On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 7:13 AM, David Dillow dave@thedillows.org wrote:
When using poll() to wait for the next period -- or avail_min samples -- one gets a consistent delay for each system call that is usually just a little short of the selected period time. However, When using snd_pcm_read/write(), one gets a jittery delay that alternates between less than a millisecond and approximately two period times. This is caused by snd_pcm_lib_{read,write}1() transferring any available samples to the user's buffer and adjusting the application pointer prior to sleeping to the end of the current period. When the next period interrupt occurs, there is then less than avail_min samples remaining to be transferred in the period, so we end up sleeping until a second period occurs.
This is solved by using runtime->twake as the number of samples needed for a wakeup in addition to selecting the proper wait queue to wake in snd_pcm_update_state(). This requires twake to be non-zero when used by snd_pcm_lib_{read,write}1() even if avail_min is zero.
http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2010-June/028786.html