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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2020-03-30 12:45:23 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2020-03-30 12:45:23 -0700
commit481ed297d900af0ce395f6ca8975903b76a5a59e (patch)
treee3862e9993cd8e2245c5a6d632f45dd3f77d1d62 /Documentation/misc-devices/mic/mic_overview.rst
parente59cd88028dbd41472453e5883f78330aa73c56e (diff)
parentabcb1e021ae5a36374c635eeaba5cec733169b78 (diff)
Merge tag 'docs-5.7' of git://git.lwn.net/linux
Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet: "This has been a busy cycle for documentation work. Highlights include: - Lots of RST conversion work by Mauro, Daniel ALmeida, and others. Maybe someday we'll get to the end of this stuff...maybe... - Some organizational work to bring some order to the core-api manual. - Various new docs and additions to the existing documentation. - Typo fixes, warning fixes, ..." * tag 'docs-5.7' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (123 commits) Documentation: x86: exception-tables: document CONFIG_BUILDTIME_TABLE_SORT MAINTAINERS: adjust to filesystem doc ReST conversion docs: deprecated.rst: Add BUG()-family doc: zh_CN: add translation for virtiofs doc: zh_CN: index files in filesystems subdirectory docs: locking: Drop :c:func: throughout docs: locking: Add 'need' to hardirq section docs: conf.py: avoid thousands of duplicate label warning on Sphinx docs: prevent warnings due to autosectionlabel docs: fix reference to core-api/namespaces.rst docs: fix pointers to io-mapping.rst and io_ordering.rst files Documentation: Better document the softlockup_panic sysctl docs: hw-vuln: tsx_async_abort.rst: get rid of an unused ref docs: perf: imx-ddr.rst: get rid of a warning docs: filesystems: fuse.rst: supress a Sphinx warning docs: translations: it: avoid duplicate refs at programming-language.rst docs: driver.rst: supress two ReSt warnings docs: trace: events.rst: convert some new stuff to ReST format Documentation: Add io_ordering.rst to driver-api manual Documentation: Add io-mapping.rst to driver-api manual ...
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+======================================================
+Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture overview
+======================================================
+
+An Intel MIC X100 device is a PCIe form factor add-in coprocessor
+card based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture
+that runs a Linux OS. It is a PCIe endpoint in a platform and therefore
+implements the three required standard address spaces i.e. configuration,
+memory and I/O. The host OS loads a device driver as is typical for
+PCIe devices. The card itself runs a bootstrap after reset that
+transfers control to the card OS downloaded from the host driver. The
+host driver supports OSPM suspend and resume operations. It shuts down
+the card during suspend and reboots the card OS during resume.
+The card OS as shipped by Intel is a Linux kernel with modifications
+for the X100 devices.
+
+Since it is a PCIe card, it does not have the ability to host hardware
+devices for networking, storage and console. We provide these devices
+on X100 coprocessors thus enabling a self-bootable equivalent
+environment for applications. A key benefit of our solution is that it
+leverages the standard virtio framework for network, disk and console
+devices, though in our case the virtio framework is used across a PCIe
+bus. A Virtio Over PCIe (VOP) driver allows creating user space
+backends or devices on the host which are used to probe virtio drivers
+for these devices on the MIC card. The existing VRINGH infrastructure
+in the kernel is used to access virtio rings from the host. The card
+VOP driver allows card virtio drivers to communicate with their user
+space backends on the host via a device page. Ring 3 apps on the host
+can add, remove and configure virtio devices. A thin MIC specific
+virtio_config_ops is implemented which is borrowed heavily from
+previous similar implementations in lguest and s390.
+
+MIC PCIe card has a dma controller with 8 channels. These channels are
+shared between the host s/w and the card s/w. 0 to 3 are used by host
+and 4 to 7 by card. As the dma device doesn't show up as PCIe device,
+a virtual bus called mic bus is created and virtual dma devices are
+created on it by the host/card drivers. On host the channels are private
+and used only by the host driver to transfer data for the virtio devices.
+
+The Symmetric Communication Interface (SCIF (pronounced as skiff)) is a
+low level communications API across PCIe currently implemented for MIC.
+More details are available at scif_overview.txt.
+
+The Coprocessor State Management (COSM) driver on the host allows for
+boot, shutdown and reset of Intel MIC devices. It communicates with a COSM
+"client" driver on the MIC cards over SCIF to perform these functions.
+
+Here is a block diagram of the various components described above. The
+virtio backends are situated on the host rather than the card given better
+single threaded performance for the host compared to MIC, the ability of
+the host to initiate DMA's to/from the card using the MIC DMA engine and
+the fact that the virtio block storage backend can only be on the host::
+
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ | Card OS | | | Host OS |
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ |
+ +-------+ +--------+ +------+ | +---------+ +--------+ +--------+
+ | Virtio| |Virtio | |Virtio| | |Virtio | |Virtio | |Virtio |
+ | Net | |Console | |Block | | |Net | |Console | |Block |
+ | Driver| |Driver | |Driver| | |backend | |backend | |backend |
+ +---+---+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +---------+ +----+---+ +--------+
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | | |User | | |
+ | | | |------|------------|--+------|-------
+ +---------+---------+ |Kernel |
+ | | |
+ +---------+ +---+----+ +------+ | +------+ +------+ +--+---+ +-------+
+ |MIC DMA | | VOP | | SCIF | | | SCIF | | COSM | | VOP | |MIC DMA|
+ +---+-----+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +--+---+ +------+ +----+--+
+ | | | | | | |
+ +---+-----+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +--+---+ +------+ +----+--+
+ |MIC | | VOP | |SCIF | | |SCIF | | COSM | | VOP | | MIC |
+ |HW Bus | | HW Bus| |HW Bus| | |HW Bus| | Bus | |HW Bus| |HW Bus |
+ +---------+ +--------+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +------+ +------+ +-------+
+ | | | | | | |
+ | +-----------+--+ | | | +---------------+ |
+ | |Intel MIC | | | | |Intel MIC | |
+ | |Card Driver | | | | |Host Driver | |
+ +---+--------------+------+ | +----+---------------+-----+
+ | | |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | |
+ | PCIe Bus |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+