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1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
5 <book id="drmDevelopersGuide">
6 <bookinfo>
7 <title>Linux DRM Developer's Guide</title>
9 <copyright>
10 <year>2008-2009</year>
11 <holder>
12 Intel Corporation (Jesse Barnes &lt;jesse.barnes@intel.com&gt;)
13 </holder>
14 </copyright>
16 <legalnotice>
17 <para>
18 The contents of this file may be used under the terms of the GNU
19 General Public License version 2 (the "GPL") as distributed in
20 the kernel source COPYING file.
21 </para>
22 </legalnotice>
23 </bookinfo>
25 <toc></toc>
27 <!-- Introduction -->
29 <chapter id="drmIntroduction">
30 <title>Introduction</title>
31 <para>
32 The Linux DRM layer contains code intended to support the needs
33 of complex graphics devices, usually containing programmable
34 pipelines well suited to 3D graphics acceleration. Graphics
35 drivers in the kernel may make use of DRM functions to make
36 tasks like memory management, interrupt handling and DMA easier,
37 and provide a uniform interface to applications.
38 </para>
39 <para>
40 A note on versions: this guide covers features found in the DRM
41 tree, including the TTM memory manager, output configuration and
42 mode setting, and the new vblank internals, in addition to all
43 the regular features found in current kernels.
44 </para>
45 <para>
46 [Insert diagram of typical DRM stack here]
47 </para>
48 </chapter>
50 <!-- Internals -->
52 <chapter id="drmInternals">
53 <title>DRM Internals</title>
54 <para>
55 This chapter documents DRM internals relevant to driver authors
56 and developers working to add support for the latest features to
57 existing drivers.
58 </para>
59 <para>
60 First, we go over some typical driver initialization
61 requirements, like setting up command buffers, creating an
62 initial output configuration, and initializing core services.
63 Subsequent sections cover core internals in more detail,
64 providing implementation notes and examples.
65 </para>
66 <para>
67 The DRM layer provides several services to graphics drivers,
68 many of them driven by the application interfaces it provides
69 through libdrm, the library that wraps most of the DRM ioctls.
70 These include vblank event handling, memory
71 management, output management, framebuffer management, command
72 submission &amp; fencing, suspend/resume support, and DMA
73 services.
74 </para>
75 <para>
76 The core of every DRM driver is struct drm_driver. Drivers
77 typically statically initialize a drm_driver structure,
78 then pass it to drm_init() at load time.
79 </para>
81 <!-- Internals: driver init -->
83 <sect1>
84 <title>Driver initialization</title>
85 <para>
86 Before calling the DRM initialization routines, the driver must
87 first create and fill out a struct drm_driver structure.
88 </para>
89 <programlisting>
90 static struct drm_driver driver = {
91 /* Don't use MTRRs here; the Xserver or userspace app should
92 * deal with them for Intel hardware.
