[RFC PATCH 0/3] new subsystem for compute accelerator devices

[Thomas Zimmermann]

Hi

Am 22.10.22 um 23:46 schrieb Oded Gabbay:
> In the last couple of months we had a discussion [1] about creating a new
> subsystem for compute accelerator devices in the kernel.
> 
> After an analysis that was done by DRM maintainers and myself, and following
> a BOF session at the Linux Plumbers conference a few weeks ago [2], we
> decided to create a new subsystem that will use the DRM subsystem's code and
> functionality. i.e. the accel core code will be part of the DRM subsystem.
> 
> This will allow us to leverage the extensive DRM code-base and
> collaborate with DRM developers that have experience with this type of
> devices. In addition, new features that will be added for the accelerator
> drivers can be of use to GPU drivers as well (e.g. RAS).
> 
> As agreed in the BOF session, the accelerator devices will be exposed to
> user-space with a new, dedicated device char files and a dedicated major
> number (261), to clearly separate them from graphic cards and the graphic
> user-space s/w stack. Furthermore, the drivers will be located in a separate
> place in the kernel tree (drivers/accel/).
> 
> This series of patches is the first step in this direction as it adds the
> necessary infrastructure for accelerator devices to DRM. The new devices will
> be exposed with the following convention:
> 
> device char files - /dev/accel/accel*
> sysfs             - /sys/class/accel/accel*/
> debugfs           - /sys/kernel/debug/accel/accel*/

I know I'm really late to this discussion, but wouldn't 'compute' be a 
better name?

(I agree that skynet would also be nice :)

> 
> I tried to reuse the existing DRM code as much as possible, while keeping it
> readable and maintainable.
> 
> One thing that is missing from this series is defining a namespace for the
> new accel subsystem, while I'll add in the next iteration of this patch-set,
> after I will receive feedback from the community.
> 
> As for drivers, once this series will be accepted (after adding the namespace),
> I will start working on migrating the habanalabs driver to the new accel
> subsystem. I have talked about it with Dave and we agreed that it will be
> a good start to simply move the driver as-is with minimal changes, and then
> start working on the driver's individual features that will be either added
> to the accel core code (with or without changes), or will be removed and
> instead the driver will use existing DRM code.

What's your opinion on the long-term prospect of DRM vs accel? I assume 
that over time, DRM helpers will move into accel and some DRM drivers 
will start depending on accel?

After reading the provided links, I wondered if we shouldn't rename 
drivers/gpu to drivers/accel and put the new subsystem into 
drivers/accel/compute. We'd have DRM and compute devices next to each 
other and shared helpers could be located in other subdirectories within 
accel/

Best regards
Thomas

> 
> In addition, I know of at least 3 or 4 drivers that were submitted for review
> and are good candidates to be included in this new subsystem, instead of being
> a drm render node driver or a misc driver.
> 
> [1] https://lkml.org/lkml/2022/7/31/83
> [2] https://airlied.blogspot.com/2022/09/accelerators-bof-outcomes-summary.html
> 
> Thanks,
> Oded
> 
> Oded Gabbay (3):
>    drivers/accel: add new kconfig and update MAINTAINERS
>    drm: define new accel major and register it
>    drm: add dedicated minor for accelerator devices
> 
>   Documentation/admin-guide/devices.txt |   5 +
>   MAINTAINERS                           |   8 +
>   drivers/Kconfig                       |   2 +
>   drivers/accel/Kconfig                 |  24 +++
>   drivers/gpu/drm/drm_drv.c             | 214 +++++++++++++++++++++-----
>   drivers/gpu/drm/drm_file.c            |  69 ++++++---
>   drivers/gpu/drm/drm_internal.h        |   5 +-
>   drivers/gpu/drm/drm_sysfs.c           |  81 +++++++++-
>   include/drm/drm_device.h              |   3 +
>   include/drm/drm_drv.h                 |   8 +
>   include/drm/drm_file.h                |  21 ++-
>   include/drm/drm_ioctl.h               |   1 +
>   12 files changed, 374 insertions(+), 67 deletions(-)
>   create mode 100644 drivers/accel/Kconfig
> 
> --
> 2.34.1
> 

-- 
Thomas Zimmermann
Graphics Driver Developer
SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH
Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
(HRB 36809, AG Nürnberg)
Geschäftsführer: Ivo Totev
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