[PATCH v3 5/5] Documentation: fpga: dfl: add description of OFS

From: Tianfei zhang
Date: Tue Mar 01 2022 - 01:25:23 EST


This patch adds description about OFS support for DFL.

---
v3:
change IOFS to OFS in documentation.

v2:
* Fixs some typos.
* Adds more detail description about the models of AFU access which supported in OFS.

Signed-off-by: Tianfei zhang <tianfei.zhang@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst | 113 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 113 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst b/Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst
index ef9eec71f6f3..753507e7b162 100644
--- a/Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst
+++ b/Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst
@@ -556,6 +556,119 @@ new DFL feature via UIO direct access, its feature id should be added to the
driver's id_table.


+Open FPGA stack
+=====================
+
+Open FPGA stack aka OFS, a collection of RTL and open software providing interface
+to access the instantiated RTL easily in FPGA. OFS leverages the DFL for the
+implementation of the FPGA RTL design.
+
+OFS designs allow for the arrangement of software interfaces across multiple
+PCIe endpoints. Some of these interfaces may be PFs defined in the static region
+that connect to interfaces in an IP that is loaded via Partial Reconfiguration (PR).
+And some of these interfaces may be VFs defined in the PR region that can be
+reconfigured by the end-user. Furthermore, these PFs/VFs may also be arranged
+using a DFL such that features may be discovered and accessed in user space
+(with the aid of a generic kernel driver like vfio-pci). The diagram below depicts
+an example design with two PFs and two VFs. In this example, it will export the
+management functions via PF0, PF1 will bind with virtio-net driver presenting itself
+as a network interface to the OS. The other functions, VF0 and VF1, leverage VFIO
+to export the MMIO space to an application or assign to a VM.
+::
+
+ +-----------------+ +--------------+ +-------------+ +------------+
+ | FPGA Management | | VirtIO | | User App | | Virtual |
+ | App | | App | | | | Machine |
+ +--------+--------+ +------+-------+ +------+------+ +-----+------+
+ | | | |
+ +--------+--------+ +------+-------+ +------+------+ |
+ | DFL Driver | |VirtIO driver | | VFIO | |
+ +--------+--------+--+------+-------+ +------+------+ |
+ | | | |
+ | | | |
+ +--------+--------+ +------+-------+ +------+------+ +----+------+
+ | PF0 | | PF1 | | PF0_VF0 | | PF0_VF1 |
+ +-----------------+ +--------------+ +-------------+ +-----------+
+
+As accelerators are specialized hardware, they are typically limited in the
+number installed in a given system. Many use cases require them to be shared
+across multiple software contexts or threads of software execution, either
+through partitioning of individual dedicated resources, or virtualization of
+shared resources. On OFS, it provides several models to share the AFU
+resources via PR mechanism and hardware-based virtualization schemes.
+
+1. Legacy model.
+ In legacy FPGA card platforms (like Intel PAC N3000 or N5000 Card),there is
+ a notion that the boundary between the AFU and the shell is also the unit of
+ PR for those FPGA platforms. In this model, it can only able to handle a
+ single context, because it only has one PR engine, and one PR region which
+ has an associated Port device.
+2. Multiple VFs per PR slot.
+ In this model, available AFU resources may allow instantiation of many of VFs
+ which has a dedicated PCIe function with their own dedicated MMIO space, or
+ partition a region of MMIO space on a single PCIe function.
+ In this model, the Port device would not connected to AFU/PR slot, so we don't
+ need to release the Port device before creating the VFs. For DFL's view, the AFU
+ will not connect to Port device, so the Next_AFU pointer in FIU feature header
+ of port device points to NULL in this model. On the other hand, each VF can start
+ with an AFU feature header without connected to a FIU Port feature header.
+3. Micro-Personas in AFU.
+ OFS introducing a new concept to extend the FPGA usage, Micro-Personas in
+ AFU. It finds some downsides of the legacy model to be unacceptable, because
+ this may be desirable by a customer who intends to switch out one accelerator
+ for another accelerator without having to reconfigure the entire FPGA.
+ Micro-Personas allow the developer to designate their own AFU-defined PR
+ regions. In this model the unit of PR is not the entire AFU, instead
+ the unit of PR can be any size block or blocks inside the AFU.
+ In this model, it has PR capability includes one PR engine and multiple PR regions,
+ and each PR region has an associated port gasket. A PR region may also be
+ referred to as a PR slot. Port gasket is similar with port device in legacy
+ model which include the port control, port user clock control and port errors.
+
+OFS provides the diversity for access the AFU resource to RTL developer.
+An IP designer may choose to add more than one PF for interfacing with IP
+on the FPGA and choose different model to access the AFU resource.
+
+There is one reference architecture design using the "Multiple VFs per PR slot"
+model for OFS as illustrated below. In this reference design, it exports the
+FPGA management functions via PF0. PF1 will bind with virtio-net driver
+presenting itself as a network interface to the OS. PF2 will bound to the
+vfio-pci driver allowing the user space software to discover and interface
+with the specific workload like diagnostic test. To access the AFU resource,
+it uses SR-IOV to partition workload interfaces across various VFs.
+::
+
+ +----------------------+
+ | PF/VF mux/demux |
+ +--+--+-----+------+-+-+
+ | | | | |
+ +------------------------+ | | | |
+ PF0 | +---------+ +-+ | |
+ +---+---+ | +---+----+ | |
+ | DFH | | | DFH | | |
+ +-------+ +-----+----+ +--------+ | |
+ | FME | | VirtIO | | Test | | |
+ +---+---+ +----------+ +--------+ | |
+ | PF1 PF2 | |
+ | | |
+ | +----------+ |
+ | | ++
+ | | |
+ | | PF0_VF0 | PF0_VF1
+ | +-----------------+-----------+------------+
+ | | +-----+-----------+--------+ |
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | +------+ | +--+ -+ +--+---+ | |
+ | | | Port | | | DFH | | DFH | | |
+ +-----------+ +------+ | +-----+ +------+ | |
+ | | | DEV | | DEV | | |
+ | | +-----+ +------+ | |
+ | | PR Slot | |
+ | +--------------------------+ |
+ | Port Gasket |
+ +------------------------------------------+
+
+
Open discussion
===============
FME driver exports one ioctl (DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_PR) for partial reconfiguration
--
2.26.2