Howto use PPC4xx memory to memory DMA

[Eugene Surovegin]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 11:32:04PM +0100, Alexis Berlemont wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I would like to add some comments on this topic, I am very interested by more 
> details.
> 
> > Here are a few things to check:
> >
> > 1. Your memory destination and source addresses are contiguous. You can get
> > this using something like:
> >
> > mem = (void*)__get_free_pages(GFP_KERNEL | GFP_DMA, get_order(size));
> >
> > 2. Your source and dest addresses are _bus_ addresses. You can get these
> > by:
> >
> > source = virt_to_bus((u32 *)mem);
> 
> But you must check that your src and dst addresses does not point to 
> a "vmallocated" buffer (unless you allocated less than PAGE_SIZE and you know 
> how to convert a virtual kernel address into a physical address, for example 
> thanks to the function iopa() ). 
> Consequently, with a 2.6 kernel, the function virt_to_bus() will not work 
> properly on a virtual address.
> 
> Consequently, if the dst or the src address belongs to a buffer allocated with 
> vmalloc() or ioremap(), you will have to use the function iopa() to perform 
> the translation.
> 
> Besides, I have a question : I do not understand why the 2.6 implementation of 
> the function virt_to_bus() is different from the 2.4 version; 
> ->on 2.4, virt_to_bus() calls iopa() (if CONFIG_PPC4xx is defined),therefore 
> it works with virtual addresses (vmallocated or ioremapped);
> ->on 2.6, virt_to_bus works with logical address (kmallocated or 
> get_free_pages);
> 
> Do you know why ?

virt_to_bus was never supposed to work on anything else except for 
directly mapped kernel address. 2.6 version just fixes this for 4xx. 
And yes, virt_to_bus is deprecated.


> 
> > Ooh - and the 3d thing - cache coherence. I.e.:
> >
> >       dma_cache_inv((u32)mem, (u32)nBytes);
> >
> 
> I just add a little precision:
> 
> With PPC405 (no cache coherency integrated), you have to invalidate the cache 
> of the destination buffer (with dma_cache_inv() )and you have to write back 
> the cache of the source buffer (with dma_cache_wback() ). But if you do not 
> want to care about the direction point, you can use dma_cache_inv_wback() 
> which does both operations.
> 
> Of course, if you work with an "ioremapped" area (either as source or 
> destination buffer), this functions are useless for this buffer (ioremap() 
> maps the address range with the flag "PAGE_NO_CACHE").

Guys, please stop reinventing the wheel. There is a documented kernel 
API which takes care of coherency issues and it should be used for any 
sort of DMA (be it general purpose DMA controller or external 
DMA-capable device).

PLEASE, read Documentation/DMA-API.txt and use it to obtain DMA-able 
address for your buffer.

-- 
Eugene