Commit eeba4b01 authored by Arnd Bergmann's avatar Arnd Bergmann Committed by Hector Martin

docs: driver-api: device-io: Document I/O access functions

This adds more detailed descriptions of the various read/write
primitives available for use with I/O memory/ports.
Reviewed-by: default avatarLinus Walleij <linus.walleij@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: default avatarArnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Signed-off-by: default avatarHector Martin <marcan@marcan.st>
parent 7c566bb5
......@@ -146,6 +146,144 @@ There are also equivalents to memcpy. The ins() and
outs() functions copy bytes, words or longs to the given
port.
__iomem pointer tokens
======================
The data type for an MMIO address is an ``__iomem`` qualified pointer, such as
``void __iomem *reg``. On most architectures it is a regular pointer that
points to a virtual memory address and can be offset or dereferenced, but in
portable code, it must only be passed from and to functions that explicitly
operated on an ``__iomem`` token, in particular the ioremap() and
readl()/writel() functions. The 'sparse' semantic code checker can be used to
verify that this is done correctly.
While on most architectures, ioremap() creates a page table entry for an
uncached virtual address pointing to the physical MMIO address, some
architectures require special instructions for MMIO, and the ``__iomem`` pointer
just encodes the physical address or an offsettable cookie that is interpreted
by readl()/writel().
Differences between I/O access functions
========================================
readq(), readl(), readw(), readb(), writeq(), writel(), writew(), writeb()
These are the most generic accessors, providing serialization against other
MMIO accesses and DMA accesses as well as fixed endianness for accessing
little-endian PCI devices and on-chip peripherals. Portable device drivers
should generally use these for any access to ``__iomem`` pointers.
Note that posted writes are not strictly ordered against a spinlock, see
Documentation/driver-api/io_ordering.rst.
readq_relaxed(), readl_relaxed(), readw_relaxed(), readb_relaxed(),
writeq_relaxed(), writel_relaxed(), writew_relaxed(), writeb_relaxed()
On architectures that require an expensive barrier for serializing against
DMA, these "relaxed" versions of the MMIO accessors only serialize against
each other, but contain a less expensive barrier operation. A device driver
might use these in a particularly performance sensitive fast path, with a
comment that explains why the usage in a specific location is safe without
the extra barriers.
See memory-barriers.txt for a more detailed discussion on the precise ordering
guarantees of the non-relaxed and relaxed versions.
ioread64(), ioread32(), ioread16(), ioread8(),
iowrite64(), iowrite32(), iowrite16(), iowrite8()
These are an alternative to the normal readl()/writel() functions, with almost
identical behavior, but they can also operate on ``__iomem`` tokens returned
for mapping PCI I/O space with pci_iomap() or ioport_map(). On architectures
that require special instructions for I/O port access, this adds a small
overhead for an indirect function call implemented in lib/iomap.c, while on
other architectures, these are simply aliases.
ioread64be(), ioread32be(), ioread16be()
iowrite64be(), iowrite32be(), iowrite16be()
These behave in the same way as the ioread32()/iowrite32() family, but with
reversed byte order, for accessing devices with big-endian MMIO registers.
Device drivers that can operate on either big-endian or little-endian
registers may have to implement a custom wrapper function that picks one or
the other depending on which device was found.
Note: On some architectures, the normal readl()/writel() functions
traditionally assume that devices are the same endianness as the CPU, while
using a hardware byte-reverse on the PCI bus when running a big-endian kernel.
Drivers that use readl()/writel() this way are generally not portable, but
tend to be limited to a particular SoC.
hi_lo_readq(), lo_hi_readq(), hi_lo_readq_relaxed(), lo_hi_readq_relaxed(),
ioread64_lo_hi(), ioread64_hi_lo(), ioread64be_lo_hi(), ioread64be_hi_lo(),
hi_lo_writeq(), lo_hi_writeq(), hi_lo_writeq_relaxed(), lo_hi_writeq_relaxed(),
iowrite64_lo_hi(), iowrite64_hi_lo(), iowrite64be_lo_hi(), iowrite64be_hi_lo()
Some device drivers have 64-bit registers that cannot be accessed atomically
on 32-bit architectures but allow two consecutive 32-bit accesses instead.
Since it depends on the particular device which of the two halves has to be
accessed first, a helper is provided for each combination of 64-bit accessors
with either low/high or high/low word ordering. A device driver must include
either <linux/io-64-nonatomic-lo-hi.h> or <linux/io-64-nonatomic-hi-lo.h> to
get the function definitions along with helpers that redirect the normal
readq()/writeq() to them on architectures that do not provide 64-bit access
natively.
__raw_readq(), __raw_readl(), __raw_readw(), __raw_readb(),
__raw_writeq(), __raw_writel(), __raw_writew(), __raw_writeb()
These are low-level MMIO accessors without barriers or byteorder changes and
architecture specific behavior. Accesses are usually atomic in the sense that
a four-byte __raw_readl() does not get split into individual byte loads, but
multiple consecutive accesses can be combined on the bus. In portable code, it
is only safe to use these to access memory behind a device bus but not MMIO
registers, as there are no ordering guarantees with regard to other MMIO
accesses or even spinlocks. The byte order is generally the same as for normal
memory, so unlike the other functions, these can be used to copy data between
kernel memory and device memory.
inl(), inw(), inb(), outl(), outw(), outb()
PCI I/O port resources traditionally require separate helpers as they are
implemented using special instructions on the x86 architecture. On most other
architectures, these are mapped to readl()/writel() style accessors
internally, usually pointing to a fixed area in virtual memory. Instead of an
``__iomem`` pointer, the address is a 32-bit integer token to identify a port
number. PCI requires I/O port access to be non-posted, meaning that an outb()
must complete before the following code executes, while a normal writeb() may
still be in progress. On architectures that correctly implement this, I/O port
access is therefore ordered against spinlocks. Many non-x86 PCI host bridge
implementations and CPU architectures however fail to implement non-posted I/O
space on PCI, so they can end up being posted on such hardware.
In some architectures, the I/O port number space has a 1:1 mapping to
``__iomem`` pointers, but this is not recommended and device drivers should
not rely on that for portability. Similarly, an I/O port number as described
in a PCI base address register may not correspond to the port number as seen
by a device driver. Portable drivers need to read the port number for the
resource provided by the kernel.
There are no direct 64-bit I/O port accessors, but pci_iomap() in combination
with ioread64/iowrite64 can be used instead.
inl_p(), inw_p(), inb_p(), outl_p(), outw_p(), outb_p()
On ISA devices that require specific timing, the _p versions of the I/O
accessors add a small delay. On architectures that do not have ISA buses,
these are aliases to the normal inb/outb helpers.
readsq, readsl, readsw, readsb
writesq, writesl, writesw, writesb
ioread64_rep, ioread32_rep, ioread16_rep, ioread8_rep
iowrite64_rep, iowrite32_rep, iowrite16_rep, iowrite8_rep
insl, insw, insb, outsl, outsw, outsb
These are helpers that access the same address multiple times, usually to copy
data between kernel memory byte stream and a FIFO buffer. Unlike the normal
MMIO accessors, these do not perform a byteswap on big-endian kernels, so the
first byte in the FIFO register corresponds to the first byte in the memory
buffer regardless of the architecture.
Public Functions Provided
=========================
......
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