94 .driver_features =
95 DRIVER_USE_AGP | DRIVER_REQUIRE_AGP |
96 DRIVER_HAVE_IRQ | DRIVER_IRQ_SHARED | DRIVER_MODESET,
97 .load = i915_driver_load,
98 .unload = i915_driver_unload,
99 .firstopen = i915_driver_firstopen,
100 .lastclose = i915_driver_lastclose,
101 .preclose = i915_driver_preclose,
102 .save = i915_save,
103 .restore = i915_restore,
104 .device_is_agp = i915_driver_device_is_agp,
105 .get_vblank_counter = i915_get_vblank_counter,
106 .enable_vblank = i915_enable_vblank,
107 .disable_vblank = i915_disable_vblank,
108 .irq_preinstall = i915_driver_irq_preinstall,
109 .irq_postinstall = i915_driver_irq_postinstall,
110 .irq_uninstall = i915_driver_irq_uninstall,
111 .irq_handler = i915_driver_irq_handler,
112 .reclaim_buffers = drm_core_reclaim_buffers,
113 .get_map_ofs = drm_core_get_map_ofs,
114 .get_reg_ofs = drm_core_get_reg_ofs,
115 .fb_probe = intelfb_probe,
116 .fb_remove = intelfb_remove,
117 .fb_resize = intelfb_resize,
118 .master_create = i915_master_create,
119 .master_destroy = i915_master_destroy,
120 #if defined(CONFIG_DEBUG_FS)
121 .debugfs_init = i915_debugfs_init,
122 .debugfs_cleanup = i915_debugfs_cleanup,
123 #endif
124 .gem_init_object = i915_gem_init_object,
125 .gem_free_object = i915_gem_free_object,
126 .gem_vm_ops = &amp;i915_gem_vm_ops,
127 .ioctls = i915_ioctls,
128 .fops = {
129 .owner = THIS_MODULE,
130 .open = drm_open,
131 .release = drm_release,
132 .ioctl = drm_ioctl,
133 .mmap = drm_mmap,
134 .poll = drm_poll,
135 .fasync = drm_fasync,
136 #ifdef CONFIG_COMPAT
137 .compat_ioctl = i915_compat_ioctl,
138 #endif
139 .llseek = noop_llseek,
141 .pci_driver = {
142 .name = DRIVER_NAME,
143 .id_table = pciidlist,
144 .probe = probe,
145 .remove = __devexit_p(drm_cleanup_pci),
147 .name = DRIVER_NAME,
148 .desc = DRIVER_DESC,
149 .date = DRIVER_DATE,
150 .major = DRIVER_MAJOR,
151 .minor = DRIVER_MINOR,
152 .patchlevel = DRIVER_PATCHLEVEL,
154 </programlisting>
155 <para>
156 In the example above, taken from the i915 DRM driver, the driver
157 sets several flags indicating what core features it supports;
158 we go over the individual callbacks in later sections. Since
159 flags indicate which features your driver supports to the DRM
160 core, you need to set most of them prior to calling drm_init(). Some,
161 like DRIVER_MODESET can be set later based on user supplied parameters,
162 but that's the exception rather than the rule.
163 </para>
164 <variablelist>
165 <title>Driver flags</title>
166 <varlistentry>
167 <term>DRIVER_USE_AGP</term>
168 <listitem><para>
169 Driver uses AGP interface
170 </para></listitem>
171 </varlistentry>
172 <varlistentry>
173 <term>DRIVER_REQUIRE_AGP</term>
174 <listitem><para>
175 Driver needs AGP interface to function.
176 </para></listitem>
177 </varlistentry>
178 <varlistentry>
179 <term>DRIVER_USE_MTRR</term>
180 <listitem>
181 <para>
182 Driver uses MTRR interface for mapping memory. Deprecated.
183 </para>
184 </listitem>
185 </varlistentry>
186 <varlistentry>
187 <term>DRIVER_PCI_DMA</term>
188 <listitem><para>
189 Driver is capable of PCI DMA. Deprecated.
190 </para></listitem>
191 </varlistentry>
192 <varlistentry>
193 <term>DRIVER_SG</term>
194 <listitem><para>
195 Driver can perform scatter/gather DMA. Deprecated.
196 </para></listitem>
197 </varlistentry>
198 <varlistentry>
199 <term>DRIVER_HAVE_DMA</term>
200 <listitem><para>Driver supports DMA. Deprecated.</para></listitem>
201 </varlistentry>
202 <varlistentry>
203 <term>DRIVER_HAVE_IRQ</term><term>DRIVER_IRQ_SHARED</term>
204 <listitem>
205 <para>
206 DRIVER_HAVE_IRQ indicates whether the driver has an IRQ
207 handler. DRIVER_IRQ_SHARED indicates whether the device &amp;
208 handler support shared IRQs (note that this is required of
209 PCI drivers).
210 </para>
211 </listitem>
212 </varlistentry>
213 <varlistentry>
214 <term>DRIVER_DMA_QUEUE</term>
215 <listitem>
216 <para>
217 Should be set if the driver queues DMA requests and completes them
218 asynchronously. Deprecated.
