Re: [PATCH v2 0/4] drm/nvdla: Add driver support for NVDLA

[Cai Huoqing]

On 02 5月 22 19:04:13, Thierry Reding wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2022 at 11:28:10AM +0800, Cai Huoqing wrote:
> > On 28 4月 22 18:56:07, Mikko Perttunen wrote:
> > > On 4/28/22 17:10, Thierry Reding wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 02:07:57PM +0800, Cai Huoqing wrote:
> > > > > The NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator (NVDLA) is an open source IP
> > > > > which is integrated into NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier,
> > > > > so add driver support for this accelerator."
> > > > 
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > nice to see this work going on. For subsequent revisions, can you please
> > > > also Cc the Tegra mailing list (linux-tegra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) as well as
> > > > the Tegra platform maintainers (that's Jon Hunter and myself). This will
> > > > make sure that more people with an interest in this will see your work.
> > > > Not everyone follows dri-devel, linaro-mm-sig or linux-media.
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Thierry
> > > 
> > > From a quick glance it looks like this driver pokes DLA hardware directly
> > > which is not the intended programming model on Tegra hardware (there are
> > > Falcon microcontrollers that offload task scheduling and synchronization
> > > from the CPU). The hardware is also behind the Host1x bus so a simple
> > > platform device is not sufficient.
> > > 
> > > Was this driver developed against some platform with OpenDLA hardware (i.e.
> > > not Tegra)?
> > > 
> > > If so, we'd need to verify if the hardware matches the hardware in Tegra194.
> > > Also, this driver may not be ideal for Tegra platforms since we would lack
> > > the hardware scheduling and synchronization facilities. It is likely
> > > necessary to have separate drivers for OpenDLA and Tegra's DLA integration.
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > Mikko
> > > 
> > Tegra DLA seems to work with a slave coprocessor, the host driver just
> > impelement message queue, share buffer, notification... The hardware
> > detail of DLA maybe in the slave driver(not linux OS?).
> > 
> > Sure, This driver just support for the SOCs or FPGAs that OPENDLA
> > inside. I will change this kind of description "integrated into NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier"
> > this driver dont support for Tegra directly.
> 
> Yes, I think it would be good to make it clear that this is not going to
> work with the Tegra instantiations so that people don't get confused.
> 
> I think it would be ideal, though, if we could reuse as much of this
> driver as possible to work with other instantiations. The only reference
> to OpenDLA that I can find and which seems somehow relevant to this is
> here:
> 
> 	https://github.com/SCLUO/ITRI-OpenDLA
Hi, thanks for your reply.

the hardware code here,
https://github.com/caihuoq/nvdla-hw
or https://github.com/nvdla/hw
which includes cmodel, RTL.

I also make a docker image to run cmodel simulator(based on qemu)
https://github.com/caihuoq/nvdla_docker
It can be used to check this driver.

Thanks,
Cai
> 
> Is that the version that you're using? Or is the version that you're
> using at least compatible with that one? Apart from that and the Tegra
> instantiations, are you aware of any other derivatives that we need to
> account for? I'm worried that this might fragment to the point where it
> becomes unmaintainable in upstream Linux.
> 
> Even if this doesn't concern the Tegra instantiation, I think most of my
> other comments remain valid. Things like global variables will get in
> the way of multiple FPGA instantiations as well, for example.
> 
> You will also need to provide the device tree bindings for the
> particular instantiation that you're working on. Typically this would be
> identified by a vendor-specific compatible string for your particular
> board, but if it stems from a "canonical" FPGA mapping, matching on that
> compatible string might also be an option. In either case, when you send
> out the DT bindings, please include the devicetree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> mailing list so that they can be properly reviewed.
> 
> Thierry