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From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@free.fr>
To: amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org
Cc: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com>,
	Rodrigo Siqueira <Rodrigo.Siqueira@amd.com>,
	linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, Yann Dirson <ydirson@free.fr>,
	Harry Wentland <harry.wentland@amd.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 3/3] Documentation/gpu: include description of some of the GC microcontrollers
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:20:30 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20211210182030.3834-4-ydirson@free.fr> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20211210182030.3834-1-ydirson@free.fr>

This is Alex' description from the "Looking for clarifications around gfx/kcq/kiq"
thread, edited to fit as ReST.

Originally-by: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com>
Signed-off-by: Yann Dirson <ydirson@free.fr>
Acked-by: Harry Wentland <harry.wentland@amd.com>
---
 Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 35 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst b/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
index b870a63c64dd..942bc7c3eac9 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
@@ -75,6 +75,28 @@ VCN (Video Core Next)
     decode.  It's exposed to userspace for user mode drivers (VA-API,
     OpenMAX, etc.)
 
+Graphics and Compute microcontrollers
+-------------------------------------
+
+CP (Command Processor)
+    The name for the hardware block that encompasses the front end of the
+    GFX/Compute pipeline.  Consists mainly of a bunch of microcontrollers
+    (PFP, ME, CE, MEC).  The firmware that runs on these microcontrollers
+    provides the driver interface to interact with the GFX/Compute engine.
+
+    MEC (MicroEngine Compute)
+        This is the microcontroller that controls the compute queues on the
+        GFX/compute engine.
+
+    MES (MicroEngine Scheduler)
+        This is a new engine for managing queues.  This is currently unused.
+
+RLC (RunList Controller)
+    This is another microcontroller in the GFX/Compute engine.  It handles
+    power management related functionality within the GFX/Compute engine.
+    The name is a vestige of old hardware where it was originally added
+    and doesn't really have much relation to what the engine does now.
+
 Driver structure
 ================
 
@@ -82,6 +104,19 @@ In general, the driver has a list of all of the IPs on a particular
 SoC and for things like init/fini/suspend/resume, more or less just
 walks the list and handles each IP.
 
+Some useful constructs:
+
+KIQ (Kernel Interface Queue)
+    This is a control queue used by the kernel driver to manage other gfx
+    and compute queues on the GFX/compute engine.  You can use it to
+    map/unmap additional queues, etc.
+
+IB (Indirect Buffer)
+    A command buffer for a particular engine.  Rather than writing
+    commands directly to the queue, you can write the commands into a
+    piece of memory and then put a pointer to the memory into the queue.
+    The hardware will then follow the pointer and execute the commands in
+    the memory, then returning to the rest of the commands in the ring.
 
 .. _amdgpu_memory_domains:
 
-- 
2.31.1


  parent reply	other threads:[~2021-12-10 18:20 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-12-10 18:20 [PATCH v2 0/3] Enrich amdgpu docs from recent threads Yann Dirson
2021-12-10 18:20 ` [PATCH v2 1/3] Documentation/gpu: split amdgpu/index for readability Yann Dirson
2021-12-13 20:07   ` Rodrigo Siqueira Jordao
2021-12-13 20:36     ` Alex Deucher
2021-12-10 18:20 ` [PATCH v2 2/3] Documentation/gpu: include description of AMDGPU hardware structure Yann Dirson
2021-12-13 20:16   ` Rodrigo Siqueira Jordao
2021-12-13 20:20     ` Rodrigo Siqueira Jordao
2021-12-10 18:20 ` Yann Dirson [this message]
2021-12-13 20:18   ` [PATCH v2 3/3] Documentation/gpu: include description of some of the GC microcontrollers Rodrigo Siqueira Jordao

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