219 </para>
220 </listitem>
221 </varlistentry>
222 <varlistentry>
223 <term>DRIVER_FB_DMA</term>
224 <listitem>
225 <para>
226 Driver supports DMA to/from the framebuffer. Deprecated.
227 </para>
228 </listitem>
229 </varlistentry>
230 <varlistentry>
231 <term>DRIVER_MODESET</term>
232 <listitem>
233 <para>
234 Driver supports mode setting interfaces.
235 </para>
236 </listitem>
237 </varlistentry>
238 </variablelist>
239 <para>
240 In this specific case, the driver requires AGP and supports
241 IRQs. DMA, as discussed later, is handled by device-specific ioctls
242 in this case. It also supports the kernel mode setting APIs, though
243 unlike in the actual i915 driver source, this example unconditionally
244 exports KMS capability.
245 </para>
246 </sect1>
248 <!-- Internals: driver load -->
250 <sect1>
251 <title>Driver load</title>
252 <para>
253 In the previous section, we saw what a typical drm_driver
254 structure might look like. One of the more important fields in
255 the structure is the hook for the load function.
256 </para>
257 <programlisting>
258 static struct drm_driver driver = {
260 .load = i915_driver_load,
263 </programlisting>
264 <para>
265 The load function has many responsibilities: allocating a driver
266 private structure, specifying supported performance counters,
267 configuring the device (e.g. mapping registers &amp; command
268 buffers), initializing the memory manager, and setting up the
269 initial output configuration.
270 </para>
271 <para>
272 If compatibility is a concern (e.g. with drivers converted over
273 to the new interfaces from the old ones), care must be taken to
274 prevent device initialization and control that is incompatible with
275 currently active userspace drivers. For instance, if user
276 level mode setting drivers are in use, it would be problematic
277 to perform output discovery &amp; configuration at load time.
278 Likewise, if user-level drivers unaware of memory management are
279 in use, memory management and command buffer setup may need to
280 be omitted. These requirements are driver-specific, and care
281 needs to be taken to keep both old and new applications and
282 libraries working. The i915 driver supports the "modeset"
283 module parameter to control whether advanced features are
284 enabled at load time or in legacy fashion.
285 </para>
287 <sect2>
288 <title>Driver private &amp; performance counters</title>
289 <para>
290 The driver private hangs off the main drm_device structure and
291 can be used for tracking various device-specific bits of
292 information, like register offsets, command buffer status,
293 register state for suspend/resume, etc. At load time, a
294 driver may simply allocate one and set drm_device.dev_priv
295 appropriately; it should be freed and drm_device.dev_priv set
296 to NULL when the driver is unloaded.
297 </para>
298 <para>
299 The DRM supports several counters which may be used for rough
300 performance characterization. Note that the DRM stat counter
301 system is not often used by applications, and supporting
302 additional counters is completely optional.
303 </para>
304 <para>
305 These interfaces are deprecated and should not be used. If performance
306 monitoring is desired, the developer should investigate and
307 potentially enhance the kernel perf and tracing infrastructure to export
308 GPU related performance information for consumption by performance
309 monitoring tools and applications.
310 </para>
311 </sect2>
313 <sect2>
314 <title>Configuring the device</title>
315 <para>
316 Obviously, device configuration is device-specific.
317 However, there are several common operations: finding a
318 device's PCI resources, mapping them, and potentially setting
319 up an IRQ handler.
320 </para>
321 <para>
322 Finding &amp; mapping resources is fairly straightforward. The
323 DRM wrapper functions, drm_get_resource_start() and
324 drm_get_resource_len(), may be used to find BARs on the given
325 drm_device struct. Once those values have been retrieved, the
326 driver load function can call drm_addmap() to create a new
327 mapping for the BAR in question. Note that you probably want a
328 drm_local_map_t in your driver private structure to track any
329 mappings you create.
330 <!-- !Fdrivers/gpu/drm/drm_bufs.c drm_get_resource_* -->
331 <!-- !Finclude/drm/drmP.h drm_local_map_t -->
332 </para>
333 <para>
334 if compatibility with other operating systems isn't a concern
335 (DRM drivers can run under various BSD variants and OpenSolaris),
336 native Linux calls may be used for the above, e.g. pci_resource_*
337 and iomap*/iounmap. See the Linux device driver book for more
338 info.
