xref: /openbmc/linux/Documentation/fpga/dfl.rst (revision 09b35b41)
1=================================================
2FPGA Device Feature List (DFL) Framework Overview
3=================================================
4
5Authors:
6
7- Enno Luebbers <enno.luebbers@intel.com>
8- Xiao Guangrong <guangrong.xiao@linux.intel.com>
9- Wu Hao <hao.wu@intel.com>
10
11The Device Feature List (DFL) FPGA framework (and drivers according to this
12this framework) hides the very details of low layer hardwares and provides
13unified interfaces to userspace. Applications could use these interfaces to
14configure, enumerate, open and access FPGA accelerators on platforms which
15implement the DFL in the device memory. Besides this, the DFL framework
16enables system level management functions such as FPGA reconfiguration.
17
18
19Device Feature List (DFL) Overview
20==================================
21Device Feature List (DFL) defines a linked list of feature headers within the
22device MMIO space to provide an extensible way of adding features. Software can
23walk through these predefined data structures to enumerate FPGA features:
24FPGA Interface Unit (FIU), Accelerated Function Unit (AFU) and Private Features,
25as illustrated below::
26
27    Header            Header            Header            Header
28 +----------+  +-->+----------+  +-->+----------+  +-->+----------+
29 |   Type   |  |   |  Type    |  |   |  Type    |  |   |  Type    |
30 |   FIU    |  |   | Private  |  |   | Private  |  |   | Private  |
31 +----------+  |   | Feature  |  |   | Feature  |  |   | Feature  |
32 | Next_DFH |--+   +----------+  |   +----------+  |   +----------+
33 +----------+      | Next_DFH |--+   | Next_DFH |--+   | Next_DFH |--> NULL
34 |    ID    |      +----------+      +----------+      +----------+
35 +----------+      |    ID    |      |    ID    |      |    ID    |
36 | Next_AFU |--+   +----------+      +----------+      +----------+
37 +----------+  |   | Feature  |      | Feature  |      | Feature  |
38 |  Header  |  |   | Register |      | Register |      | Register |
39 | Register |  |   |   Set    |      |   Set    |      |   Set    |
40 |   Set    |  |   +----------+      +----------+      +----------+
41 +----------+  |      Header
42               +-->+----------+
43                   |   Type   |
44                   |   AFU    |
45                   +----------+
46                   | Next_DFH |--> NULL
47                   +----------+
48                   |   GUID   |
49                   +----------+
50                   |  Header  |
51                   | Register |
52                   |   Set    |
53                   +----------+
54
55FPGA Interface Unit (FIU) represents a standalone functional unit for the
56interface to FPGA, e.g. the FPGA Management Engine (FME) and Port (more
57descriptions on FME and Port in later sections).
58
59Accelerated Function Unit (AFU) represents a FPGA programmable region and
60always connects to a FIU (e.g. a Port) as its child as illustrated above.
61
62Private Features represent sub features of the FIU and AFU. They could be
63various function blocks with different IDs, but all private features which
64belong to the same FIU or AFU, must be linked to one list via the Next Device
65Feature Header (Next_DFH) pointer.
66
67Each FIU, AFU and Private Feature could implement its own functional registers.
68The functional register set for FIU and AFU, is named as Header Register Set,
69e.g. FME Header Register Set, and the one for Private Feature, is named as
70Feature Register Set, e.g. FME Partial Reconfiguration Feature Register Set.
71
72This Device Feature List provides a way of linking features together, it's
73convenient for software to locate each feature by walking through this list,
74and can be implemented in register regions of any FPGA device.
75
76
77FIU - FME (FPGA Management Engine)
78==================================
79The FPGA Management Engine performs reconfiguration and other infrastructure
80functions. Each FPGA device only has one FME.
81
82User-space applications can acquire exclusive access to the FME using open(),
83and release it using close().
84
85The following functions are exposed through ioctls:
86
87- Get driver API version (DFL_FPGA_GET_API_VERSION)
88- Check for extensions (DFL_FPGA_CHECK_EXTENSION)
89- Program bitstream (DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_PR)
90- Assign port to PF (DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_ASSIGN)
91- Release port from PF (DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_RELEASE)
92
93More functions are exposed through sysfs
94(/sys/class/fpga_region/regionX/dfl-fme.n/):
95
96 Read bitstream ID (bitstream_id)
97     bitstream_id indicates version of the static FPGA region.
