Merge branch 'fixes' of git://ftp.arm.linux.org.uk/~rmk/linux-arm
[linux-2.6-block.git] / Documentation / DMA-API-HOWTO.txt
CommitLineData
216bf58f
FT
1 Dynamic DMA mapping Guide
2 =========================
1da177e4
LT
3
4 David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>
5 Richard Henderson <rth@cygnus.com>
6 Jakub Jelinek <jakub@redhat.com>
7
216bf58f
FT
8This is a guide to device driver writers on how to use the DMA API
9with example pseudo-code. For a concise description of the API, see
1da177e4
LT
10DMA-API.txt.
11
77f2ea2f
BH
12 CPU and DMA addresses
13
14There are several kinds of addresses involved in the DMA API, and it's
15important to understand the differences.
16
17The kernel normally uses virtual addresses. Any address returned by
18kmalloc(), vmalloc(), and similar interfaces is a virtual address and can
19be stored in a "void *".
20
21The virtual memory system (TLB, page tables, etc.) translates virtual
22addresses to CPU physical addresses, which are stored as "phys_addr_t" or
23"resource_size_t". The kernel manages device resources like registers as
24physical addresses. These are the addresses in /proc/iomem. The physical
25address is not directly useful to a driver; it must use ioremap() to map
26the space and produce a virtual address.
27
3a9ad0b4
YL
28I/O devices use a third kind of address: a "bus address". If a device has
29registers at an MMIO address, or if it performs DMA to read or write system
30memory, the addresses used by the device are bus addresses. In some
31systems, bus addresses are identical to CPU physical addresses, but in
32general they are not. IOMMUs and host bridges can produce arbitrary
77f2ea2f
BH
33mappings between physical and bus addresses.
34
3a9ad0b4
YL
35From a device's point of view, DMA uses the bus address space, but it may
36be restricted to a subset of that space. For example, even if a system
37supports 64-bit addresses for main memory and PCI BARs, it may use an IOMMU
38so devices only need to use 32-bit DMA addresses.
39
77f2ea2f
BH
40Here's a picture and some examples:
41
42 CPU CPU Bus
43 Virtual Physical Address
44 Address Address Space
45 Space Space
46
47 +-------+ +------+ +------+
48 | | |MMIO | Offset | |
49 | | Virtual |Space | applied | |
50 C +-------+ --------> B +------+ ----------> +------+ A
51 | | mapping | | by host | |
52 +-----+ | | | | bridge | | +--------+
53 | | | | +------+ | | | |
54 | CPU | | | | RAM | | | | Device |
55 | | | | | | | | | |
56 +-----+ +-------+ +------+ +------+ +--------+
57 | | Virtual |Buffer| Mapping | |
58 X +-------+ --------> Y +------+ <---------- +------+ Z
59 | | mapping | RAM | by IOMMU
60 | | | |
61 | | | |
62 +-------+ +------+
63
64During the enumeration process, the kernel learns about I/O devices and
65their MMIO space and the host bridges that connect them to the system. For
66example, if a PCI device has a BAR, the kernel reads the bus address (A)
67from the BAR and converts it to a CPU physical address (B). The address B
68is stored in a struct resource and usually exposed via /proc/iomem. When a
69driver claims a device, it typically uses ioremap() to map physical address
70B at a virtual address (C). It can then use, e.g., ioread32(C), to access
71the device registers at bus address A.
72
73If the device supports DMA, the driver sets up a buffer using kmalloc() or
74a similar interface, which returns a virtual address (X). The virtual
75memory system maps X to a physical address (Y) in system RAM. The driver
76can use virtual address X to access the buffer, but the device itself
77cannot because DMA doesn't go through the CPU virtual memory system.
78
79In some simple systems, the device can do DMA directly to physical address
3a9ad0b4 80Y. But in many others, there is IOMMU hardware that translates DMA
77f2ea2f
BH
81addresses to physical addresses, e.g., it translates Z to Y. This is part
82of the reason for the DMA API: the driver can give a virtual address X to
83an interface like dma_map_single(), which sets up any required IOMMU
3a9ad0b4 84mapping and returns the DMA address Z. The driver then tells the device to
77f2ea2f
BH
85do DMA to Z, and the IOMMU maps it to the buffer at address Y in system
86RAM.
1da177e4
LT
87
88So that Linux can use the dynamic DMA mapping, it needs some help from the
89drivers, namely it has to take into account that DMA addresses should be
90mapped only for the time they are actually used and unmapped after the DMA
91transfer.
92
93The following API will work of course even on platforms where no such
216bf58f
FT
94hardware exists.
95
96Note that the DMA API works with any bus independent of the underlying
77f2ea2f
BH
97microprocessor architecture. You should use the DMA API rather than the
98bus-specific DMA API, i.e., use the dma_map_*() interfaces rather than the
99pci_map_*() interfaces.
1da177e4
LT
100
101First of all, you should make sure
102
216bf58f 103#include <linux/dma-mapping.h>
1da177e4 104
77f2ea2f 105is in your driver, which provides the definition of dma_addr_t. This type
3a9ad0b4 106can hold any valid DMA address for the platform and should be used
77f2ea2f 107everywhere you hold a DMA address returned from the DMA mapping functions.
