Re: [PATCH v3 02/12] of: add J-Core cpu bindings

Rich Felker
2016-05-26T15:33:23Z

On Thu, May 26, 2016 at 11:38:29AM +0100, Mark Rutland wrote:
> On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 07:04:08PM -0400, Rich Felker wrote:
> > On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 11:22:15AM +0100, Mark Rutland wrote:
> > > > +Optional properties:
> > > > +
> > > > +- enable-method: Required only for SMP systems. If present, must be
> > > > + "jcore,spin-table".
> > > > +
> > > > +
> > > > +--------------------
> > > > +Individual cpu nodes
> > > > +--------------------
> > > > +
> > > > +Required properties:
> > > > +
> > > > +- device_type: Must be "cpu".
> > > > +
> > > > +- compatible: Must be "jcore,j2".
> > > > +
> > > > +- reg: Must be 0 on uniprocessor systems, or the sequential, zero-based
> > > > + hardware cpu id on SMP systems.
> > > > +
> > > > +Optional properties:
> > > > +
> > > > +- clock-frequency: Clock frequency of the cpu in Hz.
> > > > +
> > > > +- cpu-release-addr: Necessary only for secondary processors on SMP systems
> > > > + using the "jcore,spin-table" enable method. If present, must consist of
> > > > + two cells containing physical addresses. The first cell contains an
> > > > + address which, when written, unblocks the secondary cpu. The second cell
> > > > + contains an address from which the cpu will read its initial program
> > > > + counter when unblocked.
> > >
> > > I take it this follows the example of the arm64 spin-table rather than
> > > the ePAPR spin-table, given the lack of an ePAPR reference or struct
> > > definition.
> >
> > Indeed, I wasn't aware of the ePAPR spec for it. Would you prefer that
> > we use a different name or something?
>
> No, the "jcore,spin-table" name is fine.
>
> > > From my experience with the arm64 spin-table, I would *strongly*
> > > recommend that you tighten this up, and define things more thoroughly,
> > > before a variety of FW/bootloader implementations appear. e.g.
> > >
> > > * What initial/invalid value should the location contain? Is zero a
> > > valid address that you might want to jump a secondary CPU to?
> >
> > I believe the hardware is implemented such that just the appearance of
> > the address for write on the bus unblocks the secondary cpu waiting on
> > it.
>
> Ok, so this is effectively a device register, rather than a location in
> "real" memory.

Yes, I re-checked and it actually works as a device register. Sorry
for the confusion. I think what happened is that I modeled the
binding/kernel with the intent that it could just as well be in normal
memory with the cpu spinning on it.

> > As for the address to jump to, this is provided by the kernel and,
> > for Linux purposes, is always _stext. As I understand the mechanism,
> > the actual initial PC for secondary cpus is in rom, and the code there
> > is responsible for loading the application-desired (i.e.
> > kernel-desired) initial PC and jumping to it.
>
> Ok. Is this second address also a device register, or might this be in
> "real" memory?

In practice it's real memory, but aside from possible constraints on
how it's written I don't think it matters a lot.

> > > * How must the value be written?
> > > - Which endianness?
> >
> > CPU native.
>
> Ok. I take it that a CPU's endianness cannot be switched onthe fly,
> then? Or does the hardware backing the release-addr register handle
> arbitrary endianness dynamically?

No, it's not switched on the fly.

> If you want to reuse the same HW block across configurations where CPU
> endianness differs, it may make sense to define an endianness
> regardless, to simplify integration concerns.

The existing cpus are all big-endian, but I believe at one point there
was talk that it's easy to get a little-endian version if you want. In
any case the value is to be read by the cpu, so cpu endianness (i.e.
no endianness, just a value) is the only thing that makes sense to
specify. Adding a fixed endian spec independent of cpu endianness just
complicates both hardware and kernel implementation and its only
benefit seems to be supporting runtime-switchable chips where the
entry-point code has to select the endianness to match the rest of the
kernel.

> > > - With a single store? Or is there a more involved sequence to prevent
> > > the secondary CPU from seeing a torn value?
> >
> > The start address is just a physical ram address (internal sram) and
> > how it's written does not matter, because it's only read once the
> > release write occurs.
>
> Sure. I had initially mis-read the documentation and applied my
> understanding of the arm64 spin-table sequence (which only has a single
> write for both purposes).
>
> For the actual release write are there any constraints? e.g. value, size
> of access?

I'm not sure. If so, native word (32-bit) would be the right size to
specify, but it's possible that any size works.

> > > * Must CPUs have a unique cpu-release-addr? I would *strongly* recommend
> > > that they do.
> >
> > There is currently no spec or implementation with more than one
> > secondary cpu.
>
> Ok. Please bear the above in mind if/when implementations with more than
> two secondary CPUs are conceivable.

