At Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:47:48 +0200 (CEST), Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, Takashi Iwai wrote:
At Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:11:12 +0200 (CEST), Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
On Fri, 13 Jun 2008, Takashi Iwai wrote:
What about just providing three pointers: curr_ptr, hw_ptr and appl_ptr? curr_ptr corresponds to the point being played, and hw_ptr is the point where the data was already sent to h/w, and appl_ptr is the point where the data is filled by user. The above definitions are all combinations of these pointers.
But I think that curr_ptr can be managed in drivers, thus invisible to user space (except for snd_pcm_delay() propagation).
Ditto for hw_ptr. Why is it hidden at all?
Does it improve something to show this pointer to apps? I don't see any reason to show it outside alsa-lib.
Then it'll be more clear.
If driver requires extra handling of samples, it can allocate and manage extra buffers itself. I don't see the point to have "locked" samples already processed by hardware in the main ring buffer described by appl_ptr / hw_ptr. Application can use this space for new samples.
The only advantage with your implementation might be zero-copy, but USB and PCMCIA cards have or create own buffers, so I don't think that this advantage can be used in actual drivers and I cannot even imagine hardware which work in way to use zero-copy in this situation.
Wait, wait. Please don't mix up. The above doesn't imply anything about the further implementation of usb-audio driver. What I suggested is, instead of hiding two pointers (hw_ptr and curr_ptr) and creating a complex API, simply expose them.
I don't see a reason to make current API more complex.
Because the current API is complex and hard to understand.
We have already two functions, One showing overall latency and second one how much samples can be processed by application. It's enough. We need only improve things internaly in alsa-lib <-> kernel (provide correct information for snd_pcm_delay()).
Now, regarding the usb-driver. Honestly, I don't understand what you want to do with an extra URB.
Note that we don't need to have extra URBs, just change hw_ptr handling in USB driver.
OK, then it's different from your previous explanation...
As now, usb-audio driver handles as curr_ptr == hw_ptr. But, in reality, curr_ptr = hw_ptr - samples_in_urbs. So, in the case of USB-audio, hw_ptr is ahead of curr_ptr. (And the granularity is samples_in_urbs).
As Lennart mentioned, in this case you can reach underrun at different position than expected (when URB cannot be filled). In my case, you'll reach underrun exactly at point when whole ring buffer is drained. So application can better estimate queueing and also it makes things more logical.
Hm, could you elaborate how to do this more exactly? That wasn't clear from your previous post at all.
Takashi