[PATCH 0/7] Add a DRM driver to support AI Processing Unit (APU)

[Oded Gabbay]

On Wed, May 24, 2023 at 2:34 AM Kevin Hilman <khilman at baylibre.com> wrote:
>
> Jeffrey Hugo <quic_jhugo at quicinc.com> writes:
>
> > On 5/17/2023 8:52 AM, Alexandre Bailon wrote:
> >> This adds a DRM driver that implements communication between the CPU and an
> >> APU. The driver target embedded device that usually run inference using some
> >> prebuilt models. The goal is to provide common infrastructure that could be
> >> re-used to support many accelerators. Both kernel, userspace and firmware tries
> >> to use standard and existing to leverage the development and maintenance effort.
> >> The series implements two platform drivers, one for simulation and another one for
> >> the mt8183 (compatible with mt8365).
> >
> > This looks like the 3 existing Accel drivers.  Why is this in DRM?
>
> Yes, this belongs in accel.  I think Alex had some issues around the
> infra in accel with device nodes not appearing/opening properly, but
> I'll let him comment there.  But either way, the right approach should
> be to fix any issues in accel and move it there.
>
> [...]
>
> >>   .../devicetree/bindings/gpu/mtk,apu-drm.yaml  |  38 ++
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/Kconfig                       |   2 +
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/Makefile                      |   1 +
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/Kconfig                   |  22 +
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/Makefile                  |  10 +
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/apu_drv.c                 | 282 +++++++++
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/apu_gem.c                 | 230 +++++++
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/apu_internal.h            | 205 ++++++
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/apu_sched.c               | 592 ++++++++++++++++++
> >>   drivers/gpu/drm/apu/simu_apu.c                | 313 +++++++++
> >>   include/uapi/drm/apu_drm.h                    |  81 +++
> >
> > "apu" seems too generic.  We already have 3 "AI processing units" over
> > in drivers/accel already...
>
> Indeed, it is generic, but that's kind of the point for this driver
> since it's targetted at generalizing the interface with "AI processing
> units" on a growing number of embedded SoCs (ARM, RISC-V, etc.)  In
> addition, the generic naming is intentional because the goal is bigger
> than the kernel and is working towards a generic, shared "libAPU"
> userspace[1], but also common firmware for DSP-style inference engines
> (e.g. analgous Sound Open Firmware for audio DSPs.)
>
> As usual, the various SoC vendors use different names (APU, NPU, NN
> unit, etc.)  but we'd like a generic name for the class of devices
> targetted by this driver.  And unfortunately, it looks like the equally
> generic "Versatile processing unit" is already taken Intel's
> drivers/accel/ivpu. :)
>
> Maybe since this is more about generalizing the interface between the
> CPU running linux and the APU, what about the name apu_if?  But I guess
> that applies to the other 3 drivers in drivers/accell also.  Hmmm...
>
> Naming things is hard[2], so we're definitly open to other ideas.  Any
> suggestions?
Maybe model it according to the tiny driver in drm display ? You can
then call it tiny_apu :-)
Disclosure: It was Daniel's suggestion, he can chime in with more
details on the tiny driver concept.
Oded

>
> Kevin
>
> [1] https://gitlab.baylibre.com/baylibre/libapu/libapu
>
> [2]
> "There are 2 hard problems in computer science: cache invalidation,
>  naming things and off-by-1 errors."
>  -- https://twitter.com/secretGeek/status/7269997868
>