summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst85
1 files changed, 85 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst b/Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..17d956bdaf7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/mic/mic_overview.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+======================================================
+Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture overview
+======================================================
+
+An Intel MIC X100 device is a PCIe form factor add-in coprocessor
+card based on the Intel Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture
+that runs a Linux OS. It is a PCIe endpoint in a platform and therefore
+implements the three required standard address spaces i.e. configuration,
+memory and I/O. The host OS loads a device driver as is typical for
+PCIe devices. The card itself runs a bootstrap after reset that
+transfers control to the card OS downloaded from the host driver. The
+host driver supports OSPM suspend and resume operations. It shuts down
+the card during suspend and reboots the card OS during resume.
+The card OS as shipped by Intel is a Linux kernel with modifications
+for the X100 devices.
+
+Since it is a PCIe card, it does not have the ability to host hardware
+devices for networking, storage and console. We provide these devices
+on X100 coprocessors thus enabling a self-bootable equivalent
+environment for applications. A key benefit of our solution is that it
+leverages the standard virtio framework for network, disk and console
+devices, though in our case the virtio framework is used across a PCIe
+bus. A Virtio Over PCIe (VOP) driver allows creating user space
+backends or devices on the host which are used to probe virtio drivers
+for these devices on the MIC card. The existing VRINGH infrastructure
+in the kernel is used to access virtio rings from the host. The card
+VOP driver allows card virtio drivers to communicate with their user
+space backends on the host via a device page. Ring 3 apps on the host
+can add, remove and configure virtio devices. A thin MIC specific
+virtio_config_ops is implemented which is borrowed heavily from
+previous similar implementations in lguest and s390.
+
+MIC PCIe card has a dma controller with 8 channels. These channels are
+shared between the host s/w and the card s/w. 0 to 3 are used by host
+and 4 to 7 by card. As the dma device doesn't show up as PCIe device,
+a virtual bus called mic bus is created and virtual dma devices are
+created on it by the host/card drivers. On host the channels are private
+and used only by the host driver to transfer data for the virtio devices.
+
+The Symmetric Communication Interface (SCIF (pronounced as skiff)) is a
+low level communications API across PCIe currently implemented for MIC.
+More details are available at scif_overview.txt.
+
+The Coprocessor State Management (COSM) driver on the host allows for
+boot, shutdown and reset of Intel MIC devices. It communicates with a COSM
+"client" driver on the MIC cards over SCIF to perform these functions.
+
+Here is a block diagram of the various components described above. The
+virtio backends are situated on the host rather than the card given better
+single threaded performance for the host compared to MIC, the ability of
+the host to initiate DMA's to/from the card using the MIC DMA engine and
+the fact that the virtio block storage backend can only be on the host::
+
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ | Card OS | | | Host OS |
+ +----------+ | +----------+
+ |
+ +-------+ +--------+ +------+ | +---------+ +--------+ +--------+
+ | Virtio| |Virtio | |Virtio| | |Virtio | |Virtio | |Virtio |
+ | Net | |Console | |Block | | |Net | |Console | |Block |
+ | Driver| |Driver | |Driver| | |backend | |backend | |backend |
+ +---+---+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +---------+ +----+---+ +--------+
+ | | | | | | |
+ | | | |User | | |
+ | | | |------|------------|--+------|-------
+ +---------+---------+ |Kernel |
+ | | |
+ +---------+ +---+----+ +------+ | +------+ +------+ +--+---+ +-------+
+ |MIC DMA | | VOP | | SCIF | | | SCIF | | COSM | | VOP | |MIC DMA|
+ +---+-----+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +--+---+ +------+ +----+--+
+ | | | | | | |
+ +---+-----+ +---+----+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +--+---+ +------+ +----+--+
+ |MIC | | VOP | |SCIF | | |SCIF | | COSM | | VOP | | MIC |
+ |HW Bus | | HW Bus| |HW Bus| | |HW Bus| | Bus | |HW Bus| |HW Bus |
+ +---------+ +--------+ +--+---+ | +--+---+ +------+ +------+ +-------+
+ | | | | | | |
+ | +-----------+--+ | | | +---------------+ |
+ | |Intel MIC | | | | |Intel MIC | |
+ | |Card Driver | | | | |Host Driver | |
+ +---+--------------+------+ | +----+---------------+-----+
+ | | |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | |
+ | PCIe Bus |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------+