose to block until the request is completed, or may have a call-back invoked once the request has been completed.

When a client creates a session, the `dmover` facility identifies back-ends which are capable of handling the requested function. When a request is scheduled for processing, the `dmover` scheduler will identify the best back-end to process the request from the list of candidate back-ends, in an effort to provide load balancing, while considering the relative performance of each back-end.

A `dmover` function always has one output region. A function may have zero or more input regions, or may use an immediate value as an input. For functions which use input regions, the lengths of each input region and the output region must be the same. All `dmover` functions with the same name will have the same number of and type inputs. If a back-end attempts to register a function which violates this invariant, behavior is undefined.

The `dmover` facility supports several types of buffer descriptors. For functions which use input regions, each input buffer descriptor and the output buffer descriptor must be of the same type. This restriction may be removed in a future revision of the interface.

The `dmover` facility may need to interrupt request processing and restart it. Clients of the `dmover` facility should take care to avoid unwanted side-effects should this occur. In particular, for functions which use input regions, no input region may overlap with the output region.

## DATA STRUCTURES

The `dmover` facility shares several data structures between the client and back-end in order to describe sessions and requests.

    typedef enum {
    	DMOVER_BUF_LINEAR,
    	DMOVER_BUF_UIO
    } dmover_buffer_type;

    typedef struct {
    	void *l_addr;
    	size_t l_len;
    } dmover_buf_linear;

    typedef union {
    	dmover_buf_linear dmbuf_linear;
    	struct uio *dmbuf_uio;
    } dmover_buffer;

Together, these data types are used to describe buffer data structures which the `dmover` facility understands. Additional buffer types may be added in future revisions of the `dmover` interface.

The dmover_assignment structure contains the information about the back-end to which a request is currently assigned. It contains the following public members:

struct dmover_backend *das_backend
  This is a pointer to the back-end.
const struct dmover_algdesc *das_algdesc
  This is a pointer to the algorithm description provided by the back-end for the request's function.

The dmover_session structure contains the following public members:

void *dses_cookie
  This is a pointer to client private data.
int dses_ninputs
  This is the number of inputs used by the selected function.

The dmover_request structure contains the following public members:

TAILQ_ENTRY(dmover_request) dreq_dmbq
  Linkage on the back-end's queue of pending requests.
struct dmover_session *dreq_session
  Pointer to the session with which this request is associated. This is intended for use by the back-end.
struct dmover_assignment *dreq_assignment
  Pointer to the dmover_assignment structure which describes the back-end to which the request is currently assigned. The back-end is assigned when the request is scheduled with `dmover_process`().
void (*dreq_callback)(struct dmover_request *)
  This is a pointer to an optional call-back function provided by the client. If provided, the call-back is invoked when the request is complete. This field must be `NULL` if DMOVER_REQ_WAIT is set in dreq_flags.
void *dreq_cookie
  This is a pointer to client private data specific to the request.
void *dreq_dmbcookie
  This is a pointer to back-end private data, for use while the back-end is actively processing a request.
volatile int dreq_flags
  The following flags are defined:
  DMOVER_REQ_DONE
    The request has been completed. If not using a call-back, the client may poll this bit to determine if a request has been processed.
  DMOVER_REQ_ERROR
    An error has occurred while processing the request.
  DMOVER_REQ_RUNNING
    The request is currently being executed by the back-end. Once a command is running, it cannot be cancelled, and must run to completion.
  DMOVER_REQ_WAIT
    If set by the client, `dmover_process`() will wait for the request to complete using cv_wait(9). This flag may only be used if the caller has a valid thread context. If this flag is set, a callback may not be used.
int dreq_error
  If the DMOVER_REQ_ERROR bit is set, this contains the errno(2) value indicating the error that occurred during processing.
dmover_buffer_type dreq_outbuf_type
  The type of the output buffer.
dmover_buffer dreq_outbuf
  The output buffer.
uint8_t dreq_immediate[8]
  This is the input for algorithms which use an immediate value. Values smaller than 8 bytes should use the least-significant bytes first. For example, a 32-bit integer would occupy bytes 0, 1, 2, and 3.
dmover_buffer_type dreq_inbuf_type
  The type of the input buffer. This is only used if the `dmover` function has one or more inputs.
dmover_buffer *dreq_inbuf
  A pointer to an array of input buffers. This is only used if the `dmover` function has one or more inputs. The number of inputs, and thus the number of valid elements in the array, is specified by the algorithm description for the session.

