Re: [PATCH v4 04/21] doc: media/v4l-drivers: Add Qualcomm Camera Subsystem driver document

[Hans Verkuil <hverkuil@xs4all.nl>]

Hi Todor,

A few small comments below:

On 08/08/2017 03:30 PM, Todor Tomov wrote:
> Add a document to describe Qualcomm Camera Subsystem driver.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Todor Tomov <todor.tomov@linaro.org>
> ---
>  Documentation/media/v4l-drivers/qcom_camss.rst | 124 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 124 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 Documentation/media/v4l-drivers/qcom_camss.rst
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/media/v4l-drivers/qcom_camss.rst b/Documentation/media/v4l-drivers/qcom_camss.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000..4707ea7
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/media/v4l-drivers/qcom_camss.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
> +.. include:: <isonum.txt>
> +
> +Qualcomm Camera Subsystem driver
> +================================
> +
> +Introduction
> +------------
> +
> +This file documents the Qualcomm Camera Subsystem driver located under
> +drivers/media/platform/qcom/camss-8x16.
> +
> +The current version of the driver supports the Camera Subsystem found on
> +Qualcomm MSM8916 and APQ8016 processors.
> +
> +The driver implements V4L2, Media controller and V4L2 subdev interfaces.
> +Camera sensor using V4L2 subdev interface in the kernel is supported.
> +
> +The driver is implemented using as a reference the Qualcomm Camera Subsystem
> +driver for Android as found in Code Aurora [#f1]_.
> +
> +
> +Qualcomm Camera Subsystem hardware
> +----------------------------------
> +
> +The Camera Subsystem hardware found on 8x16 processors and supported by the
> +driver consists of:
> +
> +- 2 CSIPHY modules. They handle the Physical layer of the CSI2 receivers.
> +  A separate camera sensor can be connected to each of the CSIPHY module;
> +- 2 CSID (CSI Decoder) modules. They handle the Protocol and Application layer
> +  of the CSI2 receivers. A CSID can decode data stream from any of the CSIPHY.
> +  Each CSID also contains a TG (Test Generator) block which can generate
> +  artificial input data for test purposes;
> +- ISPIF (ISP Interface) module. Handles the routing of the data streams from
> +  the CSIDs to the inputs of the VFE;
> +- VFE (Video Front End) module. Contains a pipeline of image processing hardware
> +  blocks. The VFE has different input interfaces. The PIX input interface feeds
> +  the input data to the image processing pipeline. Three RDI input interfaces
> +  bypass the image processing pipeline. The VFE also contains the AXI bus
> +  interface which writes the output data to memory.

Can you explain what PIX and RDI stand for?

I would also think it is a good idea to add a comment at the top of the various
subdev sources that say a bit more than just "CSID Module".

A simple "CSID (CSI Decoder) Module" is enough. Just so the reader knows what
it is all about.

Otherwise I don't have any more comments about this series.

I don't need a v5 for this, if you can just post one patch for this documentation
and one patch improving the source comments as described above, then that's
fine with me.

Regards,

	Hans

> +
> +
> +Supported functionality
> +-----------------------
> +
> +The current version of the driver supports:
> +
> +- input from camera sensor via CSIPHY;
> +- generation of test input data by the TG in CSID;
> +- raw dump of the input data to memory. RDI interface of VFE is supported.
> +  PIX interface (ISP processing, statistics engines, resize/crop, format
> +  conversion) is not supported in the current version;
> +- concurrent and independent usage of two data inputs - could be camera sensors
> +  and/or TG.
> +
> +
> +Driver Architecture and Design
> +------------------------------
> +
> +The driver implements the V4L2 subdev interface. With the goal to model the
> +hardware links between the modules and to expose a clean, logical and usable
> +interface, the driver is split into V4L2 sub-devices as follows:
> +
> +- 2 CSIPHY sub-devices - each CSIPHY is represented by a single sub-device;
> +- 2 CSID sub-devices - each CSID is represented by a single sub-device;
> +- 2 ISPIF sub-devices - ISPIF is represented by a number of sub-devices equal
> +  to the number of CSID sub-devices;
> +- 3 VFE sub-devices - VFE is represented by a number of sub-devices equal to
> +  the number of RDI input interfaces.
> +
> +The considerations to split the driver in this particular way are as follows:
> +
> +- representing CSIPHY and CSID modules by a separate sub-device for each module
> +  allows to model the hardware links between these modules;
> +- representing VFE by a separate sub-devices for each RDI input interface allows
> +  to use the three RDI interfaces concurently and independently as this is
> +  supported by the hardware;
> +- representing ISPIF by a number of sub-devices equal to the number of CSID
> +  sub-devices allows to create linear media controller pipelines when using two
> +  cameras simultaneously. This avoids branches in the pipelines which otherwise
> +  will require a) userspace and b) media framework (e.g. power on/off
> +  operations) to  make assumptions about the data flow from a sink pad to a
> +  source pad on a single media entity.
> +
> +Each VFE sub-device is linked to a separate video device node.
> +
> +The complete list of the media entities (V4L2 sub-devices and video device
> +nodes) is as follows:
> +
> +- msm_csiphy0
> +- msm_csiphy1
> +- msm_csid0
> +- msm_csid1
> +- msm_ispif0
> +- msm_ispif1
> +- msm_vfe0_rdi0
> +- msm_vfe0_video0
> +- msm_vfe0_rdi1
> +- msm_vfe0_video1
> +- msm_vfe0_rdi2
> +- msm_vfe0_video2
> +
> +
> +Implementation
> +--------------
> +
> +Runtime configuration of the hardware (updating settings while streaming) is
> +not required to implement the currently supported functionality. The complete
> +configuration on each hardware module is applied on STREAMON ioctl based on
> +the current active media links, formats and controls set.
> +
> +
> +Documentation
> +-------------
> +
> +APQ8016 Specification:
> +https://developer.qualcomm.com/download/sd410/snapdragon-410-processor-device-specification.pdf
> +Referenced 2016-11-24.
> +
> +
> +References
> +----------
> +
> +.. [#f1] https://source.codeaurora.org/quic/la/kernel/msm-3.10/
>