339 </para>
340 <para>
341 Once you have a register map, you may use the DRM_READn() and
342 DRM_WRITEn() macros to access the registers on your device, or
343 use driver-specific versions to offset into your MMIO space
344 relative to a driver-specific base pointer (see I915_READ for
345 an example).
346 </para>
347 <para>
348 If your device supports interrupt generation, you may want to
349 set up an interrupt handler when the driver is loaded. This
350 is done using the drm_irq_install() function. If your device
351 supports vertical blank interrupts, it should call
352 drm_vblank_init() to initialize the core vblank handling code before
353 enabling interrupts on your device. This ensures the vblank related
354 structures are allocated and allows the core to handle vblank events.
355 </para>
356 <!--!Fdrivers/char/drm/drm_irq.c drm_irq_install-->
357 <para>
358 Once your interrupt handler is registered (it uses your
359 drm_driver.irq_handler as the actual interrupt handling
360 function), you can safely enable interrupts on your device,
361 assuming any other state your interrupt handler uses is also
362 initialized.
363 </para>
364 <para>
365 Another task that may be necessary during configuration is
366 mapping the video BIOS. On many devices, the VBIOS describes
367 device configuration, LCD panel timings (if any), and contains
368 flags indicating device state. Mapping the BIOS can be done
369 using the pci_map_rom() call, a convenience function that
370 takes care of mapping the actual ROM, whether it has been
371 shadowed into memory (typically at address 0xc0000) or exists
372 on the PCI device in the ROM BAR. Note that after the ROM
373 has been mapped and any necessary information has been extracted,
374 it should be unmapped; on many devices, the ROM address decoder is
375 shared with other BARs, so leaving it mapped could cause
376 undesired behavior like hangs or memory corruption.
377 <!--!Fdrivers/pci/rom.c pci_map_rom-->
378 </para>
379 </sect2>
381 <sect2>
382 <title>Memory manager initialization</title>
383 <para>
384 In order to allocate command buffers, cursor memory, scanout
385 buffers, etc., as well as support the latest features provided
386 by packages like Mesa and the X.Org X server, your driver
387 should support a memory manager.
388 </para>
389 <para>
390 If your driver supports memory management (it should!), you
391 need to set that up at load time as well. How you initialize
392 it depends on which memory manager you're using: TTM or GEM.
393 </para>
394 <sect3>
395 <title>TTM initialization</title>
396 <para>
397 TTM (for Translation Table Manager) manages video memory and
398 aperture space for graphics devices. TTM supports both UMA devices
399 and devices with dedicated video RAM (VRAM), i.e. most discrete
400 graphics devices. If your device has dedicated RAM, supporting
401 TTM is desirable. TTM also integrates tightly with your
402 driver-specific buffer execution function. See the radeon
403 driver for examples.
404 </para>
405 <para>
406 The core TTM structure is the ttm_bo_driver struct. It contains
407 several fields with function pointers for initializing the TTM,
408 allocating and freeing memory, waiting for command completion
409 and fence synchronization, and memory migration. See the
410 radeon_ttm.c file for an example of usage.
411 </para>
412 <para>
413 The ttm_global_reference structure is made up of several fields:
414 </para>
415 <programlisting>
416 struct ttm_global_reference {
417 enum ttm_global_types global_type;
418 size_t size;
419 void *object;
420 int (*init) (struct ttm_global_reference *);
421 void (*release) (struct ttm_global_reference *);
423 </programlisting>
424 <para>
425 There should be one global reference structure for your memory
426 manager as a whole, and there will be others for each object
427 created by the memory manager at runtime. Your global TTM should
428 have a type of TTM_GLOBAL_TTM_MEM. The size field for the global
429 object should be sizeof(struct ttm_mem_global), and the init and
430 release hooks should point at your driver-specific init and
431 release routines, which probably eventually call
432 ttm_mem_global_init and ttm_mem_global_release, respectively.
