Re: [PATCH] drm/i915: Update workaround documentation

[Balasubramani Vivekanandan <balasubramani.vivekanandan@intel.com>]

On 07.11.2022 16:30, Lucas De Marchi wrote:
> There were several updates in the driver on how the workarounds are
> handled since its documentation was written. Update the documentation to
> reflect the current reality.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Lucas De Marchi <lucas.demarchi@intel.com>
> ---
>  drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_workarounds.c | 87 +++++++++++++--------
>  1 file changed, 56 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_workarounds.c b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_workarounds.c
> index 3cdf5c24dbc5..0db3713c1beb 100644
> --- a/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_workarounds.c
> +++ b/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/intel_workarounds.c
> @@ -17,43 +17,68 @@
>  /**
>   * DOC: Hardware workarounds
>   *
> - * This file is intended as a central place to implement most [1]_ of the
> - * required workarounds for hardware to work as originally intended. They fall
> - * in five basic categories depending on how/when they are applied:
> + * This is intended as a central place to implement most [1]_ of the
> + * required workarounds for hardware to work as originally intended. Hardware
> + * workarounds are register programming documented to be executed in the driver
> + * that fall outside of the normal programming sequences for a platform. There
> + * are some basic categories of workarounds, depending on how/when they are
> + * applied:
>   *
> - * - Workarounds that touch registers that are saved/restored to/from the HW
> - *   context image. The list is emitted (via Load Register Immediate commands)
> - *   everytime a new context is created.
> - * - GT workarounds. The list of these WAs is applied whenever these registers
> - *   revert to default values (on GPU reset, suspend/resume [2]_, etc..).
> - * - Display workarounds. The list is applied during display clock-gating
> - *   initialization.
> - * - Workarounds that whitelist a privileged register, so that UMDs can manage
> - *   them directly. This is just a special case of a MMMIO workaround (as we
> - *   write the list of these to/be-whitelisted registers to some special HW
> - *   registers).
> - * - Workaround batchbuffers, that get executed automatically by the hardware
> - *   on every HW context restore.
> + * - Context workarounds: workarounds that touch registers that are
> + *   saved/restored to/from the HW context image. The list is emitted (via Load
> + *   Register Immediate commands) once when initializing the device and saved in
> + *   the default context. That default context is then used on every context
> + *   creation to have a "primed golden context", i.e. a context image that
> + *   already contains the changes needed to all the registers.
>   *
> - * .. [1] Please notice that there are other WAs that, due to their nature,
> - *    cannot be applied from a central place. Those are peppered around the rest
> - *    of the code, as needed.
> + * - Engine workarounds: the list of these WAs is applied whenever the specific
> + *   engine is reset. It's also possible that a set of engine classes share a
> + *   common power domain and they are reset together. This happens on some
> + *   platforms with render and compute engines. In this case (at least) one of
> + *   them need to keeep the workaround programming: the approach taken in the
> + *   driver is to tie those workarounds to the first compute/render engine that
> + *   is registered.  When executing with GuC submission, engine resets are
> + *   outside of kernel driver control, hence the list of registers involved in
> + *   written once, on engine initialization, and then passed to GuC, that
> + *   saves/restores their values before/after the reset takes place. See
> + *   ``drivers/gpu/drm/i915/gt/uc/intel_guc_ads.c`` for reference.
>   *
> - * .. [2] Technically, some registers are powercontext saved & restored, so they
> - *    survive a suspend/resume. In practice, writing them again is not too
> - *    costly and simplifies things. We can revisit this in the future.
> + * - GT workarounds: the list of these WAs is applied whenever these registers
> + *   revert to their default values: on GPU reset, suspend/resume, etc.
>   *
> - * Layout
> - * ~~~~~~
> + * - Register whitelist: some workarounds need to be implemented in userspace,
> + *   but need to touch privileged registers. The whitelist in the kernel
> + *   instructs the hardware to allow the access to happen. From the kernel side,
> + *   this is just a special case of a MMIO workaround (as we write the list of
> + *   these to/be-whitelisted registers to some special HW registers).
>   *
> - * Keep things in this file ordered by WA type, as per the above (context, GT,
> - * display, register whitelist, batchbuffer). Then, inside each type, keep the
> - * following order:
> + * - Workaround batchbuffers: buffers that get executed automatically by the
> + *   hardware on every HW context restore. These buffers are created and
> + *   programmed in the default context so the hardware always go through those
> + *   programming sequences when switching contexts. The support for workaround
> + *   batchbuffers is enabled these hardware mechanisms:
Did you want to say "is enabled *through* these" ?

Rest looks good.

Acked-by: Balasubramani Vivekanandan <balasubramani.vivekanandan@intel.com>

>   *
> - * - Infrastructure functions and macros
> - * - WAs per platform in standard gen/chrono order
> - * - Public functions to init or apply the given workaround type.
> - */
> + *   #. INDIRECT_CTX: A batchbuffer and an offset are provided in the default
> + *      context, pointing the hardware to jump to that location when that offset
> + *      is reached in the context restore. Workaround batchbuffer in the driver
> + *      currently uses this mechanism for all platforms.
> + *
> + *   #. BB_PER_CTX_PTR: A batchbuffer is provided in the default context,
> + *      pointing the hardware to a buffer to continue executing after the
> + *      engine registers are restored in a context restore sequence. This is
> + *      currently not used in the driver.
> + *
> + * - Display workarounds. The list is applied during display clock-gating
> + *   initialization. However most of the display workarounds may be considered
> + *   to fall under the "Others" category below.
> + *
> + * - Other:  There are WAs that, due to their nature, cannot be applied from a central
> + *   place. Those are peppered around the rest of the code, as needed.
> + *
> + * .. [1] Technically, some registers are powercontext saved & restored, so they
> + *    survive a suspend/resume. In practice, writing them again is not too
> + *    costly and simplifies things, so it's the approach taken in the driver.
> +  */
>  
>  static void wa_init_start(struct i915_wa_list *wal, const char *name, const char *engine_name)
>  {
> -- 
> 2.38.1
>