Date:   Tue, 15 May 2018 12:03:09 -0600
From:   Lina Iyer <ilina@...eaurora.org>
To:     Doug Anderson <dianders@...omium.org>
Cc:     Andy Gross <andy.gross@...aro.org>,
        David Brown <david.brown@...aro.org>,
        linux-arm-msm@...r.kernel.org,
        "open list:ARM/QUALCOMM SUPPORT" <linux-soc@...r.kernel.org>,
        Rajendra Nayak <rnayak@...eaurora.org>,
        Bjorn Andersson <bjorn.andersson@...aro.org>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Stephen Boyd <sboyd@...nel.org>,
        Evan Green <evgreen@...omium.org>,
        Matthias Kaehlcke <mka@...omium.org>, rplsssn@...eaurora.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v8 09/10] drivers: qcom: rpmh: add support for batch RPMH
 request

On Tue, May 15 2018 at 10:50 -0600, Doug Anderson wrote:
>Hi,
>
>On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 9:23 AM, Lina Iyer <ilina@...eaurora.org> wrote:
>> On Tue, May 15 2018 at 09:52 -0600, Doug Anderson wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 14, 2018 at 12:59 PM, Lina Iyer <ilina@...eaurora.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>>>>  /**
>>>>>> @@ -77,12 +82,14 @@ struct rpmh_request {
>>>>>>   * @cache: the list of cached requests
>>>>>>   * @lock: synchronize access to the controller data
>>>>>>   * @dirty: was the cache updated since flush
>>>>>> + * @batch_cache: Cache sleep and wake requests sent as batch
>>>>>>   */
>>>>>>  struct rpmh_ctrlr {
>>>>>>         struct rsc_drv *drv;
>>>>>>         struct list_head cache;
>>>>>>         spinlock_t lock;
>>>>>>         bool dirty;
>>>>>> +       const struct rpmh_request *batch_cache[RPMH_MAX_BATCH_CACHE];
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm pretty confused about why the "batch_cache" is separate from the
>>>>> normal cache.  As far as I can tell the purpose of the two is the same
>>>>> but you have two totally separate code paths and data structures.
>>>>>
>>>> Due to a hardware limitation, requests made by bus drivers must be set
>>>> up in the sleep and wake TCS first before setting up the requests from
>>>> other drivers. Bus drivers use batch mode for any and all RPMH
>>>> communication. Hence their request are the only ones in the batch_cache.
>>>
>>>
>>> This is totally not obvious and not commented.  Why not rename to
>>> "priority" instead of "batch"?
>>>
>>> If the only requirement is that these come first, that's still no
>>> reason to use totally separate code paths and mechanisms.  These
>>> requests can still use the same data structures / functions and just
>>> be ordered to come first, can't they?  ...or given a boolean
>>> "priority" and you can do two passes through your queue: one to do the
>>> priority ones and one to do the secondary ones.
>>>
>>>
>> The bus requests have a certain order and cannot be mutated by the
>> RPMH driver. It has to be maintained in the TCS in the same order.
>
>Please document this requirement in the code.
>
>
OK.

>> Also, the bus requests have quite a churn during the course of an
>> usecase. They are setup and invalidated often.
>> It is faster to have them separate and invalidate the whole lot of the
>> batch_cache instead of intertwining them with requests from other
>> drivers and then figuring out which all must be invalidated and rebuilt
>> when the next batch requests comes in. Remember, that requests may come
>> from any driver any time and therefore will be mangled if we use the
>> same data structure. So to be faster and to avoid having mangled requests
>> in the TCS, I have kept the data structures separate.
>
>If you need to find a certain group of requests then can't you just
>tag them and it's easy to find them?  I'm still not seeing the need
>for a whole separate code path and data structure.
>
Could be done but it will be slower and involve a lot more code than
separate data structures.

>>>>>> +       spin_unlock_irqrestore(&ctrlr->lock, flags);
>>>>>> +
>>>>>> +       return ret;
>>>>>> +}
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> As part of my overall confusion about why the batch cache is different
>>>>> than the normal one: for the normal use case you still call
>>>>> rpmh_rsc_write_ctrl_data() for things you put in your cache, but you
>>>>> don't for the batch cache.  I still haven't totally figured out what
>>>>> rpmh_rsc_write_ctrl_data() does, but it seems strange that you don't
>>>>> do it for the batch cache but you do for the other one.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> flush_batch does write to the controller using
>>>> rpmh_rsc_write_ctrl_data()
>>>
>>>
>>> My confusion is that they happen at different times.  As I understand it:
>>>
>>> * For the normal case, you immediately calls
>>> rpmh_rsc_write_ctrl_data() and then later do the rest of the work.
>>>
>>> * For the batch case, you call both later.
>>>
>>> Is there a good reason for this, or is it just an arbitrary
>>> difference?  If there's a good reason, it should be documented.
>>>
>>>
>> In both the cases, the requests are cached in the rpmh library and are
>> only sent to the controller only when the flushed. I am not sure the
>> work is any different. The rpmh_flush() flushes out batch requests and
>> then the requests from other drivers.
>
>OK then, here are the code paths I see:
>
>rpmh_write
>=> __rpmh_write
>   => cache_rpm_request()
>   => (state != RPMH_ACTIVE_ONLY_STATE): rpmh_rsc_send_data()
>
>rpmh_write_batch
>=> (state != RPMH_ACTIVE_ONLY_STATE): cache_batch()
>   => No call to rpmh_rsc_send_data()
>
>
>Said another way:
>
>* if you call rpmh_write() for something you're going to defer you
>will still call cache_rpm_request() _before_ rpmh_write() returns.
>
>* if you call rpmh_write_batch() for something you're going to defer
>then you _don't_ call cache_rpm_request() before rpmh_write_batch()
>returns.
>
>
>Do you find a fault in my analysis of the current code?  If you see a
>fault then please point it out.  If you don't see a fault, please say
>why the behaviors are different.  I certainly understand that
>eventually you will call cache_rpm_request() for both cases.  It's
>just that in one case the call happens right away and the other case
>it is deferred.
True. I see where your confusion is. It is because of an optimization and
our existential need for saving power at every opportunity.

For rpmh_write path -
The reason being for the disparity is that, we can vote for a system low
power mode (modes where we flush the caches and put the entire silicon
is a low power state) at any point when all the CPUs are idle. If a
driver has updated its vote for a system resource, it needs to be
updated in the cache and thats what cache_rpm_request() does. Its
possible that we may enter a system low power mode immediately after
that. The rpmh_flush() would be called by the idle driver and we would
flush the cached values and enter the idle state. By writing immediately
to the TCS, we avoid increasing the latency of entering an idle state.

For the rpmh_write_batch() path -
The Bus driver would invalidate the TCS and the batch_cache. The use
case fills up the batch_cache with values as needed by the use case.
While during the usecase, the CPUs can go idle and the idle drivers
would call rpmh_flush(). At that time, we would write the batch_cache
into the already invalidated TCSes and then write the rest of the cached
requests from ->cache. We then enter the low power modes.

The optimization of writing the sleep/wake votes in the same context of
the driver making the request, helps us avoid writing some extra
registers in the critical idle path.

Hope this helps.

-- Lina

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