linux-zen-desktop/Documentation/gpu/tegra.rst

===============================================
 drm/tegra NVIDIA Tegra GPU and display driver
===============================================

NVIDIA Tegra SoCs support a set of display, graphics and video functions via
the host1x controller. host1x supplies command streams, gathered from a push
buffer provided directly by the CPU, to its clients via channels. Software,
or blocks amongst themselves, can use syncpoints for synchronization.

Up until, but not including, Tegra124 (aka Tegra K1) the drm/tegra driver
supports the built-in GPU, comprised of the gr2d and gr3d engines. Starting
with Tegra124 the GPU is based on the NVIDIA desktop GPU architecture and
supported by the drm/nouveau driver.

The drm/tegra driver supports NVIDIA Tegra SoC generations since Tegra20. It
has three parts:

  - A host1x driver that provides infrastructure and access to the host1x
    services.

  - A KMS driver that supports the display controllers as well as a number of
    outputs, such as RGB, HDMI, DSI, and DisplayPort.

  - A set of custom userspace IOCTLs that can be used to submit jobs to the
    GPU and video engines via host1x.

Driver Infrastructure
=====================

The various host1x clients need to be bound together into a logical device in
order to expose their functionality to users. The infrastructure that supports
this is implemented in the host1x driver. When a driver is registered with the
infrastructure it provides a list of compatible strings specifying the devices
that it needs. The infrastructure creates a logical device and scan the device
tree for matching device nodes, adding the required clients to a list. Drivers
for individual clients register with the infrastructure as well and are added
to the logical host1x device.

Once all clients are available, the infrastructure will initialize the logical
device using a driver-provided function which will set up the bits specific to
the subsystem and in turn initialize each of its clients.

Similarly, when one of the clients is unregistered, the infrastructure will
destroy the logical device by calling back into the driver, which ensures that
the subsystem specific bits are torn down and the clients destroyed in turn.

Host1x Infrastructure Reference
-------------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/host1x.h

.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/host1x/bus.c
   :export:

Host1x Syncpoint Reference
--------------------------

.. kernel-doc:: drivers/gpu/host1x/syncpt.c
   :export:

KMS driver
==========

The display hardware has remained mostly backwards compatible over the various
Tegra SoC generations, up until Tegra186 which introduces several changes that
make it difficult to support with a parameterized driver.

Display Controllers
-------------------

Tegra SoCs have two display controllers, each of which can be associated with
zero or more outputs. Outputs can also share a single display controller, but
only if they run with compatible display timings. Two display controllers can
also share a single framebuffer, allowing cloned configurations even if modes
on two outputs don't match. A display controller is modelled as a CRTC in KMS
terms.

On Tegra186, the number of display controllers has been increased to three. A
display controller can no longer drive all of the outputs. While two of these
controllers can drive both DSI outputs and both SOR outputs, the third cannot
drive any DSI.

Windows
~~~~~~~

A display controller controls a set of windows that can be used to composite
multiple buffers onto the screen. While it is possible to assign arbitrary Z
ordering to individual windows (by programming the corresponding blending
registers), this is currently not supported by the driver. Instead, it will
assume a fixed Z ordering of the windows (window A is the root window, that
is, the lowest, while windows B and C are overlaid on top of window A). The
overlay windows support multiple pixel formats and can automatically convert
from YUV to RGB at scanout time. This makes them useful for displaying video
content. In KMS, each window is modelled as a plane. Each display controller
has a hardware cursor that is exposed as a cursor plane.

Outputs
-------

The type and number of supported outputs varies between Tegra SoC generations.
All generations support at least HDMI. While earlier generations supported the
very simple RGB interfaces (one per display controller), recent generations no
longer do and instead provide standard interfaces such as DSI and eDP/DP.

Outputs are modelled as a composite encoder/connector pair.

RGB/LVDS
~~~~~~~~

This interface is no longer available since Tegra124. It has been replaced by
the more standard DSI and eDP interfaces.

HDMI
~~~~

HDMI is supported on all Tegra SoCs. Starting with Tegra210, HDMI is provided
by the versatile SOR output, which supports eDP, DP and HDMI. The SOR is able
to support HDMI 2.0, though support for this is currently not merged.

DSI
~~~

Although Tegra has supported DSI since Tegra30, the controller has changed in
several ways in Tegra114. Since none of the publicly available development
boards prior to Dalmore (Tegra114) have made use of DSI, only Tegra114 and
later are supported by the drm/tegra driver.

eDP/DP
~~~~~~

eDP was first introduced in Tegra124 where it was used to drive the display
panel for notebook form factors. Tegra210 added support for full DisplayPort
support, though this is currently not implemented in the drm/tegra driver.

Userspace Interface
===================

The userspace interface provided by drm/tegra allows applications to create
GEM buffers, access and control syncpoints as well as submit command streams
to host1x.

GEM Buffers
-----------

The ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GEM_CREATE`` IOCTL is used to create a GEM buffer object
with Tegra-specific flags. This is useful for buffers that should be tiled, or
that are to be scanned out upside down (useful for 3D content).

After a GEM buffer object has been created, its memory can be mapped by an
application using the mmap offset returned by the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GEM_MMAP``
IOCTL.

Syncpoints
----------

The current value of a syncpoint can be obtained by executing the
``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_READ`` IOCTL. Incrementing the syncpoint is achieved
using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_INCR`` IOCTL.

Userspace can also request blocking on a syncpoint. To do so, it needs to
execute the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SYNCPT_WAIT`` IOCTL, specifying the value of
the syncpoint to wait for. The kernel will release the application when the
syncpoint reaches that value or after a specified timeout.

Command Stream Submission
-------------------------

Before an application can submit command streams to host1x it needs to open a
channel to an engine using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_OPEN_CHANNEL`` IOCTL. Client
IDs are used to identify the target of the channel. When a channel is no
longer needed, it can be closed using the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_CLOSE_CHANNEL``
IOCTL. To retrieve the syncpoint associated with a channel, an application
can use the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_GET_SYNCPT``.

After opening a channel, submitting command streams is easy. The application
writes commands into the memory backing a GEM buffer object and passes these
to the ``DRM_IOCTL_TEGRA_SUBMIT`` IOCTL along with various other parameters,
such as the syncpoints or relocations used in the job submission.