1da177e4
LT
108
109 What memory is DMA'able?
110
111The first piece of information you must know is what kernel memory can
112be used with the DMA mapping facilities. There has been an unwritten
113set of rules regarding this, and this text is an attempt to finally
114write them down.
115
116If you acquired your memory via the page allocator
117(i.e. __get_free_page*()) or the generic memory allocators
118(i.e. kmalloc() or kmem_cache_alloc()) then you may DMA to/from
119that memory using the addresses returned from those routines.
120
121This means specifically that you may _not_ use the memory/addresses
122returned from vmalloc() for DMA. It is possible to DMA to the
123_underlying_ memory mapped into a vmalloc() area, but this requires
124walking page tables to get the physical addresses, and then
125translating each of those pages back to a kernel address using
126something like __va(). [ EDIT: Update this when we integrate
127Gerd Knorr's generic code which does this. ]
128
21440d31
DB
129This rule also means that you may use neither kernel image addresses
130(items in data/text/bss segments), nor module image addresses, nor
131stack addresses for DMA. These could all be mapped somewhere entirely
132different than the rest of physical memory. Even if those classes of
133memory could physically work with DMA, you'd need to ensure the I/O
134buffers were cacheline-aligned. Without that, you'd see cacheline
135sharing problems (data corruption) on CPUs with DMA-incoherent caches.
136(The CPU could write to one word, DMA would write to a different one
137in the same cache line, and one of them could be overwritten.)
1da177e4
LT
138
139Also, this means that you cannot take the return of a kmap()
140call and DMA to/from that. This is similar to vmalloc().
141
142What about block I/O and networking buffers? The block I/O and
143networking subsystems make sure that the buffers they use are valid
144for you to DMA from/to.
145
146 DMA addressing limitations
147
148Does your device have any DMA addressing limitations? For example, is
216bf58f
FT
149your device only capable of driving the low order 24-bits of address?
150If so, you need to inform the kernel of this fact.
1da177e4
LT
151
152By default, the kernel assumes that your device can address the full
216bf58f
FT
15332-bits. For a 64-bit capable device, this needs to be increased.
154And for a device with limitations, as discussed in the previous
155paragraph, it needs to be decreased.
156
157Special note about PCI: PCI-X specification requires PCI-X devices to
158support 64-bit addressing (DAC) for all transactions. And at least
159one platform (SGI SN2) requires 64-bit consistent allocations to
160operate correctly when the IO bus is in PCI-X mode.
161
162For correct operation, you must interrogate the kernel in your device
163probe routine to see if the DMA controller on the machine can properly
164support the DMA addressing limitation your device has. It is good
165style to do this even if your device holds the default setting,
1da177e4
LT
166because this shows that you did think about these issues wrt. your
167device.
168
4aa806b7 169The query is performed via a call to dma_set_mask_and_coherent():
1da177e4 170
4aa806b7 171 int dma_set_mask_and_coherent(struct device *dev, u64 mask);
1da177e4 172
4aa806b7
RK
173which will query the mask for both streaming and coherent APIs together.
174If you have some special requirements, then the following two separate
175queries can be used instead:
1da177e4 176
4aa806b7
RK
177 The query for streaming mappings is performed via a call to
178 dma_set_mask():
179
180 int dma_set_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask);
181
182 The query for consistent allocations is performed via a call
183 to dma_set_coherent_mask():
184
185 int dma_set_coherent_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask);
1da177e4 186
216bf58f
FT
187Here, dev is a pointer to the device struct of your device, and mask
188is a bit mask describing which bits of an address your device
189supports. It returns zero if your card can perform DMA properly on
190the machine given the address mask you provided. In general, the
77f2ea2f
BH
191device struct of your device is embedded in the bus-specific device
192struct of your device. For example, &pdev->dev is a pointer to the
193device struct of a PCI device (pdev is a pointer to the PCI device
216bf58f 194struct of your device).
1da177e4 195
84eb8d06 196If it returns non-zero, your device cannot perform DMA properly on
1da177e4
LT
197this platform, and attempting to do so will result in undefined
198behavior. You must either use a different mask, or not use DMA.
199
200This means that in the failure case, you have three options:
201
2021) Use another DMA mask, if possible (see below).
2032) Use some non-DMA mode for data transfer, if possible.
2043) Ignore this device and do not initialize it.
205
206It is recommended that your driver print a kernel KERN_WARNING message
207when you end up performing either #2 or #3. In this manner, if a user
208of your driver reports that performance is bad or that the device is not
209even detected, you can ask them for the kernel messages to find out
210exactly why.
211
216bf58f 212The standard 32-bit addressing device would do something like this:
1da177e4 213
4aa806b7 214 if (dma_set_mask_and_coherent(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) {
77f2ea2f 215 dev_warn(dev, "mydev: No suitable DMA available\n");
1da177e4
LT
216 goto ignore_this_device;
217 }
218
216bf58f
FT
219Another common scenario is a 64-bit capable device. The approach here
220is to try for 64-bit addressing, but back down to a 32-bit mask that
221should not fail. The kernel may fail the 64-bit mask not because the
222platform is not capable of 64-bit addressing. Rather, it may fail in
223this case simply because 32-bit addressing is done more efficiently
224than 64-bit addressing. For example, Sparc64 PCI SAC addressing is
225more efficient than DAC addressing.
