drm/i915: Document the Virtual Engine uAPI

A little bit of documentation covering the topics of engine discovery,
context engine maps and virtual engines. It is not very detailed but
supposed to be a starting point of giving a brief high level overview of
general principles and intended use cases.

v2:
 * Have the text in uapi header and link from there.

v4:
 * Link from driver-uapi.rst.

Signed-off-by: Tvrtko Ursulin <tvrtko.ursulin@intel.com>
Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel@ffwll.ch>
Acked-by: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@ffwll.ch>
Link: https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/msgid/20210618150036.2507653-1-tvrtko.ursulin@linux.intel.com

1 files changed, 188 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h b/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h
index a1cb4aa035a9..2f70c48567c0 100644
--- a/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h
+++ b/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h
@@ -1806,6 +1806,69 @@ struct drm_i915_gem_context_param_sseu {
 	__u32 rsvd;
 };
 
+/**
+ * DOC: Virtual Engine uAPI
+ *
+ * Virtual engine is a concept where userspace is able to configure a set of
+ * physical engines, submit a batch buffer, and let the driver execute it on any
+ * engine from the set as it sees fit.
+ *
+ * This is primarily useful on parts which have multiple instances of a same
+ * class engine, like for example GT3+ Skylake parts with their two VCS engines.
+ *
+ * For instance userspace can enumerate all engines of a certain class using the
+ * previously described `Engine Discovery uAPI`_. After that userspace can
+ * create a GEM context with a placeholder slot for the virtual engine (using
+ * `I915_ENGINE_CLASS_INVALID` and `I915_ENGINE_CLASS_INVALID_NONE` for class
+ * and instance respectively) and finally using the
+ * `I915_CONTEXT_ENGINES_EXT_LOAD_BALANCE` extension place a virtual engine in
+ * the same reserved slot.
+ *
+ * Example of creating a virtual engine and submitting a batch buffer to it:
+ *
+ * .. code-block:: C
+ *
+ * 	I915_DEFINE_CONTEXT_ENGINES_LOAD_BALANCE(virtual, 2) = {
+ * 		.base.name = I915_CONTEXT_ENGINES_EXT_LOAD_BALANCE,
+ * 		.engine_index = 0, // Place this virtual engine into engine map slot 0
+ * 		.num_siblings = 2,
+ * 		.engines = { { I915_ENGINE_CLASS_VIDEO, 0 },
+ * 			     { I915_ENGINE_CLASS_VIDEO, 1 }, },
+ * 	};
+ * 	I915_DEFINE_CONTEXT_PARAM_ENGINES(engines, 1) = {
+ * 		.engines = { { I915_ENGINE_CLASS_INVALID,
+ * 			       I915_ENGINE_CLASS_INVALID_NONE } },
+ * 		.extensions = to_user_pointer(&virtual), // Chains after load_balance extension
+ * 	};
+ * 	struct drm_i915_gem_context_create_ext_setparam p_engines = {
+ * 		.base = {
+ * 			.name = I915_CONTEXT_CREATE_EXT_SETPARAM,
+ * 		},
+ * 		.param = {
+ * 			.param = I915_CONTEXT_PARAM_ENGINES,
+ * 			.value = to_user_pointer(&engines),
+ * 			.size = sizeof(engines),
+ * 		},
+ * 	};
+ * 	struct drm_i915_gem_context_create_ext create = {
+ * 		.flags = I915_CONTEXT_CREATE_FLAGS_USE_EXTENSIONS,
+ * 		.extensions = to_user_pointer(&p_engines);
+ * 	};
+ *
+ * 	ctx_id = gem_context_create_ext(drm_fd, &create);
+ *
+ * 	// Now we have created a GEM context with its engine map containing a
+ * 	// single virtual engine. Submissions to this slot can go either to
+ * 	// vcs0 or vcs1, depending on the load balancing algorithm used inside
+ * 	// the driver. The load balancing is dynamic from one batch buffer to
+ * 	// another and transparent to userspace.
+ *
+ * 	...
+ * 	execbuf.rsvd1 = ctx_id;
+ * 	execbuf.flags = 0; // Submits to index 0 which is the virtual engine
+ * 	gem_execbuf(drm_fd, &execbuf);
+ */
+
 /*
  * i915_context_engines_load_balance:
  *
@@ -1882,6 +1945,61 @@ struct i915_context_engines_bond {
 	struct i915_engine_class_instance engines[N__]; \
 } __attribute__((packed)) name__
 
