tree 3b2ec090953fa1975a6e224417bf362aaae19cd7
parent e506147271229d6c53b42c6a9897db67b5cfdb6d
author Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com> 1289865191 +0000
committer Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com> 1291676407 +0000

sfc: Use TX push whenever adding descriptors to an empty queue

Whenever we add DMA descriptors to a TX ring and update the ring
pointer, the TX DMA engine must first read the new DMA descriptors and
then start reading packet data.  However, all released Solarflare 10G
controllers have a 'TX push' feature that allows us to reduce latency
by writing the first new DMA descriptor along with the pointer update.
This is only useful when the queue is empty.  The hardware should
ignore the pushed descriptor if the queue is not empty, but this check
is buggy, so we must do it in software.

In order to tell whether a TX queue is empty, we need to compare the
previous transmission count (write_count) and completion count
(read_count).  However, if we do that every time we update the ring
pointer then read_count may ping-pong between the caches of two CPUs
running the transmission and completion paths for the queue.
Therefore, we split the check for an empty queue between the
completion path and the transmission path:

- Add an empty_read_count field representing a point at which the
  completion path saw the TX queue as empty.
- Add an old_write_count field for use on the completion path.
- On the completion path, whenever read_count reaches or passes
  old_write_count the TX queue may be empty.  We then read
  write_count, set empty_read_count if read_count == write_count,
  and update old_write_count.
- On the transmission path, we read empty_read_count.  If it's set, we
  compare it with the value of write_count before the current set of
  descriptors was added.  If they match, the queue really is empty and
  we can use TX push.

Signed-off-by: Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@solarflare.com>