1da177e4
LT
226
227Here is how you would handle a 64-bit capable device which can drive
228all 64-bits when accessing streaming DMA:
229
230 int using_dac;
231
216bf58f 232 if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(64))) {
1da177e4 233 using_dac = 1;
216bf58f 234 } else if (!dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) {
1da177e4
LT
235 using_dac = 0;
236 } else {
77f2ea2f 237 dev_warn(dev, "mydev: No suitable DMA available\n");
1da177e4
LT
238 goto ignore_this_device;
239 }
240
241If a card is capable of using 64-bit consistent allocations as well,
242the case would look like this:
243
244 int using_dac, consistent_using_dac;
245
4aa806b7 246 if (!dma_set_mask_and_coherent(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(64))) {
1da177e4 247 using_dac = 1;
11e285d8 248 consistent_using_dac = 1;
4aa806b7 249 } else if (!dma_set_mask_and_coherent(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(32))) {
1da177e4
LT
250 using_dac = 0;
251 consistent_using_dac = 0;
1da177e4 252 } else {
77f2ea2f 253 dev_warn(dev, "mydev: No suitable DMA available\n");
1da177e4
LT
254 goto ignore_this_device;
255 }
256
34c815fb
EL
257The coherent mask will always be able to set the same or a smaller mask as
258the streaming mask. However for the rare case that a device driver only
259uses consistent allocations, one would have to check the return value from
260dma_set_coherent_mask().
1da177e4 261
1da177e4 262Finally, if your device can only drive the low 24-bits of
216bf58f 263address you might do something like:
1da177e4 264
216bf58f 265 if (dma_set_mask(dev, DMA_BIT_MASK(24))) {
77f2ea2f 266 dev_warn(dev, "mydev: 24-bit DMA addressing not available\n");
1da177e4
LT
267 goto ignore_this_device;
268 }
269
4aa806b7
RK
270When dma_set_mask() or dma_set_mask_and_coherent() is successful, and
271returns zero, the kernel saves away this mask you have provided. The
272kernel will use this information later when you make DMA mappings.
1da177e4
LT
273
274There is a case which we are aware of at this time, which is worth
275mentioning in this documentation. If your device supports multiple
276functions (for example a sound card provides playback and record
277functions) and the various different functions have _different_
278DMA addressing limitations, you may wish to probe each mask and
279only provide the functionality which the machine can handle. It
216bf58f 280is important that the last call to dma_set_mask() be for the
1da177e4
LT
281most specific mask.
282
283Here is pseudo-code showing how this might be done:
284
2c5510d4 285 #define PLAYBACK_ADDRESS_BITS DMA_BIT_MASK(32)
038f7d00 286 #define RECORD_ADDRESS_BITS DMA_BIT_MASK(24)
1da177e4
LT
287
288 struct my_sound_card *card;
216bf58f 289 struct device *dev;
1da177e4
LT
290
291 ...
216bf58f 292 if (!dma_set_mask(dev, PLAYBACK_ADDRESS_BITS)) {
1da177e4
LT
293 card->playback_enabled = 1;
294 } else {
295 card->playback_enabled = 0;
77f2ea2f 296 dev_warn(dev, "%s: Playback disabled due to DMA limitations\n",
1da177e4
LT
297 card->name);
298 }
216bf58f 299 if (!dma_set_mask(dev, RECORD_ADDRESS_BITS)) {
1da177e4
LT
300 card->record_enabled = 1;
301 } else {
302 card->record_enabled = 0;
77f2ea2f 303 dev_warn(dev, "%s: Record disabled due to DMA limitations\n",
1da177e4
LT
304 card->name);
305 }
306
307A sound card was used as an example here because this genre of PCI
308devices seems to be littered with ISA chips given a PCI front end,
309and thus retaining the 16MB DMA addressing limitations of ISA.
310
311 Types of DMA mappings
312
313There are two types of DMA mappings:
314
315- Consistent DMA mappings which are usually mapped at driver
316 initialization, unmapped at the end and for which the hardware should
317 guarantee that the device and the CPU can access the data
318 in parallel and will see updates made by each other without any
319 explicit software flushing.
320
321 Think of "consistent" as "synchronous" or "coherent".
322
323 The current default is to return consistent memory in the low 32
3a9ad0b4 324 bits of the DMA space. However, for future compatibility you should
216bf58f 325 set the consistent mask even if this default is fine for your
1da177e4
LT
326 driver.
327
328 Good examples of what to use consistent mappings for are:
329
330 - Network card DMA ring descriptors.
331 - SCSI adapter mailbox command data structures.
332 - Device firmware microcode executed out of
333 main memory.
334
335 The invariant these examples all require is that any CPU store
336 to memory is immediately visible to the device, and vice
337 versa. Consistent mappings guarantee this.