## CLIENT INTERFACE

The following functions are provided to the client:

`dmover_session_create`(function, sessionp)

  The `dmover_session_create`() function creates a data mover session for the specified data movement function function. A handle to the new session is returned in sessionp.

  The following are valid data movement function names:

  “zero”
    Fill a memory region with zeros. This algorithm has an input count of 0.
  “fill8”
    Fill a memory region with an 8-bit pattern. This algorithm has an input count of 0. The pattern is provided in the dreq_imm8 member of the dmover_request structure.
  “copy”
    Copy a memory region from one location to another. This algorithm has an input count of 1.
  “xor2”
    Perform an XOR operation on 2 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 2.
  “xor3”
    Perform an XOR operation on 3 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 3.
  “xor4”
    Perform an XOR operation on 4 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 4.
  “xor5”
    Perform an XOR operation on 5 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 5.
  “xor6”
    Perform an XOR operation on 6 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 6.
  “xor7”
    Perform an XOR operation on 7 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 7.
  “xor8”
    Perform an XOR operation on 8 inputs. This algorithm has an input count of 8.

  Users of the `dmover` facility are encouraged to use the following aliases for the well-known function names, as doing so saves space and reduces the chance of programming errors:

  DMOVER_FUNC_ZERO
    “zero” (dmover_funcname_zero)
  DMOVER_FUNC_FILL8
    “fill8” (dmover_funcname_fill8)
  DMOVER_FUNC_COPY
    “copy” (dmover_funcname_copy)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR2
    “xor2” (dmover_funcname_xor2)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR3
    “xor3” (dmover_funcname_xor3)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR4
    “xor4” (dmover_funcname_xor4)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR5
    “xor5” (dmover_funcname_xor5)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR6
    “xor6” (dmover_funcname_xor6)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR7
    “xor7” (dmover_funcname_xor7)
  DMOVER_FUNC_XOR8
    “xor8” (dmover_funcname_xor8)
`dmover_session_destroy`(session)

  The `dmover_session_destroy`() function tears down a data mover session and releases all resources associated with it.

`dmover_request_alloc`(session, inbuf)

  The `dmover_request_alloc`() function allocates a `dmover` request structure and associates it with the specified session. If the inbuf argument is not `NULL`, inbuf is used as the array of input buffer descriptors in the request. Otherwise, if inbuf is `NULL` and the `dmover` function requires input buffers, the input buffer descriptors will be allocated automatically using malloc(9).

  If the request structure or input buffer descriptors cannot be allocated, `dmover_request_alloc`() return `NULL` to indicate failure.

`dmover_request_free`(req)

  The `dmover_request_free`() function frees a `dmover` request structure. If the `dmover` function requires input buffers, and the input buffer descriptors associated with req were allocated by `dmover_request_alloc`(), then the input buffer descriptors will also be freed.

`dmover_process`(req)

  The `dmover_process`() function submits the `dmover` request req for processing. The call-back specified by the request is invoked when processing is complete.

The `dmover_session_create`() and `dmover_session_destroy`() functions must not be called from interrupt context.

The `dmover_request_alloc`(), `dmover_request_free`(), and `dmover_process`() functions may be called from interrupt handlers at levels IPL_VM, IPL_SOFTCLOCK, and IPL_SOFTNET, or in non-interrupt context.

The request completion call-back is called from a software interrupt handler at IPL_SOFTCLOCK.

## BACK-END INTERFACE

A back-end describes the `dmover` functions it can perform using an array of dmover_algdesc structures:

    struct dmover_algdesc {
    	const char *dad_name;	/* algorithm name */
    	void *dad_data;		/* opaque algorithm description */
    	int dad_ninputs;	/* number of inputs */
    };

The dad_name member points to a valid `dmover` function name which the client may specify. The dad_data member points to a back-end-specific description of the algorithm.