433 </para>
434 <para>
435 Once your global TTM accounting structure is set up and initialized
436 by calling ttm_global_item_ref() on it,
437 you need to create a buffer object TTM to
438 provide a pool for buffer object allocation by clients and the
439 kernel itself. The type of this object should be TTM_GLOBAL_TTM_BO,
440 and its size should be sizeof(struct ttm_bo_global). Again,
441 driver-specific init and release functions may be provided,
442 likely eventually calling ttm_bo_global_init() and
443 ttm_bo_global_release(), respectively. Also, like the previous
444 object, ttm_global_item_ref() is used to create an initial reference
445 count for the TTM, which will call your initialization function.
446 </para>
447 </sect3>
448 <sect3>
449 <title>GEM initialization</title>
450 <para>
451 GEM is an alternative to TTM, designed specifically for UMA
452 devices. It has simpler initialization and execution requirements
453 than TTM, but has no VRAM management capability. Core GEM
454 is initialized by calling drm_mm_init() to create
455 a GTT DRM MM object, which provides an address space pool for
456 object allocation. In a KMS configuration, the driver
457 needs to allocate and initialize a command ring buffer following
458 core GEM initialization. A UMA device usually has what is called a
459 "stolen" memory region, which provides space for the initial
460 framebuffer and large, contiguous memory regions required by the
461 device. This space is not typically managed by GEM, and it must
462 be initialized separately into its own DRM MM object.
463 </para>
464 <para>
465 Initialization is driver-specific. In the case of Intel
466 integrated graphics chips like 965GM, GEM initialization can
467 be done by calling the internal GEM init function,
468 i915_gem_do_init(). Since the 965GM is a UMA device
469 (i.e. it doesn't have dedicated VRAM), GEM manages
470 making regular RAM available for GPU operations. Memory set
471 aside by the BIOS (called "stolen" memory by the i915
472 driver) is managed by the DRM memrange allocator; the
473 rest of the aperture is managed by GEM.
474 <programlisting>
475 /* Basic memrange allocator for stolen space (aka vram) */
476 drm_memrange_init(&amp;dev_priv->vram, 0, prealloc_size);
477 /* Let GEM Manage from end of prealloc space to end of aperture */
478 i915_gem_do_init(dev, prealloc_size, agp_size);
479 </programlisting>
480 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_memrange.c-->
481 </para>
482 <para>
483 Once the memory manager has been set up, we may allocate the
484 command buffer. In the i915 case, this is also done with a
485 GEM function, i915_gem_init_ringbuffer().
486 </para>
487 </sect3>
488 </sect2>
490 <sect2>
491 <title>Output configuration</title>
492 <para>
493 The final initialization task is output configuration. This involves:
494 <itemizedlist>
495 <listitem>
496 Finding and initializing the CRTCs, encoders, and connectors
497 for the device.
498 </listitem>
499 <listitem>
500 Creating an initial configuration.
501 </listitem>
502 <listitem>
503 Registering a framebuffer console driver.
504 </listitem>
505 </itemizedlist>
506 </para>
507 <sect3>
508 <title>Output discovery and initialization</title>
509 <para>
510 Several core functions exist to create CRTCs, encoders, and
511 connectors, namely: drm_crtc_init(), drm_connector_init(), and
512 drm_encoder_init(), along with several "helper" functions to
513 perform common tasks.
514 </para>
515 <para>
516 Connectors should be registered with sysfs once they've been
517 detected and initialized, using the
518 drm_sysfs_connector_add() function. Likewise, when they're
519 removed from the system, they should be destroyed with
520 drm_sysfs_connector_remove().