338
339 IMPORTANT: Consistent DMA memory does not preclude the usage of
340 proper memory barriers. The CPU may reorder stores to
341 consistent memory just as it may normal memory. Example:
342 if it is important for the device to see the first word
343 of a descriptor updated before the second, you must do
344 something like:
345
346 desc->word0 = address;
347 wmb();
348 desc->word1 = DESC_VALID;
349
350 in order to get correct behavior on all platforms.
351
21440d31
DB
352 Also, on some platforms your driver may need to flush CPU write
353 buffers in much the same way as it needs to flush write buffers
354 found in PCI bridges (such as by reading a register's value
355 after writing it).
356
216bf58f
FT
357- Streaming DMA mappings which are usually mapped for one DMA
358 transfer, unmapped right after it (unless you use dma_sync_* below)
359 and for which hardware can optimize for sequential accesses.
1da177e4 360
11e285d8 361 Think of "streaming" as "asynchronous" or "outside the coherency
1da177e4
LT
362 domain".
363
364 Good examples of what to use streaming mappings for are:
365
366 - Networking buffers transmitted/received by a device.
367 - Filesystem buffers written/read by a SCSI device.
368
369 The interfaces for using this type of mapping were designed in
370 such a way that an implementation can make whatever performance
371 optimizations the hardware allows. To this end, when using
372 such mappings you must be explicit about what you want to happen.
373
216bf58f
FT
374Neither type of DMA mapping has alignment restrictions that come from
375the underlying bus, although some devices may have such restrictions.
21440d31
DB
376Also, systems with caches that aren't DMA-coherent will work better
377when the underlying buffers don't share cache lines with other data.
378
1da177e4
LT
379
380 Using Consistent DMA mappings.
381
382To allocate and map large (PAGE_SIZE or so) consistent DMA regions,
383you should do:
384
385 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
386
216bf58f 387 cpu_addr = dma_alloc_coherent(dev, size, &dma_handle, gfp);
1da177e4 388
216bf58f
FT
389where device is a struct device *. This may be called in interrupt
390context with the GFP_ATOMIC flag.
1da177e4
LT
391
392Size is the length of the region you want to allocate, in bytes.
393
394This routine will allocate RAM for that region, so it acts similarly to
77f2ea2f 395__get_free_pages() (but takes size instead of a page order). If your
1da177e4 396driver needs regions sized smaller than a page, you may prefer using
216bf58f
FT
397the dma_pool interface, described below.
398
399The consistent DMA mapping interfaces, for non-NULL dev, will by
400default return a DMA address which is 32-bit addressable. Even if the
401device indicates (via DMA mask) that it may address the upper 32-bits,
402consistent allocation will only return > 32-bit addresses for DMA if
403the consistent DMA mask has been explicitly changed via
404dma_set_coherent_mask(). This is true of the dma_pool interface as
405well.
406
77f2ea2f 407dma_alloc_coherent() returns two values: the virtual address which you
1da177e4
LT
408can use to access it from the CPU and dma_handle which you pass to the
409card.
410
3a9ad0b4 411The CPU virtual address and the DMA address are both
1da177e4
LT
412guaranteed to be aligned to the smallest PAGE_SIZE order which
413is greater than or equal to the requested size. This invariant
414exists (for example) to guarantee that if you allocate a chunk
415which is smaller than or equal to 64 kilobytes, the extent of the
416buffer you receive will not cross a 64K boundary.
417
418To unmap and free such a DMA region, you call:
419
216bf58f 420 dma_free_coherent(dev, size, cpu_addr, dma_handle);
1da177e4 421
216bf58f 422where dev, size are the same as in the above call and cpu_addr and
77f2ea2f 423dma_handle are the values dma_alloc_coherent() returned to you.
1da177e4
LT
424This function may not be called in interrupt context.
425
426If your driver needs lots of smaller memory regions, you can write
77f2ea2f 427custom code to subdivide pages returned by dma_alloc_coherent(),
216bf58f 428or you can use the dma_pool API to do that. A dma_pool is like
77f2ea2f 429a kmem_cache, but it uses dma_alloc_coherent(), not __get_free_pages().
1da177e4
LT
430Also, it understands common hardware constraints for alignment,
431like queue heads needing to be aligned on N byte boundaries.
432
216bf58f 433Create a dma_pool like this:
1da177e4 434
216bf58f 435 struct dma_pool *pool;
1da177e4 436
2af9da86 437 pool = dma_pool_create(name, dev, size, align, boundary);
1da177e4 438
216bf58f 439The "name" is for diagnostics (like a kmem_cache name); dev and size
1da177e4
LT
440are as above. The device's hardware alignment requirement for this
441type of data is "align" (which is expressed in bytes, and must be a
442power of two). If your device has no boundary crossing restrictions,
2af9da86 443pass 0 for boundary; passing 4096 says memory allocated from this pool
1da177e4 444must not cross 4KByte boundaries (but at that time it may be better to
77f2ea2f 445use dma_alloc_coherent() directly instead).
1da177e4 446
77f2ea2f 447Allocate memory from a DMA pool like this:
1da177e4 448
216bf58f 449 cpu_addr = dma_pool_alloc(pool, flags, &dma_handle);
1da177e4 450
2af9da86
GK
451flags are GFP_KERNEL if blocking is permitted (not in_interrupt nor
452holding SMP locks), GFP_ATOMIC otherwise. Like dma_alloc_coherent(),
1da177e4
LT
453this returns two values, cpu_addr and dma_handle.
