Re: [XenSummit 2017] Shared coprocessor framework followup

["Edgar E. Iglesias" <edgar.iglesias@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Aug 02, 2017 at 02:07:17PM +0300, Andrii Anisov wrote:
> Hello Edgar,

Hi Andrii,

> 
> 
> On 01.08.17 20:13, Edgar E. Iglesias wrote:
> >>Are master ports behind IOMMU?
> >Yes, they are.
> What IOMMU IP is used?

Today it's an SMMUv2.


> 
> >>>It's possible to reprogram the configuration of the PL and swap accelerators in
> >>>and out on the fly. It's probably going to be too slow for trying to
> >>>context switch between guests
> >>So let us assume it is a FW-less resource we need to share between domains.
> >>Context switch will be stripped to mapping its mmio (or passing mmio
> >>accesses) next domain to serve and IOMMU configuration switching.
> >>Yep, IOMMU matters.
> >OK. I think the PL is more like a firmware enabled resource.
> >The PL configuration needs to be loaded much like firmware
> >otherwise the accelerators can't change shape and all guests
> >must use the same kind.
> I understand this.
> But I got your words like you are going to give a try to the same kind for
> all domains first. Because you assumed that reconfiguring would be too slow,
> what is actually discussable.

Aha, OK. What I meant was that it may be to slow for context-switching
at a micro-level. But with an allocate/release interface for batch
processing, I don't think it's to slow to reprogram the PL between
guests.

I agree that we need hard numbers on the PL programming before we rule
things out. I'll try to dig internally for some.


> >>>  so I think primarily we would be looking at
> >>>a way to lets say, "allocate" and "release" the resources for batch use.
> >>Kind of voluntary preemption?
> >Right. That could be a start.
> >In the future perhaps it makes sense to context-switch.
> We still need the context switch to be done. The difference is that now it
> could be done only when the accelerator is not busy.

I don't necessarily think so. The context-switch would involve saving and
restoring accelerator state aswell as re-programming the PL.
With allocate/release, we only need to re-program the PL.

Saving the state of the PL might be tricky since we don't know how to
(we don't know the details of the acceelerator ahead of time).
I guess we could somehow let the guest that owns the accellerator
save/restore the state somehow but perhaps that brings us back
in the direction of allocate/release semantics...


> >>>If a guest cannot allocate an accelerator, it could fall back to emulation
> >>>or just to using SW libraries until an accelerator slot is available.
> >>What about the thing I called "an access emulation" [1]? From the domain's
> >>point of view it would be reflected in a delayed response (via IRQ or
> >>register polling) from an accelerator.
> >>
> >>I guess the concept described above is feasible even with current SCF code
> >>and will not take too much efforts.
> >I'll have a look, thanks!
> Do not hesitate to contact us in case you need any help or clarification.

Thanks!
Edgar

> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> *Andrii Anisov*
> 

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