Re: [alsa-devel] [PATCH] alsa: Disable timer-scheduling for PCMs with the BATCH flag

[Clemens Ladisch <clemens@ladisch.de>]

Takashi Iwai wrote:
> Clemens Ladisch wrote:
>> Takashi Iwai wrote:
>>> Raymond Yau wrote:
>>>> usb-audio seem update when each URB send/receive (in 1ms intervals)
>>
>> The default is to use larger intervals.
>>
>>> The usb-audio driver behaved in a BATCH way in the very early version,
>>> but it was improved.
>>
>> The delay reporting is more precise, but the DMA position still jumps
>> for each URB.
>>
>>> So we can get rid of the flag from this driver now.
>>
>> How well does timer-scheduling work with large URBs?
>
> I thought PCM runtime delay should give the accurate sample position,
> irrespective to URB size?

The position of the sample that is currently being played is accurate
(rounded to a USB frame).  The DMA position, however, changes only in
URB-sized increments.  (And that is accurate too, because it describes
exactly how the data is copied out of the buffer.)

> It should suffice for PA to control via timer scheduling.

Large jumps in the DMA position mean that there is a large part of the
buffer which cannot be safely changed by PA.  If this is why PA wants to
disable tsched, then the BATCH flag should stay.


Regards,
Clemens