454
216bf58f 455Free memory that was allocated from a dma_pool like this:
1da177e4 456
216bf58f 457 dma_pool_free(pool, cpu_addr, dma_handle);
1da177e4 458
77f2ea2f
BH
459where pool is what you passed to dma_pool_alloc(), and cpu_addr and
460dma_handle are the values dma_pool_alloc() returned. This function
1da177e4
LT
461may be called in interrupt context.
462
216bf58f 463Destroy a dma_pool by calling:
1da177e4 464
216bf58f 465 dma_pool_destroy(pool);
1da177e4 466
77f2ea2f 467Make sure you've called dma_pool_free() for all memory allocated
1da177e4
LT
468from a pool before you destroy the pool. This function may not
469be called in interrupt context.
470
471 DMA Direction
472
473The interfaces described in subsequent portions of this document
474take a DMA direction argument, which is an integer and takes on
475one of the following values:
476
216bf58f
FT
477 DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL
478 DMA_TO_DEVICE
479 DMA_FROM_DEVICE
480 DMA_NONE
1da177e4 481
77f2ea2f 482You should provide the exact DMA direction if you know it.
1da177e4 483
216bf58f
FT
484DMA_TO_DEVICE means "from main memory to the device"
485DMA_FROM_DEVICE means "from the device to main memory"
1da177e4
LT
486It is the direction in which the data moves during the DMA
487transfer.
488
489You are _strongly_ encouraged to specify this as precisely
490as you possibly can.
491
492If you absolutely cannot know the direction of the DMA transfer,
216bf58f 493specify DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL. It means that the DMA can go in
1da177e4
LT
494either direction. The platform guarantees that you may legally
495specify this, and that it will work, but this may be at the
496cost of performance for example.
497
216bf58f 498The value DMA_NONE is to be used for debugging. One can
1da177e4
LT
499hold this in a data structure before you come to know the
500precise direction, and this will help catch cases where your
501direction tracking logic has failed to set things up properly.
502
503Another advantage of specifying this value precisely (outside of
504potential platform-specific optimizations of such) is for debugging.
505Some platforms actually have a write permission boolean which DMA
506mappings can be marked with, much like page protections in the user
507program address space. Such platforms can and do report errors in the
216bf58f 508kernel logs when the DMA controller hardware detects violation of the
1da177e4
LT
509permission setting.
510
511Only streaming mappings specify a direction, consistent mappings
512implicitly have a direction attribute setting of
216bf58f 513DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL.
1da177e4 514
be7db055 515The SCSI subsystem tells you the direction to use in the
516'sc_data_direction' member of the SCSI command your driver is
517working on.
1da177e4
LT
518
519For Networking drivers, it's a rather simple affair. For transmit
216bf58f 520packets, map/unmap them with the DMA_TO_DEVICE direction
1da177e4 521specifier. For receive packets, just the opposite, map/unmap them
216bf58f 522with the DMA_FROM_DEVICE direction specifier.
1da177e4
LT
523
524 Using Streaming DMA mappings
525
526The streaming DMA mapping routines can be called from interrupt
527context. There are two versions of each map/unmap, one which will
528map/unmap a single memory region, and one which will map/unmap a
529scatterlist.
530
531To map a single region, you do:
532
216bf58f 533 struct device *dev = &my_dev->dev;
1da177e4
LT
534 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
535 void *addr = buffer->ptr;
536 size_t size = buffer->len;
537
216bf58f 538 dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
b2dd83b3 539 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle)) {
8d7f62e6
SK
540 /*
541 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
542 * delay and try again later or
543 * reset driver.
544 */
545 goto map_error_handling;
546 }
1da177e4
LT
547
548and to unmap it:
549
216bf58f 550 dma_unmap_single(dev, dma_handle, size, direction);
1da177e4 551
8d7f62e6 552You should call dma_mapping_error() as dma_map_single() could fail and return
77f2ea2f 553error. Not all DMA implementations support the dma_mapping_error() interface.
8d7f62e6
SK
554However, it is a good practice to call dma_mapping_error() interface, which
555will invoke the generic mapping error check interface. Doing so will ensure
77f2ea2f 556that the mapping code will work correctly on all DMA implementations without
8d7f62e6
SK
557any dependency on the specifics of the underlying implementation. Using the
558returned address without checking for errors could result in failures ranging
be62bc41 559from panics to silent data corruption. A couple of examples of incorrect ways
77f2ea2f 560to check for errors that make assumptions about the underlying DMA
be62bc41
SK
561implementation are as follows and these are applicable to dma_map_page() as
562well.
8d7f62e6
SK
563
564Incorrect example 1:
565 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
566
567 dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
568 if ((dma_handle & 0xffff != 0) || (dma_handle >= 0x1000000)) {
569 goto map_error;
570 }
571
572Incorrect example 2:
573 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
574
575 dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
576 if (dma_handle == DMA_ERROR_CODE) {
577 goto map_error;
578 }
579
77f2ea2f 580You should call dma_unmap_single() when the DMA activity is finished, e.g.,
1da177e4
LT
581from the interrupt which told you that the DMA transfer is done.
