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| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/cxl/devices/device-types.rst | 165 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst | 6 |
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diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/devices/device-types.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/devices/device-types.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..c70564cf0be3 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/devices/device-types.rst @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +===================== +Devices and Protocols +===================== + +The type of CXL device (Memory, Accelerator, etc) dictates many configuration steps. This section +covers some basic background on device types and on-device resources used by the platform and OS +which impact configuration. + +Protocols +========= + +There are three core protocols to CXL. For the purpose of this documentation, +we will only discuss very high level definitions as the specific hardware +details are largely abstracted away from Linux. See the CXL specification +for more details. + +CXL.io +------ +The basic interaction protocol, similar to PCIe configuration mechanisms. +Typically used for initialization, configuration, and I/O access for anything +other than memory (CXL.mem) or cache (CXL.cache) operations. + +The Linux CXL driver exposes access to .io functionalty via the various sysfs +interfaces and /dev/cxl/ devices (which exposes direct access to device +mailboxes). + +CXL.cache +--------- +The mechanism by which a device may coherently access and cache host memory. + +Largely transparent to Linux once configured. + +CXL.mem +--------- +The mechanism by which the CPU may coherently access and cache device memory. + +Largely transparent to Linux once configured. + + +Device Types +============ + +Type-1 +------ + +A Type-1 CXL device: + +* Supports cxl.io and cxl.cache protocols +* Implements a fully coherent cache +* Allows Device-to-Host coherence and Host-to-Device snoops. +* Does NOT have host-managed device memory (HDM) + +Typical examples of type-1 devices is a Smart NIC - which may want to +directly operate on host-memory (DMA) to store incoming packets. These +devices largely rely on CPU-attached memory. + +Type-2 +------ + +A Type-2 CXL Device: + +* Supports cxl.io, cxl.cache, and cxl.mem protocols +* Optionally implements coherent cache and Host-Managed Device Memory +* Is typically an accelerator device w/ high bandwidth memory. + +The primary difference between a type-1 and type-2 device is the presence +of host-managed device memory, which allows the device to operate on a +local memory bank - while the CPU sill has coherent DMA to the same memory. + +The allows things like GPUs to expose their memory via DAX devices or file +descriptors, allows drivers and programs direct access to device memory +rather than use block-transfer semantics. + +Type-3 +------ + +A Type-3 CXL Device + +* Supports cxl.io and cxl.mem +* Implements Host-Managed Device Memory +* May provide either Volatile or Persistent memory capacity (or both). + +A basic example of a type-3 device is a simple memory expander, whose +local memory capacity is exposed to the CPU for access directly via +basic coherent DMA. + +Switch +------ + +A CXL switch is a device capacity of routing any CXL (and by extension, PCIe) +protocol between an upstream, downstream, or peer devices. Many devices, such +as Multi-Logical Devices, imply the presence of switching in some manner. + +Logical Devices and Heads +------------------------- + +A CXL device may present one or more "Logical Devices" to one or more hosts +(via physical "Heads"). + +A Single-Logical Device (SLD) is a device which presents a single device to +one or more heads. + +A Multi-Logical Device (MLD) is a device which may present multiple devices +to one or more devices. + +A Single-Headed Device exposes only a single physical connection. + +A Multi-Headed Device exposes multiple physical connections. + +MHSLD +~~~~~ +A Multi-Headed Single-Logical Device (MHSLD) exposes a single logical +device to multiple heads which may be connected to one or more discrete +hosts. An example of this would be a simple memory-pool which may be +statically configured (prior to boot) to expose portions of its memory +to Linux via the CEDT ACPI table. + +MHMLD +~~~~~ +A Multi-Headed Multi-Logical Device (MHMLD) exposes multiple logical +devices to multiple heads which may be connected to one or more discrete +hosts. An example of this would be a Dynamic Capacity Device or which +may be configured at runtime to expose portions of its memory to Linux. + +Example Devices +=============== + +Memory Expander +--------------- +The simplest form of Type-3 device is a memory expander. A memory expander +exposes Host-Managed Device Memory (HDM) to Linux. This memory may be +Volatile or Non-Volatile (Persistent). + +Memory Expanders will typically be considered a form of Single-Headed, +Single-Logical Device - as its form factor will typically be an add-in-card +(AIC) or some other similar form-factor. + +The Linux CXL driver provides support for static or dynamic configuration of +basic memory expanders. The platform may program decoders prior to OS init +(e.g. auto-decoders), or the user may program the fabric if the platform +defers these operations to the OS. + +Multiple Memory Expanders may be added to an external chassis and exposed to +a host via a head attached to a CXL switch. This is a "memory pool", and +would be considered an MHSLD or MHMLD depending on the management capabilities +provided by the switch platform. + +As of v6.14, Linux does not provide a formalized interface to manage non-DCD +MHSLD or MHMLD devices. + +Dynamic Capacity Device (DCD) +----------------------------- + +A Dynamic Capacity Device is a Type-3 device which provides dynamic management +of memory capacity. The basic premise of a DCD to provide an allocator-like +interface for physical memory capacity to a "Fabric Manager" (an external, +privileged host with privileges to change configurations for other hosts). + +A DCD manages "Memory Extents", which may be volatile or persistent. Extents +may also be exclusive to a single host or shared across multiple hosts. + +As of v6.14, Linux does not provide a formalized interface to manage DCD +devices, however there is active work on LKML targeting future release. diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst index fe1594dc6778..a2d1c5b18a8a 100644 --- a/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/cxl/index.rst @@ -16,6 +16,12 @@ that have impacts on each other. The docs here break up configurations steps. maturity-map .. toctree:: + :maxdepth: 2 + :caption: Device Reference + + devices/device-types + +.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 :caption: Linux Kernel Configuration |