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Message-Id: <20251020185539.49986-5-joelagnelf@nvidia.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:55:36 -0400
From: Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@...dia.com>
To: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
rust-for-linux@...r.kernel.org,
dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org,
dakr@...nel.org,
acourbot@...dia.com
Cc: Alistair Popple <apopple@...dia.com>,
Miguel Ojeda <ojeda@...nel.org>,
Alex Gaynor <alex.gaynor@...il.com>,
Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
Gary Guo <gary@...yguo.net>,
bjorn3_gh@...tonmail.com,
Benno Lossin <lossin@...nel.org>,
Andreas Hindborg <a.hindborg@...nel.org>,
Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@...gle.com>,
Trevor Gross <tmgross@...ch.edu>,
David Airlie <airlied@...il.com>,
Simona Vetter <simona@...ll.ch>,
Maarten Lankhorst <maarten.lankhorst@...ux.intel.com>,
Maxime Ripard <mripard@...nel.org>,
Thomas Zimmermann <tzimmermann@...e.de>,
John Hubbard <jhubbard@...dia.com>,
Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@...dia.com>,
Timur Tabi <ttabi@...dia.com>,
joel@...lfernandes.org,
Elle Rhumsaa <elle@...thered-steel.dev>,
Daniel Almeida <daniel.almeida@...labora.com>,
nouveau@...ts.freedesktop.org
Subject: [PATCH 4/7] docs: gpu: nova-core: Document the PRAMIN aperture mechanism
While not terribly complicated, a little bit of documentation will help
augment the code for this very important mechanism.
Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@...dia.com>
---
Documentation/gpu/nova/core/pramin.rst | 113 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
Documentation/gpu/nova/index.rst | 1 +
2 files changed, 114 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/gpu/nova/core/pramin.rst
diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/nova/core/pramin.rst b/Documentation/gpu/nova/core/pramin.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..19615e504db9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/nova/core/pramin.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=========================
+PRAMIN aperture mechanism
+=========================
+
+.. note::
+ The following description is approximate and current as of the Ampere family.
+ It may change for future generations and is intended to assist in understanding
+ the driver code.
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+PRAMIN is a hardware aperture mechanism that provides CPU access to GPU Video RAM (VRAM) before
+the GPU's Memory Management Unit (MMU) and page tables are initialized. This 1MB sliding window,
+located at a fixed offset within BAR0, is essential for setting up page tables and other critical
+GPU data structures without relying on the GPU's MMU.
+
+Architecture Overview
+=====================
+
+Logically, the PRAMIN aperture mechanism is implemented by the GPU's PBUS (PCIe Bus Controller Unit)
+and provides a CPU-accessible window into VRAM through the PCIe interface::
+
+ +-----------------+ PCIe +------------------------------+
+ | CPU |<----------->| GPU |
+ +-----------------+ | |
+ | +----------------------+ |
+ | | PBUS | |
+ | | (Bus Controller) | |
+ | | | |
+ | | +--------------.<------------ (window always starts at
+ | | | PRAMIN | | | BAR0 + 0x700000)
+ | | | Window | | |
+ | | | (1MB) | | |
+ | | +--------------+ | |
+ | | | | |
+ | +---------|------------+ |
+ | | |
+ | v |
+ | .----------------------.<------------ (Program PRAMIN to any
+ | | VRAM | | 64KB VRAM physical boundary)
+ | | (Several GBs) | |
+ | | | |
+ | | FB[0x000000000000] | |
+ | | ... | |
+ | | FB[0x7FFFFFFFFFF] | |
+ | +----------------------+ |
+ +------------------------------+
+
+PBUS (PCIe Bus Controller) among other things is responsible in the GPU for handling MMIO
+accesses to the BAR registers.
+
+PRAMIN Window Operation
+=======================
+
+The PRAMIN window provides a 1MB sliding aperture that can be repositioned over
+the entire VRAM address space using the NV_PBUS_BAR0_WINDOW register.
+
+Window Control Mechanism
+-------------------------
+
+The window position is controlled via the PBUS BAR0_WINDOW register::
+
+ NV_PBUS_BAR0_WINDOW Register
+ +-----+-----+--------------------------------------+
+ |31-26|25-24| 23-0 |
+ | |TARG | BASE_ADDR |
+ | | ET | (bits 39:16 of VRAM address) |
+ +-----+-----+--------------------------------------+
+
+ TARGET field values:
+ - 0x0: VID_MEM (Video Memory / VRAM)
+ - 0x1: SYS_MEM_COHERENT (Coherent system memory)
+ - 0x2: SYS_MEM_NONCOHERENT (Non-coherent system memory)
+
+64KB Alignment Requirement
+---------------------------
+
+The PRAMIN window must be aligned to 64KB boundaries in VRAM. This is enforced
+by the BASE_ADDR field representing bits [39:16] of the target address::
+
+ VRAM Address Calculation:
+ actual_vram_addr = (BASE_ADDR << 16) + pramin_offset
+ Where:
+ - BASE_ADDR: 24-bit value from NV_PBUS_BAR0_WINDOW[23:0]
+ - pramin_offset: 20-bit offset within PRAMIN window [0x00000-0xFFFFF]
+ Example Window Positioning:
+ +---------------------------------------------------------+
+ | VRAM Space |
+ | |
+ | 0x000000000 +-----------------+ <-- 64KB aligned |
+ | | PRAMIN Window | |
+ | | (1MB) | |
+ | 0x0000FFFFF +-----------------+ |
+ | |
+ | | ^ |
+ | | | Window can slide |
+ | v | to any 64KB boundary |
+ | |
+ | 0x123400000 +-----------------+ <-- 64KB aligned |
+ | | PRAMIN Window | |
+ | | (1MB) | |
+ | 0x1234FFFFF +-----------------+ |
+ | |
+ | ... |
+ | |
+ | 0x7FFFF0000 +-----------------+ <-- 64KB aligned |
+ | | PRAMIN Window | |
+ | | (1MB) | |
+ | 0x7FFFFFFFF +-----------------+ |
+ +---------------------------------------------------------+
diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/nova/index.rst b/Documentation/gpu/nova/index.rst
index 46302daace34..e77d3ee336a4 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/nova/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/nova/index.rst
@@ -33,3 +33,4 @@ vGPU manager VFIO driver and the nova-drm driver.
core/fwsec
core/falcon
core/msgq
+ core/pramin
--
2.34.1
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