582
f311a724 583Using CPU pointers like this for single mappings has a disadvantage:
1da177e4 584you cannot reference HIGHMEM memory in this way. Thus, there is a
77f2ea2f 585map/unmap interface pair akin to dma_{map,unmap}_single(). These
f311a724 586interfaces deal with page/offset pairs instead of CPU pointers.
1da177e4
LT
587Specifically:
588
216bf58f 589 struct device *dev = &my_dev->dev;
1da177e4
LT
590 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
591 struct page *page = buffer->page;
592 unsigned long offset = buffer->offset;
593 size_t size = buffer->len;
594
216bf58f 595 dma_handle = dma_map_page(dev, page, offset, size, direction);
b2dd83b3 596 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle)) {
8d7f62e6
SK
597 /*
598 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
599 * delay and try again later or
600 * reset driver.
601 */
602 goto map_error_handling;
603 }
1da177e4
LT
604
605 ...
606
216bf58f 607 dma_unmap_page(dev, dma_handle, size, direction);
1da177e4
LT
608
609Here, "offset" means byte offset within the given page.
610
8d7f62e6
SK
611You should call dma_mapping_error() as dma_map_page() could fail and return
612error as outlined under the dma_map_single() discussion.
613
77f2ea2f 614You should call dma_unmap_page() when the DMA activity is finished, e.g.,
8d7f62e6
SK
615from the interrupt which told you that the DMA transfer is done.
616
1da177e4
LT
617With scatterlists, you map a region gathered from several regions by:
618
216bf58f 619 int i, count = dma_map_sg(dev, sglist, nents, direction);
1da177e4
LT
620 struct scatterlist *sg;
621
4c2f6d4c 622 for_each_sg(sglist, sg, count, i) {
1da177e4
LT
623 hw_address[i] = sg_dma_address(sg);
624 hw_len[i] = sg_dma_len(sg);
625 }
626
627where nents is the number of entries in the sglist.
628
629The implementation is free to merge several consecutive sglist entries
630into one (e.g. if DMA mapping is done with PAGE_SIZE granularity, any
631consecutive sglist entries can be merged into one provided the first one
632ends and the second one starts on a page boundary - in fact this is a huge
633advantage for cards which either cannot do scatter-gather or have very
634limited number of scatter-gather entries) and returns the actual number
635of sg entries it mapped them to. On failure 0 is returned.
636
637Then you should loop count times (note: this can be less than nents times)
638and use sg_dma_address() and sg_dma_len() macros where you previously
639accessed sg->address and sg->length as shown above.
640
641To unmap a scatterlist, just call:
642
216bf58f 643 dma_unmap_sg(dev, sglist, nents, direction);
1da177e4
LT
644
645Again, make sure DMA activity has already finished.
646
216bf58f
FT
647PLEASE NOTE: The 'nents' argument to the dma_unmap_sg call must be
648 the _same_ one you passed into the dma_map_sg call,
1da177e4 649 it should _NOT_ be the 'count' value _returned_ from the
216bf58f 650 dma_map_sg call.
1da177e4 651
77f2ea2f 652Every dma_map_{single,sg}() call should have its dma_unmap_{single,sg}()
3a9ad0b4
YL
653counterpart, because the DMA address space is a shared resource and
654you could render the machine unusable by consuming all DMA addresses.
1da177e4
LT
655
656If you need to use the same streaming DMA region multiple times and touch
657the data in between the DMA transfers, the buffer needs to be synced
f311a724 658properly in order for the CPU and device to see the most up-to-date and
1da177e4
LT
659correct copy of the DMA buffer.
660
77f2ea2f 661So, firstly, just map it with dma_map_{single,sg}(), and after each DMA
1da177e4
LT
662transfer call either:
663
216bf58f 664 dma_sync_single_for_cpu(dev, dma_handle, size, direction);
1da177e4
LT
665
666or:
667
216bf58f 668 dma_sync_sg_for_cpu(dev, sglist, nents, direction);
1da177e4
LT
669
670as appropriate.
671
672Then, if you wish to let the device get at the DMA area again,
f311a724 673finish accessing the data with the CPU, and then before actually
1da177e4
LT
674giving the buffer to the hardware call either:
675
216bf58f 676 dma_sync_single_for_device(dev, dma_handle, size, direction);
1da177e4
LT
677
678or:
679
216bf58f 680 dma_sync_sg_for_device(dev, sglist, nents, direction);
1da177e4
LT
681
682as appropriate.
683
7bc590b2
SA
684PLEASE NOTE: The 'nents' argument to dma_sync_sg_for_cpu() and
685 dma_sync_sg_for_device() must be the same passed to
686 dma_map_sg(). It is _NOT_ the count returned by
687 dma_map_sg().
688
1da177e4 689After the last DMA transfer call one of the DMA unmap routines
77f2ea2f
BH
690dma_unmap_{single,sg}(). If you don't touch the data from the first
691dma_map_*() call till dma_unmap_*(), then you don't have to call the
692dma_sync_*() routines at all.