521 </para>
522 <programlisting>
523 <![CDATA[
524 void intel_crt_init(struct drm_device *dev)
526 struct drm_connector *connector;
527 struct intel_output *intel_output;
529 intel_output = kzalloc(sizeof(struct intel_output), GFP_KERNEL);
530 if (!intel_output)
531 return;
533 connector = &intel_output->base;
534 drm_connector_init(dev, &intel_output->base,
535 &intel_crt_connector_funcs, DRM_MODE_CONNECTOR_VGA);
537 drm_encoder_init(dev, &intel_output->enc, &intel_crt_enc_funcs,
538 DRM_MODE_ENCODER_DAC);
540 drm_mode_connector_attach_encoder(&intel_output->base,
541 &intel_output->enc);
543 /* Set up the DDC bus. */
544 intel_output->ddc_bus = intel_i2c_create(dev, GPIOA, "CRTDDC_A");
545 if (!intel_output->ddc_bus) {
546 dev_printk(KERN_ERR, &dev->pdev->dev, "DDC bus registration "
547 "failed.\n");
548 return;
551 intel_output->type = INTEL_OUTPUT_ANALOG;
552 connector->interlace_allowed = 0;
553 connector->doublescan_allowed = 0;
555 drm_encoder_helper_add(&intel_output->enc, &intel_crt_helper_funcs);
556 drm_connector_helper_add(connector, &intel_crt_connector_helper_funcs);
558 drm_sysfs_connector_add(connector);
561 </programlisting>
562 <para>
563 In the example above (again, taken from the i915 driver), a
564 CRT connector and encoder combination is created. A device-specific
565 i2c bus is also created for fetching EDID data and
566 performing monitor detection. Once the process is complete,
567 the new connector is registered with sysfs to make its
568 properties available to applications.
569 </para>
570 <sect4>
571 <title>Helper functions and core functions</title>
572 <para>
573 Since many PC-class graphics devices have similar display output
574 designs, the DRM provides a set of helper functions to make
575 output management easier. The core helper routines handle
576 encoder re-routing and the disabling of unused functions following
577 mode setting. Using the helpers is optional, but recommended for
578 devices with PC-style architectures (i.e. a set of display planes
579 for feeding pixels to encoders which are in turn routed to
580 connectors). Devices with more complex requirements needing
581 finer grained management may opt to use the core callbacks
582 directly.
583 </para>
584 <para>
585 [Insert typical diagram here.] [Insert OMAP style config here.]
586 </para>
587 </sect4>
588 <para>
589 Each encoder object needs to provide:
590 <itemizedlist>
591 <listitem>
592 A DPMS (basically on/off) function.
593 </listitem>
594 <listitem>
595 A mode-fixup function (for converting requested modes into
596 native hardware timings).
597 </listitem>
598 <listitem>
599 Functions (prepare, set, and commit) for use by the core DRM
600 helper functions.
601 </listitem>
602 </itemizedlist>
603 Connector helpers need to provide functions (mode-fetch, validity,
604 and encoder-matching) for returning an ideal encoder for a given
605 connector. The core connector functions include a DPMS callback,
606 save/restore routines (deprecated), detection, mode probing,
607 property handling, and cleanup functions.
608 </para>
609 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_crtc.h-->
610 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_crtc.c-->
611 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_crtc_helper.c-->
612 </sect3>
613 </sect2>
614 </sect1>
616 <!-- Internals: vblank handling -->
618 <sect1>
619 <title>VBlank event handling</title>
620 <para>
621 The DRM core exposes two vertical blank related ioctls:
622 <variablelist>
623 <varlistentry>
624 <term>DRM_IOCTL_WAIT_VBLANK</term>
625 <listitem>
626 <para>
627 This takes a struct drm_wait_vblank structure as its argument,
628 and it is used to block or request a signal when a specified
629 vblank event occurs.
630 </para>
631 </listitem>
632 </varlistentry>
633 <varlistentry>
634 <term>DRM_IOCTL_MODESET_CTL</term>
635 <listitem>
636 <para>
637 This should be called by application level drivers before and
638 after mode setting, since on many devices the vertical blank
639 counter is reset at that time. Internally, the DRM snapshots
640 the last vblank count when the ioctl is called with the
641 _DRM_PRE_MODESET command, so that the counter won't go backwards
642 (which is dealt with when _DRM_POST_MODESET is used).
