[alsa-devel] davici-mcasp: "tx-num-evt" confusion with number of serializers

[Michal Bachraty]

Hi Vaibhav,

On Wednesday, March 06, 2013 10:51:05 Bedia, Vaibhav wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Fri, Mar 01, 2013 at 15:38:27, Mark Brown wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 02:26:52PM +0100, Daniel Mack wrote:
> > > On 28.02.2013 14:19, Daniel Mack wrote:
> > > > Be careful with such changes. In general, DT bindings are forever in
> > > > general, because you can't update all the users out there, and so
> > > > every
> > > > binding that has ever existed has to be supported in the future, for
> > > > backwards compatibility.
> > > > 
> > > > In this case, we might make an exception, given that for AM33xx, the
> > > > necessary DMA bits are still not missing, and Davinci is not yet fully
> > > > ported to DT either. So nobody really uses the driver on this
> > > > platforms.
> > > 
> > > Sorry, let me rephrase that last paragraph:
> > > 
> > > In this case, we might make an exception, given that for AM33xx, the
> > > necessary DMA bits are still missing, and Davinci is not yet fully
> > > ported to DT either. So supposedly nobody really uses the driver on this
> > > platforms via DT.
> > 
> > Sounds plausible, though without having seen the actual change I can't
> > comment for certain.
> 
> Even I have found this field name to be a bit confusing. As per my
> understanding, tx/rx_num_evt is the trigger-level for generating the DMA
> request. Taking the case of Tx, a DMA event is generated when the FIFO has
> space of x words where x < 64. At the same time, y words are transferred
> from the FIFO to the McASP, where y must be the number of active
> serializers. To ensure that the FIFO always has enough words to service all
> the active serializers, the driver needs to ensure that x is a non-zero
> integral multiple of the number of active serializers.
> 
> Assuming tx-num-evt is set to 1 and 1 serializer in I2S mode is active
> (which is the case before multi-serializer support), McASP is programmed to
> generate a DMA event when there's a space for 1*1 = 1 word in the FIFO.
> This minimizes the chance of under-runs but puts keeps the DMA controller
> active. At the same time, the DMA controller is programmed to transfer
> tx-num-evt ie. 1 sample (L or R). This is in sync with what the McASP
> expects.
> 
> With tx-num-evt set to 1 and 4 serializers in I2S mode, MCASP is programmed
> to generate a DMA event when there's a space for 1*4 = 4 words in the FIFO.
> The DMA controller is programmed with Acnt = 2 (data_type) and Bcnt =
> tx-num-evt = 1. So, every DMA event ends up transferring only 2 samples
> whereas the data is being drained out @ 4 words! So, when you add-in
> multi-serializer support, the current implementation results in a mismatch
> between the DMA programming and McASP leading to DMA errors.
> 
> To fix the above issue, instead of passing around the number of active
> serializers, like you did in your other patch, I would suggest making sure
> dma_params->fifo_level is programmed to (tx/rx_num_evt * active
> serializers). Do you see any issues with this approach?

No, 
In davinci-mcasp code, there is fifo_level assigned with txnumevt

	if (substream->stream == SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK)
		fifo_level = dev->txnumevt;
	else
		fifo_level = dev->rxnumevt;

That code can  be changed to computing fifo_level to dev->txnumevt * 
active_serializers and then it is needed to remove  active_serializers from 
davinci-pcm. Code fuctionality will be same as is now with applied patch 
[PATCH v3] davinci-mcasp: Add support for multichannel playback
Also there is need to change dst_cidx from 4  to 0, othewise when no fifo is 
used, it won't work properly.