1da177e4
LT
693
694Here is pseudo code which shows a situation in which you would need
216bf58f 695to use the dma_sync_*() interfaces.
1da177e4
LT
696
697 my_card_setup_receive_buffer(struct my_card *cp, char *buffer, int len)
698 {
699 dma_addr_t mapping;
700
216bf58f 701 mapping = dma_map_single(cp->dev, buffer, len, DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
b2dd83b3 702 if (dma_mapping_error(cp->dev, dma_handle)) {
8d7f62e6
SK
703 /*
704 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
705 * delay and try again later or
706 * reset driver.
707 */
708 goto map_error_handling;
709 }
1da177e4
LT
710
711 cp->rx_buf = buffer;
712 cp->rx_len = len;
713 cp->rx_dma = mapping;
714
715 give_rx_buf_to_card(cp);
716 }
717
718 ...
719
720 my_card_interrupt_handler(int irq, void *devid, struct pt_regs *regs)
721 {
722 struct my_card *cp = devid;
723
724 ...
725 if (read_card_status(cp) == RX_BUF_TRANSFERRED) {
726 struct my_card_header *hp;
727
728 /* Examine the header to see if we wish
729 * to accept the data. But synchronize
730 * the DMA transfer with the CPU first
731 * so that we see updated contents.
732 */
216bf58f
FT
733 dma_sync_single_for_cpu(&cp->dev, cp->rx_dma,
734 cp->rx_len,
735 DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
1da177e4
LT
736
737 /* Now it is safe to examine the buffer. */
738 hp = (struct my_card_header *) cp->rx_buf;
739 if (header_is_ok(hp)) {
216bf58f
FT
740 dma_unmap_single(&cp->dev, cp->rx_dma, cp->rx_len,
741 DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
1da177e4
LT
742 pass_to_upper_layers(cp->rx_buf);
743 make_and_setup_new_rx_buf(cp);
744 } else {
3f0fb4e8
MM
745 /* CPU should not write to
746 * DMA_FROM_DEVICE-mapped area,
747 * so dma_sync_single_for_device() is
748 * not needed here. It would be required
749 * for DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL mapping if
750 * the memory was modified.
1da177e4 751 */
1da177e4
LT
752 give_rx_buf_to_card(cp);
753 }
754 }
755 }
756
77f2ea2f
BH
757Drivers converted fully to this interface should not use virt_to_bus() any
758longer, nor should they use bus_to_virt(). Some drivers have to be changed a
759little bit, because there is no longer an equivalent to bus_to_virt() in the
1da177e4 760dynamic DMA mapping scheme - you have to always store the DMA addresses
77f2ea2f
BH
761returned by the dma_alloc_coherent(), dma_pool_alloc(), and dma_map_single()
762calls (dma_map_sg() stores them in the scatterlist itself if the platform
1da177e4
LT
763supports dynamic DMA mapping in hardware) in your driver structures and/or
764in the card registers.
765
216bf58f
FT
766All drivers should be using these interfaces with no exceptions. It
767is planned to completely remove virt_to_bus() and bus_to_virt() as
1da177e4
LT
768they are entirely deprecated. Some ports already do not provide these
769as it is impossible to correctly support them.
770
4ae9ca82
FT
771 Handling Errors
772
773DMA address space is limited on some architectures and an allocation
774failure can be determined by:
775
77f2ea2f 776- checking if dma_alloc_coherent() returns NULL or dma_map_sg returns 0
4ae9ca82 777
77f2ea2f 778- checking the dma_addr_t returned from dma_map_single() and dma_map_page()
4ae9ca82
FT
779 by using dma_mapping_error():
780
781 dma_addr_t dma_handle;
782
783 dma_handle = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
784 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle)) {
785 /*
786 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
787 * delay and try again later or
788 * reset driver.
789 */
8d7f62e6
SK
790 goto map_error_handling;
791 }
792
793- unmap pages that are already mapped, when mapping error occurs in the middle
794 of a multiple page mapping attempt. These example are applicable to
795 dma_map_page() as well.
796
797Example 1:
798 dma_addr_t dma_handle1;
799 dma_addr_t dma_handle2;
800
801 dma_handle1 = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
802 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle1)) {
803 /*
804 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
805 * delay and try again later or
806 * reset driver.
807 */
808 goto map_error_handling1;
809 }
810 dma_handle2 = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
811 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_handle2)) {
812 /*
813 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
814 * delay and try again later or
815 * reset driver.
816 */
817 goto map_error_handling2;
818 }
819
820 ...
821
822 map_error_handling2:
823 dma_unmap_single(dma_handle1);
824 map_error_handling1:
825
11cd3db0 826Example 2: (if buffers are allocated in a loop, unmap all mapped buffers when
8d7f62e6
SK
827 mapping error is detected in the middle)
828
829 dma_addr_t dma_addr;
830 dma_addr_t array[DMA_BUFFERS];
831 int save_index = 0;
832
833 for (i = 0; i < DMA_BUFFERS; i++) {
834
835 ...
