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LKML: Vitaly Wool: Re: [PATCH 2.6-git] MTD/SPI dataflash driver
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There are some post-2.6.15-rc3-mm1<br />>updates to this code, mostly to catch startup fauults better but also to<br />>hotplug reasonably. The glitches I saw may as easily be JFFS2 integration<br />>issues for the DataFlash code as bitbang adapter problems. (I think you<br />>started more or less from what's in rc3-mm1.)<br />><br />> <br />><br />Very basically. I've make a note that it was a mindwork.I also didn't <br />make the attempt to make it a clean MTD driver.<br />However, it would be nice if someone compared the performance of both <br />variants.<br /><br />> <br />><br />>>reducing both <br />>>the size of the source code and the footprint of the object code.<br />>>I'd also like to mention that now it looks significatnly easier to understand<br />>>due to no more use of complicated SPI message structures. The number of variables<br />>>used was also decreased<br />>> <br />>><br />><br />>I think that's all the same issue. Other than "spi_driver" replacing<br />>"device_driver" (I'd like to see a patch doing that to rc3-mm1), the<br />>main changes seem to be:<br />><br />> - Move from original atomic requests like this<br />><br />> { write command, read response }<br />><br />> over to two separate requests<br />><br />> { write command, and leave CS active }<br />> { read response, and leave CS off }<br />><br />> - Lower the per-request performance ceiling on this driver<br />><br />> * original code could be implemented in a single DMA chain on<br />> at least two systems I happen to have handy ... one IRQ.<br />> <br />><br />Whoops. Lemme express my thoughts here.<br />First, the DMA controller that can handle chained requests which are <br />working with different devices (i.e. write then read does that - first <br />mem2per, then per2mem) are *very* rare thing.<br />Then, what _really_ can happen in a single DMA chain? 99,9999% cases of <br />such will be "read x bytes to get aware of the length of the packet, <br />then read the data packet". Here you won't have any noticable <br />performance gain as the first transfer is to small. It's soooo small <br />that the overhead of having a linked list for DMA will probably be <br />bigger than that of having two transfers. A smart controller driver may <br />even want to have a PIO read on first x bytes (as x will be equal to 2 <br />or 4, I guess :)<br /><br />> * this version requires two separate chains, with an intervening<br />> task schedule. (More than twice the cost.)<br />> <br />><br />See above.<br /><br />> * in your framework I still can't be _sure_ it never does memcpy<br />> for those buffers (the last version I looked at did so). the<br />> original code just used normal DMA models, so it "obviously"<br />> doesn't risk memcpy.<br />> <br />><br />You can be sure if you set SPI_M_DNA flag. I'll update the Doc accordingly.<br /><br />> - I might agree with this being "easier to understand" code, though<br />> it's debatable. (The device sees one transaction, why should the<br />> driver writer have to split it up into two?) But that doesn't<br />> matter much: filesystems are better with "faster to run" code.<br />> <br />><br />Your clains that the originl code is faster are arguable.<br /><br />> - Chipselect works differently in your code. You're giving one<br />> driver control over all the devices sharing a controller, by<br />> blocking requests going to other devices until your driver yields<br />> the chipselect. <br />> <br />><br />The controllers we were working with are _not_ able to handle <br />simultaneous requests to different devices on the same bus.<br />Can you please tell me what specific controller you're referring to?<br /><br />>So the way I see it, this is a good example of why my original I/O model<br />>is better. It provides _flexibility_ in the API so that some drivers<br />>can be really smart, if they want to. You haven't liked the consequence<br />>of that though: controller drivers being able to choose how they<br />>represent and manage I/O queues, rather than doing that in your "core".<br />><br />> <br />><br />Not that I agreed to your vision, for the reasons listed above. ;-)<br /><br />Vitaly<br />-<br />To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in<br />the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org<br />More majordomo info at <a href="http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html">http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html</a><br />Please read the FAQ at <a href="http://www.tux.org/lkml/">http://www.tux.org/lkml/</a><br /><br /></pre></td><td width="32" rowspan="2" class="c" valign="top"><img src="/images/icornerr.gif" width="32" height="32" alt="\" /></td></tr><tr><td align="right" valign="bottom"> 聽 </td></tr><tr><td align="right" valign="bottom">聽</td><td class="c" valign="bottom" style="padding-bottom: 0px"><img src="/images/bcornerl.gif" width="32" height="32" alt="\" /></td><td class="c">聽</td><td class="c" valign="bottom" style="padding-bottom: 0px"><img src="/images/bcornerr.gif" width="32" height="32" alt="/" /></td></tr><tr><td align="right" valign="top" colspan="2"> 聽 </td><td class="lm">Last update: 2005-12-02 07:05 聽聽 [from the cache]<br />漏2003-2020 <a href="http://blog.jasper.es/"><span itemprop="editor">Jasper Spaans</span></a>|hosted at <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=9a8e99d24cf9">Digital Ocean</a> and my Meterkast|<a href="http://blog.jasper.es/categories.html#lkml-ref">Read the blog</a></td><td>聽</td></tr></table><script language="javascript" src="/js/styleswitcher.js" type="text/javascript"></script></body></html>