98
99 Read bitstream metadata (bitstream_metadata)
100     bitstream_metadata includes detailed information of static FPGA region,
101     e.g. synthesis date and seed.
102
103 Read number of ports (ports_num)
104     one FPGA device may have more than one port, this sysfs interface indicates
105     how many ports the FPGA device has.
106
107 Global error reporting management (errors/)
108     error reporting sysfs interfaces allow user to read errors detected by the
109     hardware, and clear the logged errors.
110
111
112FIU - PORT
113==========
114A port represents the interface between the static FPGA fabric and a partially
115reconfigurable region containing an AFU. It controls the communication from SW
116to the accelerator and exposes features such as reset and debug. Each FPGA
117device may have more than one port, but always one AFU per port.
118
119
120AFU
121===
122An AFU is attached to a port FIU and exposes a fixed length MMIO region to be
123used for accelerator-specific control registers.
124
125User-space applications can acquire exclusive access to an AFU attached to a
126port by using open() on the port device node and release it using close().
127
128The following functions are exposed through ioctls:
129
130- Get driver API version (DFL_FPGA_GET_API_VERSION)
131- Check for extensions (DFL_FPGA_CHECK_EXTENSION)
132- Get port info (DFL_FPGA_PORT_GET_INFO)
133- Get MMIO region info (DFL_FPGA_PORT_GET_REGION_INFO)
134- Map DMA buffer (DFL_FPGA_PORT_DMA_MAP)
135- Unmap DMA buffer (DFL_FPGA_PORT_DMA_UNMAP)
136- Reset AFU (DFL_FPGA_PORT_RESET)
137
138DFL_FPGA_PORT_RESET:
139  reset the FPGA Port and its AFU. Userspace can do Port
140  reset at any time, e.g. during DMA or Partial Reconfiguration. But it should
141  never cause any system level issue, only functional failure (e.g. DMA or PR
142  operation failure) and be recoverable from the failure.
143
144User-space applications can also mmap() accelerator MMIO regions.
145
146More functions are exposed through sysfs:
147(/sys/class/fpga_region/<regionX>/<dfl-port.m>/):
148
149 Read Accelerator GUID (afu_id)
150     afu_id indicates which PR bitstream is programmed to this AFU.
151
152 Error reporting (errors/)
153     error reporting sysfs interfaces allow user to read port/afu errors
154     detected by the hardware, and clear the logged errors.
155
156
157DFL Framework Overview
158======================
159
160::
161
162         +----------+    +--------+ +--------+ +--------+
163         |   FME    |    |  AFU   | |  AFU   | |  AFU   |
164         |  Module  |    | Module | | Module | | Module |
165         +----------+    +--------+ +--------+ +--------+
166                 +-----------------------+
167                 | FPGA Container Device |    Device Feature List
168                 |  (FPGA Base Region)   |         Framework
169                 +-----------------------+
170  ------------------------------------------------------------------
171               +----------------------------+
172               |   FPGA DFL Device Module   |
173               | (e.g. PCIE/Platform Device)|
174               +----------------------------+
175                 +------------------------+
176                 |  FPGA Hardware Device  |
177                 +------------------------+
178
179DFL framework in kernel provides common interfaces to create container device
180(FPGA base region), discover feature devices and their private features from the
181given Device Feature Lists and create platform devices for feature devices
182(e.g. FME, Port and AFU) with related resources under the container device. It
183also abstracts operations for the private features and exposes common ops to
184feature device drivers.
185
186The FPGA DFL Device could be different hardwares, e.g. PCIe device, platform
187device and etc. Its driver module is always loaded first once the device is
188created by the system. This driver plays an infrastructural role in the
189driver architecture. It locates the DFLs in the device memory, handles them
190and related resources to common interfaces from DFL framework for enumeration.
191(Please refer to drivers/fpga/dfl.c for detailed enumeration APIs).
192
193The FPGA Management Engine (FME) driver is a platform driver which is loaded
194automatically after FME platform device creation from the DFL device module. It
195provides the key features for FPGA management, including:
196
197	a) Expose static FPGA region information, e.g. version and metadata.