+/**
+ * DOC: Context Engine Map uAPI
+ *
+ * Context engine map is a new way of addressing engines when submitting batch-
+ * buffers, replacing the existing way of using identifiers like `I915_EXEC_BLT`
+ * inside the flags field of `struct drm_i915_gem_execbuffer2`.
+ *
+ * To use it created GEM contexts need to be configured with a list of engines
+ * the user is intending to submit to. This is accomplished using the
+ * `I915_CONTEXT_PARAM_ENGINES` parameter and `struct
+ * i915_context_param_engines`.
+ *
+ * For such contexts the `I915_EXEC_RING_MASK` field becomes an index into the
+ * configured map.
+ *
+ * Example of creating such context and submitting against it:
+ *
+ * .. code-block:: C
+ *
+ * 	I915_DEFINE_CONTEXT_PARAM_ENGINES(engines, 2) = {
+ * 		.engines = { { I915_ENGINE_CLASS_RENDER, 0 },
+ * 			     { I915_ENGINE_CLASS_COPY, 0 } }
+ * 	};
+ * 	struct drm_i915_gem_context_create_ext_setparam p_engines = {
+ * 		.base = {
+ * 			.name = I915_CONTEXT_CREATE_EXT_SETPARAM,
+ * 		},
+ * 		.param = {
+ * 			.param = I915_CONTEXT_PARAM_ENGINES,
+ * 			.value = to_user_pointer(&engines),
+ * 			.size = sizeof(engines),
+ * 		},
+ * 	};
+ * 	struct drm_i915_gem_context_create_ext create = {
+ * 		.flags = I915_CONTEXT_CREATE_FLAGS_USE_EXTENSIONS,
+ * 		.extensions = to_user_pointer(&p_engines);
+ * 	};
+ *
+ * 	ctx_id = gem_context_create_ext(drm_fd, &create);
+ *
+ * 	// We have now created a GEM context with two engines in the map:
+ * 	// Index 0 points to rcs0 while index 1 points to bcs0. Other engines
+ * 	// will not be accessible from this context.
+ *
+ * 	...
+ * 	execbuf.rsvd1 = ctx_id;
+ * 	execbuf.flags = 0; // Submits to index 0, which is rcs0 for this context
+ * 	gem_execbuf(drm_fd, &execbuf);
+ *
+ * 	...
+ * 	execbuf.rsvd1 = ctx_id;
+ * 	execbuf.flags = 1; // Submits to index 0, which is bcs0 for this context
+ * 	gem_execbuf(drm_fd, &execbuf);
+ */
+
 struct i915_context_param_engines {
 	__u64 extensions; /* linked chain of extension blocks, 0 terminates */
 #define I915_CONTEXT_ENGINES_EXT_LOAD_BALANCE 0 /* see i915_context_engines_load_balance */
@@ -2376,6 +2494,76 @@ struct drm_i915_query_topology_info {
 };
 
 /**
+ * DOC: Engine Discovery uAPI
+ *
+ * Engine discovery uAPI is a way of enumerating physical engines present in a
+ * GPU associated with an open i915 DRM file descriptor. This supersedes the old
+ * way of using `DRM_IOCTL_I915_GETPARAM` and engine identifiers like
+ * `I915_PARAM_HAS_BLT`.
+ *
+ * The need for this interface came starting with Icelake and newer GPUs, which
+ * started to establish a pattern of having multiple engines of a same class,
+ * where not all instances were always completely functionally equivalent.
+ *
+ * Entry point for this uapi is `DRM_IOCTL_I915_QUERY` with the
+ * `DRM_I915_QUERY_ENGINE_INFO` as the queried item id.
+ *
+ * Example for getting the list of engines:
+ *
+ * .. code-block:: C
+ *
+ * 	struct drm_i915_query_engine_info *info;
+ * 	struct drm_i915_query_item item = {
+ * 		.query_id = DRM_I915_QUERY_ENGINE_INFO;
+ * 	};
+ * 	struct drm_i915_query query = {
+ * 		.num_items = 1,
+ * 		.items_ptr = (uintptr_t)&item,
+ * 	};
+ * 	int err, i;
+ *
+ * 	// First query the size of the blob we need, this needs to be large
+ * 	// enough to hold our array of engines. The kernel will fill out the
+ * 	// item.length for us, which is the number of bytes we need.
+ * 	//
+ * 	// Alternatively a large buffer can be allocated straight away enabling
+ * 	// querying in one pass, in which case item.length should contain the
+ * 	// length of the provided buffer.
+ * 	err = ioctl(fd, DRM_IOCTL_I915_QUERY, &query);
+ * 	if (err) ...
+ *
+ * 	info = calloc(1, item.length);
+ * 	// Now that we allocated the required number of bytes, we call the ioctl
+ * 	// again, this time with the data_ptr pointing to our newly allocated
+ * 	// blob, which the kernel can then populate with info on all engines.
+ * 	item.data_ptr = (uintptr_t)&info,
+ *
+ * 	err = ioctl(fd, DRM_IOCTL_I915_QUERY, &query);
+ * 	if (err) ...
+ *
+ * 	// We can now access each engine in the array
+ * 	for (i = 0; i < info->num_engines; i++) {
+ * 		struct drm_i915_engine_info einfo = info->engines[i];
+ * 		u16 class = einfo.engine.class;
+ * 		u16 instance = einfo.engine.instance;
+ * 		....
+ * 	}
+ *
+ * 	free(info);
+ *
+ * Each of the enumerated engines, apart from being defined by its class and
+ * instance (see `struct i915_engine_class_instance`), also can have flags and
+ * capabilities defined as documented in i915_drm.h.
+ *
+ * For instance video engines which support HEVC encoding will have the
+ * `I915_VIDEO_CLASS_CAPABILITY_HEVC` capability bit set.
+ *
+ * Engine discovery only fully comes to its own when combined with the new way
+ * of addressing engines when submitting batch buffers using contexts with
+ * engine maps configured.
+ */
+
+/**
  * struct drm_i915_engine_info
  *
  * Describes one engine and it's capabilities as known to the driver.