[virtio-dev] Re: [virtio-comment] [PATCH] [PATCH v5] virtio-spi: add the device specification

On 11/29/2023 6:00 PM, Viresh Kumar wrote:
> On 29-11-23, 16:54, Haixu Cui wrote:
>> On 11/29/2023 4:33 PM, Cornelia Huck wrote:
>>> On Wed, Nov 29 2023, Haixu Cui <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> On 11/29/2023 3:30 PM, Viresh Kumar wrote:
>>>>> On 28-11-23, 20:58, Haixu Cui wrote:
>>>>>> On 11/27/2023 6:17 PM, Viresh Kumar wrote:
>>>>> Hmm, I worked with a SPI controller over a decade ago, and I must be forgetting
>>>>> something here I guess. But from whatever little I remember, with full-duplex
>>>>> transfer, data flows on both MOSI and MISO lines as soon as clock signal is
>>>>> applied.  And so amount of data sent is always be equal to amount of data
>>>>> received by both sides.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also if I see Linux's implementation of the `struct spi_transfer` [1], I see
>>>>> `tx_buf`, `rx_buf` and a single `len` field, which applies to both the buffers.
>>>>> Which I guess is indicating that both buffers are supposed to be of same length.
>>>>>
>>>>> What am I missing ?
>>>>
>>>> Oh so sorry for that. And I don't make it clear. Yes, tx_buf and rx_buf
>>>> have the same size, Linux has such restriction. Just as you mention,
>>>> kernel level spi_transfer has single "len", the same for
>>>> spi_ioc_transfer passed from the userland.
>>>>
>>>> But I am not sure if this is in the scope of the spec. Because this is
>>>> ensured by Linux, but Virtio SPI driver won't also can't verify this.
>>>> This is a prerequisite for virtio spi processing requests.
> 
> I don't think this is a Linux only thing. This is how the SPI protocol is
> designed to begin with. A clock is applied, data from FIFOs of both master and
> slaves gets exchanged over the MOSI and MISO lines... And the length is _always_
> the same. We are talking about the full-duplex mode of the hardware here and
> this is how it works AFAICT.
> 
> So the spec should clearly point this out to avoid any mistakes. Or if you have
> a usecase where you can have different lengths for tx and rx buffers, that I am
> not aware of ?

Hi Viresh,

     Thank you for your helpful comments. In next patch, I will clearly 
point this out:

     "For full-duplex read and write transfer, both \field{tx_buf} and 
\field{rx_buf} are used and the buffer size of \field{tx_buf} must be 
same as \field{rx_buf}."

     And in drivernormative section, I will add a requirement:
     "For full-duplex transfer, Virtio SPI driver MUST guarantee the 
write transfer size is equal to the read transfer size"

     In fact, in my prototype, I only perform the transfers with same 
tx/rx length.

     Much appreciated.

Best Regards
Haixu Cui
> 
>>>> What is your suggestion? How about adding some descriptions here, like
>>>> "for full-duplex, tx_buf and rx_buf are same in size, this is guaranteed
>>>> by the kernel"?
>>>
>>> We must not really make any assumptions in the spec about concrete
>>> implementations (here, the Linux kernel), as someone implementing it in
>>> a different environment will need to make explicit choices.
> 
> I agree. I pointed this out since this is how the protocol works.
> 
>>> So, if tx_buf and rx_buf are required to be of the same size, it needs
>>> to be explicitly stated in the spec, or an implementation might choose
>>> to do it differently.
> 
> --
> Viresh

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