643 </para>
644 </listitem>
645 </varlistentry>
646 </variablelist>
647 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_irq.c-->
648 </para>
649 <para>
650 To support the functions above, the DRM core provides several
651 helper functions for tracking vertical blank counters, and
652 requires drivers to provide several callbacks:
653 get_vblank_counter(), enable_vblank() and disable_vblank(). The
654 core uses get_vblank_counter() to keep the counter accurate
655 across interrupt disable periods. It should return the current
656 vertical blank event count, which is often tracked in a device
657 register. The enable and disable vblank callbacks should enable
658 and disable vertical blank interrupts, respectively. In the
659 absence of DRM clients waiting on vblank events, the core DRM
660 code uses the disable_vblank() function to disable
661 interrupts, which saves power. They are re-enabled again when
662 a client calls the vblank wait ioctl above.
663 </para>
664 <para>
665 A device that doesn't provide a count register may simply use an
666 internal atomic counter incremented on every vertical blank
667 interrupt (and then treat the enable_vblank() and disable_vblank()
668 callbacks as no-ops).
669 </para>
670 </sect1>
672 <sect1>
673 <title>Memory management</title>
674 <para>
675 The memory manager lies at the heart of many DRM operations; it
676 is required to support advanced client features like OpenGL
677 pbuffers. The DRM currently contains two memory managers: TTM
678 and GEM.
679 </para>
681 <sect2>
682 <title>The Translation Table Manager (TTM)</title>
683 <para>
684 TTM was developed by Tungsten Graphics, primarily by Thomas
685 Hellström, and is intended to be a flexible, high performance
686 graphics memory manager.
687 </para>
688 <para>
689 Drivers wishing to support TTM must fill out a drm_bo_driver
690 structure.
691 </para>
692 <para>
693 TTM design background and information belongs here.
694 </para>
695 </sect2>
697 <sect2>
698 <title>The Graphics Execution Manager (GEM)</title>
699 <para>
700 GEM is an Intel project, authored by Eric Anholt and Keith
701 Packard. It provides simpler interfaces than TTM, and is well
702 suited for UMA devices.
703 </para>
704 <para>
705 GEM-enabled drivers must provide gem_init_object() and
706 gem_free_object() callbacks to support the core memory
707 allocation routines. They should also provide several driver-specific
708 ioctls to support command execution, pinning, buffer
709 read &amp; write, mapping, and domain ownership transfers.
710 </para>
711 <para>
712 On a fundamental level, GEM involves several operations:
713 <itemizedlist>
714 <listitem>Memory allocation and freeing</listitem>
715 <listitem>Command execution</listitem>
716 <listitem>Aperture management at command execution time</listitem>
717 </itemizedlist>
718 Buffer object allocation is relatively
719 straightforward and largely provided by Linux's shmem layer, which
720 provides memory to back each object. When mapped into the GTT
721 or used in a command buffer, the backing pages for an object are
722 flushed to memory and marked write combined so as to be coherent
723 with the GPU. Likewise, if the CPU accesses an object after the GPU
724 has finished rendering to the object, then the object must be made
725 coherent with the CPU's view
726 of memory, usually involving GPU cache flushing of various kinds.
727 This core CPU&lt;-&gt;GPU coherency management is provided by a
728 device-specific ioctl, which evaluates an object's current domain and
729 performs any necessary flushing or synchronization to put the object
730 into the desired coherency domain (note that the object may be busy,
731 i.e. an active render target; in that case, setting the domain
732 blocks the client and waits for rendering to complete before
733 performing any necessary flushing operations).
734 </para>
735 <para>
736 Perhaps the most important GEM function is providing a command
737 execution interface to clients. Client programs construct command
738 buffers containing references to previously allocated memory objects,
739 and then submit them to GEM. At that point, GEM takes care to bind
740 all the objects into the GTT, execute the buffer, and provide
741 necessary synchronization between clients accessing the same buffers.
742 This often involves evicting some objects from the GTT and re-binding
743 others (a fairly expensive operation), and providing relocation
744 support which hides fixed GTT offsets from clients. Clients must
745 take care not to submit command buffers that reference more objects
746 than can fit in the GTT; otherwise, GEM will reject them and no rendering
747 will occur. Similarly, if several objects in the buffer require
748 fence registers to be allocated for correct rendering (e.g. 2D blits
749 on pre-965 chips), care must be taken not to require more fence
750 registers than are available to the client. Such resource management
751 should be abstracted from the client in libdrm.
