RE: [PATCH] rtw88: pci: Use general byte arrays as the elements of RX ring

[David Laight <David.Laight@ACULAB.COM>]

From: Jian-Hong Pan 
> Sent: 26 July 2019 07:18
...
> > While allocating all 512 buffers in one block (just over 4MB)
> > is probably not a good idea, you may need to allocated (and dma map)
> > then in groups.
> 
> Thanks for reviewing.  But got questions here to double confirm the idea.
> According to original code, it allocates 512 skbs for RX ring and dma
> mapping one by one.  So, the new code allocates memory buffer 512
> times to get 512 buffer arrays.  Will the 512 buffers arrays be in one
> block?  Do you mean aggregate the buffers as a scatterlist and use
> dma_map_sg?

If you malloc a buffer of size (8192+32) the allocator will either
round it up to a whole number of (often 4k) pages or to a power of
2 of pages - so either 12k of 16k.
I think the Linux allocator does the latter.
Some of the allocators also 'steal' a bit from the front of the buffer
for 'red tape'.

OTOH malloc the space 15 buffers and the allocator will round the
15*(8192 + 32) up to 32*4k - and you waste under 8k across all the
buffers.

You then dma_map the large buffer and split into the actual rx buffers.
Repeat until you've filled the entire ring.
The only complication is remembering the base address (and size) for
the dma_unmap and free.
Although there is plenty of padding to extend the buffer structure
significantly without using more memory.
Allocate in 15's and you (probably) have 512 bytes per buffer.
Allocate in 31's and you have 256 bytes.

The problem is that larger allocates are more likely to fail
(especially if the system has been running for some time).
So you almost certainly want to be able to fall back to smaller
allocates even though they use more memory.

I also wonder if you actually need 512 8k rx buffers to cover
interrupt latency?
I've not done any measurements for 20 years!

	David

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