836
837 dma_addr = dma_map_single(dev, addr, size, direction);
838 if (dma_mapping_error(dev, dma_addr)) {
839 /*
840 * reduce current DMA mapping usage,
841 * delay and try again later or
842 * reset driver.
843 */
844 goto map_error_handling;
845 }
846 array[i].dma_addr = dma_addr;
847 save_index++;
848 }
849
850 ...
851
852 map_error_handling:
853
854 for (i = 0; i < save_index; i++) {
855
856 ...
857
858 dma_unmap_single(array[i].dma_addr);
4ae9ca82
FT
859 }
860
77f2ea2f 861Networking drivers must call dev_kfree_skb() to free the socket buffer
4ae9ca82
FT
862and return NETDEV_TX_OK if the DMA mapping fails on the transmit hook
863(ndo_start_xmit). This means that the socket buffer is just dropped in
864the failure case.
865
866SCSI drivers must return SCSI_MLQUEUE_HOST_BUSY if the DMA mapping
867fails in the queuecommand hook. This means that the SCSI subsystem
868passes the command to the driver again later.
869
1da177e4
LT
870 Optimizing Unmap State Space Consumption
871
216bf58f 872On many platforms, dma_unmap_{single,page}() is simply a nop.
1da177e4
LT
873Therefore, keeping track of the mapping address and length is a waste
874of space. Instead of filling your drivers up with ifdefs and the like
875to "work around" this (which would defeat the whole purpose of a
876portable API) the following facilities are provided.
877
878Actually, instead of describing the macros one by one, we'll
879transform some example code.
880
216bf58f 8811) Use DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_{ADDR,LEN} in state saving structures.
1da177e4
LT
882 Example, before:
883
884 struct ring_state {
885 struct sk_buff *skb;
886 dma_addr_t mapping;
887 __u32 len;
888 };
889
890 after:
891
892 struct ring_state {
893 struct sk_buff *skb;
216bf58f
FT
894 DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_ADDR(mapping);
895 DEFINE_DMA_UNMAP_LEN(len);
1da177e4
LT
896 };
897
77f2ea2f 8982) Use dma_unmap_{addr,len}_set() to set these values.
1da177e4
LT
899 Example, before:
900
901 ringp->mapping = FOO;
902 ringp->len = BAR;
903
904 after:
905
216bf58f
FT
906 dma_unmap_addr_set(ringp, mapping, FOO);
907 dma_unmap_len_set(ringp, len, BAR);
1da177e4 908
77f2ea2f 9093) Use dma_unmap_{addr,len}() to access these values.
1da177e4
LT
910 Example, before:
911
216bf58f
FT
912 dma_unmap_single(dev, ringp->mapping, ringp->len,
913 DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
1da177e4
LT
914
915 after:
916
216bf58f
FT
917 dma_unmap_single(dev,
918 dma_unmap_addr(ringp, mapping),
919 dma_unmap_len(ringp, len),
920 DMA_FROM_DEVICE);
1da177e4
LT
921
922It really should be self-explanatory. We treat the ADDR and LEN
923separately, because it is possible for an implementation to only
924need the address in order to perform the unmap operation.
925
926 Platform Issues
927
928If you are just writing drivers for Linux and do not maintain
929an architecture port for the kernel, you can safely skip down
930to "Closing".
931
9321) Struct scatterlist requirements.
933
b02de871
FT
934 Don't invent the architecture specific struct scatterlist; just use
935 <asm-generic/scatterlist.h>. You need to enable
936 CONFIG_NEED_SG_DMA_LENGTH if the architecture supports IOMMUs
937 (including software IOMMU).
1da177e4 938
ce00f7fe 9392) ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN
2fd74e25
FT
940
941 Architectures must ensure that kmalloc'ed buffer is
942 DMA-safe. Drivers and subsystems depend on it. If an architecture
943 isn't fully DMA-coherent (i.e. hardware doesn't ensure that data in
944 the CPU cache is identical to data in main memory),
ce00f7fe 945 ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN must be set so that the memory allocator
2fd74e25
FT
946 makes sure that kmalloc'ed buffer doesn't share a cache line with
947 the others. See arch/arm/include/asm/cache.h as an example.
948
ce00f7fe 949 Note that ARCH_DMA_MINALIGN is about DMA memory alignment
2fd74e25
FT
950 constraints. You don't need to worry about the architecture data
951 alignment constraints (e.g. the alignment constraints about 64-bit
952 objects).
1da177e4 953
1da177e4
LT
954 Closing
955
a33f3224 956This document, and the API itself, would not be in its current
1da177e4
LT
957form without the feedback and suggestions from numerous individuals.
958We would like to specifically mention, in no particular order, the
959following people:
960
961 Russell King <rmk@arm.linux.org.uk>
962 Leo Dagum <dagum@barrel.engr.sgi.com>
963 Ralf Baechle <ralf@oss.sgi.com>
964 Grant Grundler <grundler@cup.hp.com>
965 Jay Estabrook <Jay.Estabrook@compaq.com>
966 Thomas Sailer <sailer@ife.ee.ethz.ch>
967 Andrea Arcangeli <andrea@suse.de>
26bbb29a 968 Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>
1da177e4 969 David Mosberger-Tang <davidm@hpl.hp.com>