752 </para>
753 </sect2>
755 </sect1>
757 <!-- Output management -->
758 <sect1>
759 <title>Output management</title>
760 <para>
761 At the core of the DRM output management code is a set of
762 structures representing CRTCs, encoders, and connectors.
763 </para>
764 <para>
765 A CRTC is an abstraction representing a part of the chip that
766 contains a pointer to a scanout buffer. Therefore, the number
767 of CRTCs available determines how many independent scanout
768 buffers can be active at any given time. The CRTC structure
769 contains several fields to support this: a pointer to some video
770 memory, a display mode, and an (x, y) offset into the video
771 memory to support panning or configurations where one piece of
772 video memory spans multiple CRTCs.
773 </para>
774 <para>
775 An encoder takes pixel data from a CRTC and converts it to a
776 format suitable for any attached connectors. On some devices,
777 it may be possible to have a CRTC send data to more than one
778 encoder. In that case, both encoders would receive data from
779 the same scanout buffer, resulting in a "cloned" display
780 configuration across the connectors attached to each encoder.
781 </para>
782 <para>
783 A connector is the final destination for pixel data on a device,
784 and usually connects directly to an external display device like
785 a monitor or laptop panel. A connector can only be attached to
786 one encoder at a time. The connector is also the structure
787 where information about the attached display is kept, so it
788 contains fields for display data, EDID data, DPMS &amp;
789 connection status, and information about modes supported on the
790 attached displays.
791 </para>
792 <!--!Edrivers/char/drm/drm_crtc.c-->
793 </sect1>
795 <sect1>
796 <title>Framebuffer management</title>
797 <para>
798 Clients need to provide a framebuffer object which provides a source
799 of pixels for a CRTC to deliver to the encoder(s) and ultimately the
800 connector(s). A framebuffer is fundamentally a driver-specific memory
801 object, made into an opaque handle by the DRM's addfb() function.
802 Once a framebuffer has been created this way, it may be passed to the
803 KMS mode setting routines for use in a completed configuration.
804 </para>
805 </sect1>
807 <sect1>
808 <title>Command submission &amp; fencing</title>
809 <para>
810 This should cover a few device-specific command submission
811 implementations.
812 </para>
813 </sect1>
815 <sect1>
816 <title>Suspend/resume</title>
817 <para>
818 The DRM core provides some suspend/resume code, but drivers
819 wanting full suspend/resume support should provide save() and
820 restore() functions. These are called at suspend,
821 hibernate, or resume time, and should perform any state save or
822 restore required by your device across suspend or hibernate
823 states.
824 </para>
825 </sect1>
827 <sect1>
828 <title>DMA services</title>
829 <para>
830 This should cover how DMA mapping etc. is supported by the core.
831 These functions are deprecated and should not be used.
832 </para>
833 </sect1>
834 </chapter>
836 <!-- External interfaces -->
838 <chapter id="drmExternals">
839 <title>Userland interfaces</title>
840 <para>
841 The DRM core exports several interfaces to applications,
842 generally intended to be used through corresponding libdrm
843 wrapper functions. In addition, drivers export device-specific
844 interfaces for use by userspace drivers &amp; device-aware
845 applications through ioctls and sysfs files.
846 </para>
847 <para>
848 External interfaces include: memory mapping, context management,
849 DMA operations, AGP management, vblank control, fence
850 management, memory management, and output management.
851 </para>
852 <para>
853 Cover generic ioctls and sysfs layout here. We only need high-level
854 info, since man pages should cover the rest.
855 </para>
856 </chapter>
858 <!-- API reference -->
860 <appendix id="drmDriverApi">
861 <title>DRM Driver API</title>
862 <para>
863 Include auto-generated API reference here (need to reference it
864 from paragraphs above too).
865 </para>
866 </appendix>
868 </book>