Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] PCI: qcom: Read back PARF_LTSSM register

[Konrad Dybcio <konrad.dybcio@linaro.org>]

On 15.02.2024 17:11, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 11:21:45AM +0100, Konrad Dybcio wrote:
>> On 14.02.2024 23:28, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>>> On Wed, Feb 14, 2024 at 10:35:16PM +0100, Konrad Dybcio wrote:
>>>> On 12.02.2024 22:17, Bjorn Helgaas wrote:
>>>>> Maybe include the reason in the subject?  "Read back" is literally
>>>>> what the diff says.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sat, Feb 10, 2024 at 06:10:06PM +0100, Konrad Dybcio wrote:
>>>>>> To ensure write completion, read the PARF_LTSSM register after setting
>>>>>> the LTSSM enable bit before polling for "link up".
>>>>>
>>>>> The write will obviously complete *some* time; I assume the point is
>>>>> that it's important for it to complete before some other event, and it
>>>>> would be nice to know why that's important.
>>>>
>>>> Right, that's very much meaningful on non-total-store-ordering
>>>> architectures, like arm64, where the CPU receives a store instruction,
>>>> but that does not necessarily impact the memory/MMIO state immediately.
>>>
>>> I was hinting that maybe we could say what the other event is, or what
>>> problem this solves?  E.g., maybe it's as simple as "there's no point
>>> in polling for link up until after the PARF_LTSSM store completes."
>>>
>>> But while the read of PARF_LTSSM might reduce the number of "is the
>>> link up" polls, it probably wouldn't speed anything up otherwise, so I
>>> suspect there's an actual functional reason for this patch, and that's
>>> what I'm getting at.
>>
>> So, the register containing the "enable switch" (PARF_LTSSM) can (due
>> to the armv8 memory model) be "written" but not "change the value of
>> memory/mmio from the perspective of other (non-CPU) memory-readers
>> (such as the MMIO-mapped PCI controller itself)".
>>
>> In that case, the CPU will happily continue calling qcom_pcie_link_up()
>> in a loop, waiting for the PCIe controller to bring the link up, however
>> the PCIE controller may have never received the PARF_LTSSM "enable link"
>> write by the time we decide to time out on checking the link status.
>>
>> It may also never happen for you, but that's exactly like a classic race
>> condition, where it may simply not manifest due to the code around the
>> problematic lines hiding it. It may also only manifest on certain CPU
>> cores that try to be smarter than you and keep reordering/delaying
>> instructions if they don't seem immediately necessary.
> 
> Does this mean the register is mapped incorrectly, e.g., I see arm64
> has many different kinds of mappings for cacheability,
> write-buffering, etc?

No, it's correctly mapped as "device" memory, but even that gives no
guarantees about when the writes are "flushed" out of the CPU/cluster

> 
> Or, if it is already mapped correctly, are we confident that none of
> the *other* register writes need similar treatment?  Is there a rule
> we can apply to know when the read-after-write is needed?

Generally, it's a good idea to add such readbacks after all timing-
critical writes, especially when they concern asserting reset,
enabling/disabling power, etc., to make sure we're not assuming the
hardware state of a peripheral has changed before we ask it to do so. 

Konrad