Re: [RFC 00/11] Intro to Hardware timestamping engine

From: Andy Shevchenko
Date: Sun Jun 27 2021 - 09:08:35 EST


On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 2:48 AM Dipen Patel <dipenp@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> This patch series introduces new subsystem called hardware timestamping
> engine (HTE). It offers functionality such as timestamping through hardware
> means in realtime. The HTE subsystem centralizes HTE provider and consumers
> where providers can register themselves with subsystem and the consumers can
> request interested entity which could be lines, GPIO, signals or buses. The
> HTE subsystem provides timestamp in nano seconds, having said that the provider
> need to convert the timestamp if its not in that unit. There was upstream
> discussion about the same at
> https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/4c46726d-fa35-1a95-4295-bca37c8b6fe3@xxxxxxxxxx/
>
> To summarize upstream discussion:
> - It was heavily favoured by Linus and Kent to extend GPIOLIB and supporting
> GPIO drivers to add HTE functionality and I agreed to experiment with it.

I guess this series should include more people from different
companies, especially documentation parts. This may be used by
different hardware and quite different vendors. Developing a framework
like this for only one vendor is no go in general.

> This patch series implements and extends GPIOLIB and GPIO tegra driver.
> - Discussed possibility to add HTE provider as irqchip instead which
> was argued against as HTE devices are not necessarily event emitting
> devices.
> - Discussed other possibility if HTE device can be added as posix clock
> type like PTP clocks. That was also argues against since HTE devices
> are not necessarily tightly coupled with hardware clock.
>
> Typical HTE provider does following:
> - Register itself with HTE subsystem
> - Provide *request, *release, *enable, *disable timestamp callbacks and
> optional get_clk_src_info callback to HTE subsystem.
> - Provide optional xlate callback to the subsystem which can translate
> consumer provided logical ids into actual ids of the entity, where entity here
> is the provider dependent and could be GPIO, in chip lines or signals, buses
> etc...This converted id will be used between HTE subsystem and the provider for
> below bullet point.
> - Push timestamps to the subsystem. This happens when HTE provider has
> timestamp data available and willing to push it to HTE subsystem. The HTE
> subsystem stores it into software buffer for the consumers.
> - Unregister itself
>
> Typical HTE consumer does following:
> - Request interested entity it wishes to timestamp in realtime to the
> subsystem. During this call HTE subsystem allocates software buffer to
> store timestamps data.
> - The subsystem does necessary communications with the provider to
> complete the request, which includes translating logical id of the entity to
> provider dependent physical/actual id and enabling hardware timestamping on
> requested id.
> - It can optionally specify callback during registration, this cb will
> be called when provider pushes timestamps. Once notified through cb, the
> consumer can call retrieve API to read the data from the software buffer.
> If cb is not provided, the consumers can elect to call blocking version of
> retrieve API.
> - Manage pre allocated software buffer if needed. It includes changing buffer
> length and watermark/threshold. The subsystem automatically sets watermark or
> threshold at 1, consumers can later change it to any other value it wishes. The
> main purpose for having threshold functionality is to notify consumer either
> through callback if provided or unblock waiting consumer when threshold is
> reached.
> - Retrieve timestamp using various means provided by subsystem.
> - Release entity and its resources.
>
> HTE and GPIOLIB:
> - For the HTE provider which can timestamp GPIO lines.
> - For the GPIO consumers, either in kernel or userspace, The GPIOLIB and its
> CDEV framework are extended as frontend to the HTE by introducing new APIs.
> - Tegra194 AON GPIO controller has HTE support also known as GTE
> (Generic Timestamping Engine). The tegra gpio driver is modified to accommodate
> HTE functionality.
>
> Dipen Patel (11):
> Documentation: Add HTE subsystem guide
> drivers: Add HTE subsystem
> hte: Add tegra194 HTE kernel provider
> dt-bindings: Add HTE bindings
> hte: Add Tegra194 IRQ HTE test driver
> gpiolib: Add HTE support
> gpio: tegra186: Add HTE in gpio-tegra186 driver
> gpiolib: cdev: Add hardware timestamp clock type
> tools: gpio: Add new hardware clock type
> hte: Add tegra GPIO HTE test driver
> MAINTAINERS: Added HTE Subsystem
>
> .../bindings/gpio/nvidia,tegra186-gpio.txt | 7 +
> .../devicetree/bindings/hte/hte-consumer.yaml | 47 +
> .../devicetree/bindings/hte/hte.yaml | 34 +
> .../bindings/hte/nvidia,tegra194-hte.yaml | 83 +
> Documentation/hte/hte.rst | 198 +++
> Documentation/hte/index.rst | 21 +
> Documentation/hte/tegra194-hte.rst | 65 +
> Documentation/index.rst | 1 +
> MAINTAINERS | 8 +
> drivers/Kconfig | 2 +
> drivers/Makefile | 1 +
> drivers/gpio/gpio-tegra186.c | 78 +
> drivers/gpio/gpiolib-cdev.c | 65 +-
> drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c | 92 ++
> drivers/gpio/gpiolib.h | 11 +
> drivers/hte/Kconfig | 49 +
> drivers/hte/Makefile | 4 +
> drivers/hte/hte-tegra194-gpio-test.c | 255 +++
> drivers/hte/hte-tegra194-irq-test.c | 400 +++++
> drivers/hte/hte-tegra194.c | 554 +++++++
> drivers/hte/hte.c | 1368 +++++++++++++++++
> include/linux/gpio/consumer.h | 21 +-
> include/linux/gpio/driver.h | 13 +
> include/linux/hte.h | 278 ++++
> include/uapi/linux/gpio.h | 1 +
> tools/gpio/gpio-event-mon.c | 6 +-
> 26 files changed, 3657 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/hte/hte-consumer.yaml
> create mode 100644 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/hte/hte.yaml
> create mode 100644 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/hte/nvidia,tegra194-hte.yaml
> create mode 100644 Documentation/hte/hte.rst
> create mode 100644 Documentation/hte/index.rst
> create mode 100644 Documentation/hte/tegra194-hte.rst
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/Kconfig
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/Makefile
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/hte-tegra194-gpio-test.c
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/hte-tegra194-irq-test.c
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/hte-tegra194.c
> create mode 100644 drivers/hte/hte.c
> create mode 100644 include/linux/hte.h
>
> --
> 2.17.1
>


--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko