Re: [PATCH 1/3] mtd: spi-nor: Add Octal mode support for mt35xu512aba

[Vignesh R <vigneshr@ti.com>]

On Thursday 04 October 2018 03:15 PM, Boris Brezillon wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2018 22:26:01 +0530
> Vignesh R <vigneshr@ti.com> wrote:
> 
>> Micron's mt35xu512aba flash is an Octal flash that has x8 IO lines. It
>> supports read/write over 8 IO lines simulatenously. Add support for
>> Octal read mode for Micron mt35xu512aba.
>> Unfortunately, this flash is only complaint to SFDP JESD216B and does not
>> seem to support newer JESD216C standard that provides auto detection of
>> Octal mode capabilities and opcodes. Therefore, this capability is
>> manually added using new SPI_NOR_OCTAL_READ flag.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Vignesh R <vigneshr@ti.com>
>> ---
>>  drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c | 11 ++++++++++-
>>  include/linux/mtd/spi-nor.h   |  2 ++
>>  2 files changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c b/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c
>> index aff5e6ff0b2c..4926e805a8cb 100644
>> --- a/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c
>> +++ b/drivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c
>> @@ -90,6 +90,7 @@ struct flash_info {
>>  #define NO_CHIP_ERASE		BIT(12) /* Chip does not support chip erase */
>>  #define SPI_NOR_SKIP_SFDP	BIT(13)	/* Skip parsing of SFDP tables */
>>  #define USE_CLSR		BIT(14)	/* use CLSR command */
>> +#define SPI_NOR_OCTAL_READ	BIT(15)	/* Flash supports Octal Read */
> 
> Hm, we'll need to clarify what OCTAL means. I see at least 3 different
> modes using 8 IO lines (1-1-8, 1-8-8 and 8-8-8) and all of them could
> be qualified as "octal" modes.
> So how about renaming this macro SPI_NOR_1_1_8_READ.
> 

My understanding is that, if a flash is Octal IO capable, then it
supports all mode of Octal IO (1-1-8, 1-8-8 and 8-8-8). At least in the
current code, I see SPI_NOR_QUAD_READ seems to imply 1-1-4, 1-4-4 and
4-4-4 modes.
Moreover, these capabilities should be auto discoverable once flash
start populating SFDP JESD216C tables (IIRC, JESD216B already takes care
of QUAD IO modes). So, I don't think we need different flags for 1-1-8,
1-8-8 and 8-8-8. Please let me if that's not the case.

For this patch, I wanted to start small and support only 1-1-8 mode
which is the easiest.


> Also, I fear we'll soon run out of bits in ->flags if we keep adding
> one flag per mode which is why I proposed a solution to let flash
> chips tweak the flash parameters as they wish [1][2]. I'm not saying we
> should do it now, but we should definitely plan for something like that.
> 
> [1]https://github.com/bbrezillon/linux/commit/9c672e4c85a91f1b0803c9c6e4b8f3aae5d79ffb
> [2]https://github.com/bbrezillon/linux/commit/3a5515c8821314c06a3d84f9861aefe476bb711e
> 

Hmm, it almost seems like Macronix flash warrants its own driver now.

-- 
Regards
Vignesh