198	   Users can read related information via sysfs interfaces exposed
199	   by FME driver.
200
201	b) Partial Reconfiguration. The FME driver creates FPGA manager, FPGA
202	   bridges and FPGA regions during PR sub feature initialization. Once
203	   it receives a DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_PR ioctl from user, it invokes the
204	   common interface function from FPGA Region to complete the partial
205	   reconfiguration of the PR bitstream to the given port.
206
207Similar to the FME driver, the FPGA Accelerated Function Unit (AFU) driver is
208probed once the AFU platform device is created. The main function of this module
209is to provide an interface for userspace applications to access the individual
210accelerators, including basic reset control on port, AFU MMIO region export, dma
211buffer mapping service functions.
212
213After feature platform devices creation, matched platform drivers will be loaded
214automatically to handle different functionalities. Please refer to next sections
215for detailed information on functional units which have been already implemented
216under this DFL framework.
217
218
219Partial Reconfiguration
220=======================
221As mentioned above, accelerators can be reconfigured through partial
222reconfiguration of a PR bitstream file. The PR bitstream file must have been
223generated for the exact static FPGA region and targeted reconfigurable region
224(port) of the FPGA, otherwise, the reconfiguration operation will fail and
225possibly cause system instability. This compatibility can be checked by
226comparing the compatibility ID noted in the header of PR bitstream file against
227the compat_id exposed by the target FPGA region. This check is usually done by
228userspace before calling the reconfiguration IOCTL.
229
230
231FPGA virtualization - PCIe SRIOV
232================================
233This section describes the virtualization support on DFL based FPGA device to
234enable accessing an accelerator from applications running in a virtual machine
235(VM). This section only describes the PCIe based FPGA device with SRIOV support.
236
237Features supported by the particular FPGA device are exposed through Device
238Feature Lists, as illustrated below:
239
240::
241
242    +-------------------------------+  +-------------+
243    |              PF               |  |     VF      |
244    +-------------------------------+  +-------------+
245        ^            ^         ^              ^
246        |            |         |              |
247  +-----|------------|---------|--------------|-------+
248  |     |            |         |              |       |
249  |  +-----+     +-------+ +-------+      +-------+   |
250  |  | FME |     | Port0 | | Port1 |      | Port2 |   |
251  |  +-----+     +-------+ +-------+      +-------+   |
252  |                  ^         ^              ^       |
253  |                  |         |              |       |
254  |              +-------+ +------+       +-------+   |
255  |              |  AFU  | |  AFU |       |  AFU  |   |
256  |              +-------+ +------+       +-------+   |
257  |                                                   |
258  |            DFL based FPGA PCIe Device             |
259  +---------------------------------------------------+
260
261FME is always accessed through the physical function (PF).
262
263Ports (and related AFUs) are accessed via PF by default, but could be exposed
264through virtual function (VF) devices via PCIe SRIOV. Each VF only contains
2651 Port and 1 AFU for isolation. Users could assign individual VFs (accelerators)
266created via PCIe SRIOV interface, to virtual machines.
267
268The driver organization in virtualization case is illustrated below:
269::
270
271    +-------++------++------+             |
272    | FME   || FME  || FME  |             |
273    | FPGA  || FPGA || FPGA |             |
274    |Manager||Bridge||Region|             |
275    +-------++------++------+             |
276    +-----------------------+  +--------+ |             +--------+
277    |          FME          |  |  AFU   | |             |  AFU   |
278    |         Module        |  | Module | |             | Module |
279    +-----------------------+  +--------+ |             +--------+
280          +-----------------------+       |       +-----------------------+
281          | FPGA Container Device |       |       | FPGA Container Device |
282          |  (FPGA Base Region)   |       |       |  (FPGA Base Region)   |
283          +-----------------------+       |       +-----------------------+
284            +------------------+          |         +------------------+
285            | FPGA PCIE Module |          | Virtual | FPGA PCIE Module |
286            +------------------+   Host   | Machine +------------------+
287   -------------------------------------- | ------------------------------
288             +---------------+            |          +---------------+
289             | PCI PF Device |            |          | PCI VF Device |
290             +---------------+            |          +---------------+
291
292FPGA PCIe device driver is always loaded first once a FPGA PCIe PF or VF device
293is detected. It:
294
295* Finishes enumeration on both FPGA PCIe PF and VF device using common
296  interfaces from DFL framework.