A back-end presents itself to the `dmover` facility using the dmover_backend structure. The back-end must initialize the following members of the structure:

const char *dmb_name
  This is the name of the back-end.
u_int dmb_speed
  This is an estimate of the number of kilobytes/second that the back-end can process.
void *dmb_cookie
  This is a pointer to back-end private data.
const struct dmover_algdesc *dmb_algdescs
  This points to an array of dmover_algdesc structures which describe the functions the data mover can perform.
int dmb_nalgdescs
  This is the number of elements in the dmb_algdescs array.
void (*dmb_process)(struct dmover_backend *)
  This is the entry point to the back-end used to process requests.

When invoked by the `dmover` facility, the back-end's `(*dmb_process)`() function should examine the pending request queue in its dmover_backend structure:

TAILQ_HEAD(, dmover_request) dmb_pendreqs
  This is the queue of pending requests.
int dmb_npendreqs
  This is the number of requests in the dmb_pendreqs queue.

If an error occurs when processing the request, the DMOVER_REQ_ERROR bit must be set in the dreq_flags member of the request, and the dreq_error member set to an errno(2) value to indicate the error.

When the back-end has finished processing the request, it must call the `dmover_done`() function. This function eventually invokes the client's call-back routine.

If a hardware-assisted data mover uses interrupts, the interrupt handlers should be registered at IPL_VM.

The following functions are provided to the back-ends:

`dmover_backend_register`(backend)

  The `dmover_backend_register`() function registers the back-end backend with the `dmover` facility.

`dmover_backend_unregister`(backend)

  The `dmover_backend_unregister`() function removes the back-end backend from the `dmover` facility. The back-end must already be registered.

`dmover_done`(req)

  The `dmover_done`() function is called by the back-end when it has finished processing a request, whether the request completed successfully or not.

The `dmover_backend_register`() and `dmover_backend_unregister`() functions must not be called from interrupt context.

The `dmover_done`() function may be called at IPL_VM, IPL_SOFTCLOCK, IPL_SOFTNET, or in non-interrupt context.

# EXAMPLES

The following is an example of a client using `dmover` to zero-fill a region of memory. In this example, the CPU will be able to context switch to another thread and perform work while the hardware-assisted data mover clears the specified block of memory.

    int
    hw_bzero(void *buf, size_t len)
    {
    	struct dmover_session *dses;
    	struct dmover_request *dreq;
    	int error;

    	error = dmover_session_create(DMOVER_FUNC_ZERO, &dses);
    	if (error)
    		return (error);

    	dreq = dmover_request_alloc(dses, NULL);
    	if (dreq == NULL) {
    		dmover_session_destroy(dses);
    		return (ENOMEM);
    	}

    	dreq->dreq_flags = DMOVER_REQ_WAIT;
    	dreq->dreq_callback = NULL;
    	dreq->dreq_outbuf.dreq_outbuf_type = DMOVER_BUF_LINEAR;
    	dreq->dreq_outbuf.dmbuf_linear.l_addr = buf;
    	dreq->dreq_outbuf.dmbuf_linear.l_len = len;

    	dmover_process(dreq);

    	error = (dreq->dreq_flags & DMOVER_REQ_ERROR) ?
    	    dreq->dreq_error : 0;

    	dmover_request_free(dreq);
    	dmover_session_destroy(dses);

    	return (error);
    }

# SEE ALSO

queue(3), dmoverio(4)

# HISTORY

The `dmover` facility first appeared in NetBSD 2.0.

# AUTHORS

The `dmover` facility was designed and implemented by Jason R. Thorpe ⟨thorpej@wasabisystems.com⟩ and contributed by Wasabi Systems, Inc.

# BUGS

The mechanism by which a back-end should advertise its performance to the request scheduler is not well-defined. Therefore, the load-balancing mechanism within the request scheduler is also not well-defined.

December 4, 2007 | NetBSD 9.5