[alsa-devel] [RFC 3/4] OMAP3: McBSP: Add interface for transmit FIFO state query

[Eero Nurkkala]

On Tue, 2010-03-02 at 15:06 +0100, ext Jarkko Nikula wrote:
> On Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:52:00 +0200
> Eero Nurkkala <ext-eero.nurkkala at nokia.com> wrote:
> 
> > Reading the XBUFFSTAT register is by no means accurate.
> > IIRC, it reports the buffer status incorrectly about 1/50 times
> > on average (@ 48000khz); with simple math, it may be read during the DMA
> > burst. Or is it guaranteed not being read during DMA transfer / have
> > you otherwise verified the behavior?
> > 
> Do you remember how big was this variation? Was it near the burst size
> or some arbitrary difference?
> 
> 

Mostly the samples were good (49/50, @48khz, 2 channels, value polled
from userpace), but the remaining 1/50 were garbage - and actually
matched the probability of a simultaneous DMA burst. So the problem is -
if you read at time t0, and the DMA burst is taking place at the same
time - you get a value that looks rather random, as when (if) you poll
the position @ t0 + n uS, the value is (after some usecs) a lot
different. Or maybe the XBUFFSTAT just isn't reliable at all (regardless
of DMA bursts etc).

It's easy to check - at DMA IRQ, read out the XBUFFSTAT... if the range
is not valid, print a message...(to rule out the DMA bursts).

- Eero