297* Supports SRIOV.
298
299The FME device driver plays a management role in this driver architecture, it
300provides ioctls to release Port from PF and assign Port to PF. After release
301a port from PF, then it's safe to expose this port through a VF via PCIe SRIOV
302sysfs interface.
303
304To enable accessing an accelerator from applications running in a VM, the
305respective AFU's port needs to be assigned to a VF using the following steps:
306
307#. The PF owns all AFU ports by default. Any port that needs to be
308   reassigned to a VF must first be released through the
309   DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_RELEASE ioctl on the FME device.
310
311#. Once N ports are released from PF, then user can use command below
312   to enable SRIOV and VFs. Each VF owns only one Port with AFU.
313
314   ::
315
316      echo N > $PCI_DEVICE_PATH/sriov_numvfs
317
318#. Pass through the VFs to VMs
319
320#. The AFU under VF is accessible from applications in VM (using the
321   same driver inside the VF).
322
323Note that an FME can't be assigned to a VF, thus PR and other management
324functions are only available via the PF.
325
326Device enumeration
327==================
328This section introduces how applications enumerate the fpga device from
329the sysfs hierarchy under /sys/class/fpga_region.
330
331In the example below, two DFL based FPGA devices are installed in the host. Each
332fpga device has one FME and two ports (AFUs).
333
334FPGA regions are created under /sys/class/fpga_region/::
335
336	/sys/class/fpga_region/region0
337	/sys/class/fpga_region/region1
338	/sys/class/fpga_region/region2
339	...
340
341Application needs to search each regionX folder, if feature device is found,
342(e.g. "dfl-port.n" or "dfl-fme.m" is found), then it's the base
343fpga region which represents the FPGA device.
344
345Each base region has one FME and two ports (AFUs) as child devices::
346
347	/sys/class/fpga_region/region0/dfl-fme.0
348	/sys/class/fpga_region/region0/dfl-port.0
349	/sys/class/fpga_region/region0/dfl-port.1
350	...
351
352	/sys/class/fpga_region/region3/dfl-fme.1
353	/sys/class/fpga_region/region3/dfl-port.2
354	/sys/class/fpga_region/region3/dfl-port.3
355	...
356
357In general, the FME/AFU sysfs interfaces are named as follows::
358
359	/sys/class/fpga_region/<regionX>/<dfl-fme.n>/
360	/sys/class/fpga_region/<regionX>/<dfl-port.m>/
361
362with 'n' consecutively numbering all FMEs and 'm' consecutively numbering all
363ports.
364
365The device nodes used for ioctl() or mmap() can be referenced through::
366
367	/sys/class/fpga_region/<regionX>/<dfl-fme.n>/dev
368	/sys/class/fpga_region/<regionX>/<dfl-port.n>/dev
369
370
371Add new FIUs support
372====================
373It's possible that developers made some new function blocks (FIUs) under this
374DFL framework, then new platform device driver needs to be developed for the
375new feature dev (FIU) following the same way as existing feature dev drivers
376(e.g. FME and Port/AFU platform device driver). Besides that, it requires
377modification on DFL framework enumeration code too, for new FIU type detection
378and related platform devices creation.
379
380
381Add new private features support
382================================
383In some cases, we may need to add some new private features to existing FIUs
384(e.g. FME or Port). Developers don't need to touch enumeration code in DFL
385framework, as each private feature will be parsed automatically and related
386mmio resources can be found under FIU platform device created by DFL framework.
387Developer only needs to provide a sub feature driver with matched feature id.
388FME Partial Reconfiguration Sub Feature driver (see drivers/fpga/dfl-fme-pr.c)
389could be a reference.
390
391
392Open discussion
393===============
394FME driver exports one ioctl (DFL_FPGA_FME_PORT_PR) for partial reconfiguration
395to user now. In the future, if unified user interfaces for reconfiguration are
396added, FME driver should switch to them from ioctl interface.
397