Yes.

> > > - Is any minimal padding required around cpu-release-addrs? e.g. can
> > > FW or bootlaoder put data in the same cacheline-aligned region and
> > > exepct the OS not to corrupt this?
> >
> > The word-sized memory (for J2, 32-bit) at the address is what's being
> > addressed. There is no implicit license for the kernel to clobber
> > other nearby data.
>
> My concern was that if your memory system is not fully coherent, and
> the CPU has a cacheable mapping of the initial program counter field, it
> would need to perform a cache clean to ensure visibility of that field.
> If the cache line for that region were stale, that would clobber data in
> the same cache line (e.g. something owned/used by FW).
>
> Per your comments below that doesn't matter now but may in future.

I agree, but from a practical standpoint I think it's irrelevant. The
secondary cpu(s) should start with either empty cache or just some
boot rom code in their caches (and current architecture does not even
cache sram/"rom"). Flushing would be a good idea just to be safe but
it's going to be an effective no-op.

> > > * How should the OS map the region (i.e. which MMU/cache attributes)?
> >
> > For J2, there is no mmu. All these specs need extension for future
> > models with mmu, because the properties of the mmu should be described
> > in the DT.
>
> I was going by the fact you had a binding for a cache, which I assumed
> was SW configurable. If that's not the case, then my questions about
> caches and MMU attributes do not apply for the timebeing.

The only configuration possible via the current binding is
enabling/disabling the cache. If it's enabled, it needs to be used for
icache flush when new code is written, and for dcache flush
before/after DMA. (Note that there is no DMA binding yet and no DMA
driver; these are coming later.)

> > > - Is the address permitted to be a device register?
> >
> > I don't see a strong reason to disallow it. Do you?
>
> So long as you can guarantee that OS does not have a cacheable mapping
> of this region, and the size of the access wis well-defined, I do not
> see a reason to disallow it.
>
> > > * Where can this memory live?
> > > - Should it be abesnt from any memory node? To which padding?
> > > - Should the memory be described with a memreserve? If so, what are
> > > your architecture-specific memreserve semantics (i.e. which
> > > MMU/cache attributes are permitted for a memreserve'd region)?
> >
> > If it's in the memory regions exposed by the DT to the kernel, it
> > should be reserved, I think. In practice it's not.
>
> Ok. This should be documented (as we do for the arm64 spin-table).
>
> Perhaps that is not a major problem if the OS never pokes the release
> register.
>
> If you do /memreserve/ the region rather than carving it out of memory
> nodes, you will also need to define semantics for memreserve. Typically
> memreserve meaans that the OS should not perform any stores to the
> region, but is permitted to map it with some architecture-specific
> cacheable attributes.

My interpretation of memreserve is just that it marks memory ranges
that the kernel cannot use for allocatable memory for its own
purposes, despite otherwise possibly lying in the range of a "memory"
node. I would not interpret it as excluding accesses by drivers that
were told to use specific addresses in the "reserved" range as part of
their DT bindings.

> > One general question I have about all of your comments -- is the DT
> > binding file really supposed to amount to a hardware programming
> > manual, fully specifying all of the programming interfaces? I don't
> > see that in other binding files, and it feels like what you're asking
> > for is beyond the scope of just specifying the bindings.
>
> The binding file is not intended to be a full HW description, but where
> possible relevant documentation should be referred to, in case there is
> some ambiguity.
>
> My questions about SMP are largely orthogonal to DT; I simply have
> experience in dealing with that for arm64, and am aware of some of the
> pain points that were not immediately obvious.

OK, thanks for clarifying that. This is actually really helpful
feedback to have but I wasn't sure if you wanted me to consider it
part of what needs to be done for DT binding or for consideration in
designing and documenting the SMP architecture.

> > If you really do want a lot more detail for SMP-related bindings, I
> > could consider submitting a version with SMP omitted for now (since
> > the kernel patches submitted at this point don't include SMP) and do
> > the addition of SMP as a separate patch later. But with the launch of
> > open-hardware boards capable of running SMP J2 systems (see
> > https://twitter.com/jcoreeng/status/730330848306700288) near, I'd like
> > to be getting bindings we can use stabilized so that we're properly
> > including DTB in the boot rom and not relying on external DTB files or
> > linking DTB in kernel.
>
> I would argue that the SMP bindings can be added at the same point as
> the code. If there's any chance that something may change, having the
> bindings in the kernel early gives a potentially misleading impression
> of stability.

OK. I'll strip it down to just the parts that are relevant for non-SMP
and submit the patch adding SMP bindings along with the SMP kernel
patches.

> I assume that you have the facility to upgrade the boot ROM?

Yes. For FPGA implementations it's just part of the FPGA bitstream and
you upgrade it the same way you load a new bitstream onto the FPGA.

Rich