Re: [PATCH 2/3] mtd: rawnand: sunxi: Add DMA support for sun8i

[Boris Brezillon <boris.brezillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 15 Apr 2019 08:58:59 +0200
Miquel Raynal <miquel.raynal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi Boris,
> 
> Boris Brezillon <boris.brezillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Sun, 14 Apr
> 2019 11:05:49 +0200:
> 
> > On Thu,  4 Apr 2019 18:21:10 +0200
> > Miquel Raynal <miquel.raynal@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >   
> > > Allwinner NAND controllers can make use of DMA to enhance the I/O
> > > throughput thanks to ECC pipelining. DMA handling with sun8i NAND IP
> > > is a bit different than with the older SoCs, hence the introduction of
> > > a new compatible to handle:
> > > * the differences between register offsets,
> > > * the burst length change from 4 to minimum 8,
> > > * drive SRAM accesses through the AHB bus instead of the MBUS.    
> > 
> > Hm, now that you know MBUS accesses are working fine (IIRC, that's what
> > you used for the SPL DMA-based implementation), why not directly use
> > MBUS accesses on A33? I mean, it's likely faster than going through
> > the DMA engine (which is shared by several IPs), and AFAIR, the MBUS
> > setup is pretty simple.  
> 
> Because all the driver is already in shape to use the external DMA
> engine and it was very easy and quick (have a look at the diff of the
> v3) to use it again.

Yes, I see that. I might be wrong but I'd expect the MDMA version to be
just as simple as this one.

> 
> However, the choice I am describing here is not DMA vs. MBUS (or MDMA),
> it is MBUS vs. AHB, it is just about the bus that will access the SRAM
> (this is what we have understood with Maxime from the datasheets and
> the tests we have done).

Yes, sorry, I meant MDMA vs shared DMA engine, but I guess MBUS is only
used through MDMA accesses anyway, right?

> For this choice, we tested with both buses: no
> throughput change so we think that it is not a bottleneck anyway.

Well, you'd need to test with a lot of traffic going through the DMA
engine to check if that makes a difference.

Anyway, it was just a suggestion, keep it like that if you think using
MDMA is not worthwhile.

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