Re: [PATCH 4/6] media: aspeed: Support aspeed mode to reduce compressed data

From: Paul Menzel <pmenzel@molgen.mpg.de>
To: Jammy Huang <jammy_huang@aspeedtech.com>
Cc: "linux-aspeed@lists.ozlabs.org" <linux-aspeed@lists.ozlabs.org>,
	andrew@aj.id.au, openbmc@lists.ozlabs.org, eajames@linux.ibm.com,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>,
	linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org,
	linux-media@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/6] media: aspeed: Support aspeed mode to reduce compressed data
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2021 11:34:06 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5466798e-32c1-81f5-3428-7bbfe31cdea7@molgen.mpg.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5675befe-48df-9f09-f30f-d407538ad070@aspeedtech.com>

Dear Jammy,

Am 18.10.21 um 10:51 schrieb Jammy Huang:

> On 2021/10/14 下午 02:47, Paul Menzel wrote:

>> Am 14.10.21 um 05:48 schrieb Jammy Huang:
>>> aspeed support differential jpeg format which only compress the parts
>> support*s*
>>
>>> which are changed. In this way, it reduces both the amount of data to be
>>> transferred by network and those to be decoded on the client side.
>> Please mention the datasheet name and revision and section, where this
>> functionality is described.
> 
> Sorry but our datasheet is confidential. The basic idea of this
> feature is that we can just compress the blocks which is different
> with previous frame rather than full frame. This idea is similar to
> the I & P frame in multimedia.
It’s still good to have the name and revision of the datasheet, the code 
was developed against documented. (Public datasheets would be even 
better, also for review.)

>> Which chips support it?
> AST2400/2500/2600 all support it.
>>
>>> 4 new ctrls are added:
>>> *Aspeed JPEG Format: to control aspeed's partial jpeg on/off
>>> *Aspeed Compression Mode: to control aspeed's compression mode
>>> *Aspeed HQ Mode: to control aspeed's HQ mode on/off
>>> *Aspeed HQ Quality: to control the quality of aspeed's HQ mode
>> Please add a space after the bullet points.
>>
>> Excuse my ignorance, how can these options be controlled?
> 
> * Aspeed JPEG Format: to control jpeg format
>    0: standard jpeg, 1: aspeed jpeg
> * Aspeed Compression Mode: to control aspeed's compression mode
>    0: DCT Only, 1: DCT VQ mix 2-color, 2: DCT VQ mix 4-color
>    This is AST2400 only. It will adapt JPEG or VQ encoding method according
>    to the context automatically.
> * Aspeed HQ Mode: to control aspeed's HQ mode on/off
>    0: disabled, 1: enabled
> * Aspeed HQ Quality: to control the quality(0~11) of aspeed's HQ mode,
>    only usefull if Aspeed HQ mode is enabled

Thank you. So some sysfs file?

>>> Aspeed JPEG Format requires an additional buffer, called bcd, to store
>>> the information that which macro block in the new frame is different
>> s/that which/which/
>>
>>> from the old one.
>>>
>>> To have bcd correctly working, we need to swap the buffers for src0/1 to
>>> make src1 refer to previous frame and src0 to the coming new frame.
>> How did you test it? What do the clients need to support?
>>
>> Did you test, how much bandwidth is saved? Some numbers would be nice.
> I tested it by aspeed's kvm client which support decoding the aspeed
> format. Currently, I am porting this feature to novnc to have openbmc
> support it.
Nice.
> The bandwidth saved is variant. It depends on how many blocks is
> different between new and old frame.If the new frame is identical
> with the previous one, the compressed frame only needs 12 Bytes.

Thank you for the explanation.

Kind regards,

Paul