This is Alex' description from the "Looking for clarifications around gfx/kcq/kiq"
thread, edited to fit as ReST.
Originally-by: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Yann Dirson <ydirson@xxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Harry Wentland <harry.wentland@xxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst | 35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 35 insertions(+)
diff --git a/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst b/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
index b870a63c64dd..942bc7c3eac9 100644
--- a/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
+++ b/Documentation/gpu/amdgpu/driver-core.rst
@@ -75,6 +75,28 @@ VCN (Video Core Next)
decode. It's exposed to userspace for user mode drivers (VA-API,
OpenMAX, etc.)
+Graphics and Compute microcontrollers
+-------------------------------------
+
+CP (Command Processor)
+ The name for the hardware block that encompasses the front end of the
+ GFX/Compute pipeline. Consists mainly of a bunch of microcontrollers
+ (PFP, ME, CE, MEC). The firmware that runs on these microcontrollers
+ provides the driver interface to interact with the GFX/Compute engine.
+
+ MEC (MicroEngine Compute)
+ This is the microcontroller that controls the compute queues on the
+ GFX/compute engine.
+
+ MES (MicroEngine Scheduler)
+ This is a new engine for managing queues. This is currently unused.
+
+RLC (RunList Controller)
+ This is another microcontroller in the GFX/Compute engine. It handles
+ power management related functionality within the GFX/Compute engine.
+ The name is a vestige of old hardware where it was originally added
+ and doesn't really have much relation to what the engine does now.
+
Driver structure
================
@@ -82,6 +104,19 @@ In general, the driver has a list of all of the IPs on a particular
SoC and for things like init/fini/suspend/resume, more or less just
walks the list and handles each IP.
+Some useful constructs:
+
+KIQ (Kernel Interface Queue)
+ This is a control queue used by the kernel driver to manage other gfx
+ and compute queues on the GFX/compute engine. You can use it to
+ map/unmap additional queues, etc.
+
+IB (Indirect Buffer)
+ A command buffer for a particular engine. Rather than writing
+ commands directly to the queue, you can write the commands into a
+ piece of memory and then put a pointer to the memory into the queue.
+ The hardware will then follow the pointer and execute the commands in
+ the memory, then returning to the rest of the commands in the ring.
.. _amdgpu_memory_domains:
--
2.31.1
