Re: [RFC PATCH 00/14] Introduce QC USB SND audio offloading support

[Greg KH]

On Fri, Dec 23, 2022 at 03:31:46PM -0800, Wesley Cheng wrote:
> Several Qualcomm based chipsets can support USB audio offloading to a
> dedicated audio DSP, which can take over issuing transfers to the USB
> host controller.  The intention is to reduce the load on the main
> processors in the SoC, and allow them to be placed into lower power modes.
> There are several parts to this design:
>   1. Adding ASoC binding layer
>   2. Create a USB backend for Q6DSP
>   3. Introduce XHCI interrupter support
>   4. Create vendor ops for the USB SND driver
> 
> Adding ASoC binding layer:
> soc-usb: Intention is to treat a USB port similar to a headphone jack.
> The port is always present on the device, but cable/pin status can be
> enabled/disabled.  Expose mechanisms for USB backend ASoC drivers to
> communicate with USB SND.
> 
> Create a USB backend for Q6DSP:
> q6usb: Basic backend driver that will be responsible for maintaining the
> resources needed to initiate a playback stream using the Q6DSP.  Will
> be the entity that checks to make sure the connected USB audio device
> supports the requested PCM format.  If it does not, the PCM open call will
> fail, and userpsace ALSA can take action accordingly.
> 
> Introduce XHCI interrupter support:
> XHCI HCD supports multiple interrupters, which allows for events to be routed
> to different event rings.  This is determined by "Interrupter Target" field
> specified in Section "6.4.1.1 Normal TRB" of the XHCI specification.
> 
> Events in the offloading case will be routed to an event ring that is assigned
> to the audio DSP.
> 
> Create vendor ops for the USB SND driver:
> qc_audio_offload: This particular driver has several components associated
> with it:
> - QMI stream request handler
> - XHCI interrupter and resource management
> - audio DSP memory management
> 
> When the audio DSP wants to enable a playback stream, the request is first
> received by the ASoC platform sound card.  Depending on the selected route,
> ASoC will bring up the individual DAIs in the path.  The Q6USB backend DAI
> will send an AFE port start command (with enabling the USB playback path), and
> the audio DSP will handle the request accordingly.
> 
> Part of the AFE USB port start handling will have an exchange of control
> messages using the QMI protocol.  The qc_audio_offload driver will populate the
> buffer information:
> - Event ring base address
> - EP transfer ring base address
> 
> and pass it along to the audio DSP.  All endpoint management will now be handed
> over to the DSP, and the main processor is not involved in transfers.
> 
> Overall, implementing this feature will still expose separate sound card and PCM
> devices for both the platorm card and USB audio device:
>  0 [SM8250MTPWCD938]: sm8250 - SM8250-MTP-WCD9380-WSA8810-VA-D
>                       SM8250-MTP-WCD9380-WSA8810-VA-DMIC
>  1 [Audio          ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio
>                       Generic USB Audio at usb-xhci-hcd.1.auto-1.4, high speed
> 
> This is to ensure that userspace ALSA entities can decide which route to take
> when executing the audio playback.  In the above, if card#1 is selected, then
> USB audio data will take the legacy path over the USB PCM drivers, etc...
> 
> This feature was validated using:
> - tinymix: set/enable the multimedia path to route to USB backend
> - tinyplay: issue playback on platform card

This looks to duplicate a bunch of the same things that a number of
different google developers have posted recently.  Please work with them
to come up with a unified set of patches that you all can agree with,
AND get them to sign off on the changes before resubmitting them.

This uncoordinated drip of patches from different people doing the same
thing is almost impossible to review from our side, as I'm sure you can
imagine.

That being said, thank you finally for at least submitting all of the
needed changes together as one patch set.  That's a first, and something
we had been asking for for years.

Have a good holiday break,

greg k-h