VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA: extra data to devices

Some devices benefit from ability to find out the number of available
descriptors in the ring: for efficiency or as a debugging aid.

To help with these optimizations, add a new feature:
VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA. When negotiated, driver notifications to the
device include this extra information.

Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <[email protected]>

content.tex

@@ -283,9 +283,49 @@ \section{Virtqueues}\label{sec:Basic Facilities of a Virtio Device / Virtqueues}
 Every driver and device supports either the Packed or the Split
 Virtqueue format, or both.
 
+\subsection{Driver notifications} \label{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}
+The driver is sometimes required to notify the device after
+making changes to the virtqueue.
+
+When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has not been negotiated,
+this notification involves sending the
+virtqueue number to the device (method depending on the transport).
+
+However, some devices benefit from the ability to find out the number of
+available descriptors in the ring without accessing the virtqueue in memory:
+for efficiency or as a debugging aid.
+
+To help with these optimizations, when VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA
+has been negotiated, driver notifications to the device include
+the following information:
+
+\begin{description}
+\item [VQ number]
+\item [Offset]
+      Within the ring where the next available ring entry
+      will be written.
+      Without VIRTIO_F_RING_PACKED this refers to the
+      15 least significant bits of the available index.
+      With VIRTIO_F_RING_PACKED this refers to the offset
+      (in units of descriptor entries)
+      within the descriptor ring where the next available
+      descriptor will be written.
+\item [Wrap Counter]
+      With VIRTIO_F_RING_PACKED this is the wrap counter
+      referring to the next available descriptor.
+      Without VIRTIO_F_RING_PACKED this is the most significant bit
+      of the available index.
+\end{description}
+
+Note that the driver can trigger multiple notifications even without
+making any more changes to the ring. When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA
+has been negotiated, these notifications would then have
+identical \field{Offset} and \field{Wrap Counter} values.
+
 \input{split-ring.tex}
 
 \input{packed-ring.tex}
+
 \chapter{General Initialization And Device Operation}\label{sec:General Initialization And Device Operation}
 
 We start with an overview of device initialization, then expand on the
@@ -862,7 +902,9 @@ \subsubsection{Notification structure layout}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options
 \devicenormative{\paragraph}{Notification capability}{Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI Device Layout / Notification capability}
 The device MUST present at least one notification capability.
 
-The \field{cap.offset} MUST be 2-byte aligned.  
+For devices not offering VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA:
+
+The \field{cap.offset} MUST be 2-byte aligned.
 
 The device MUST either present \field{notify_off_multiplier} as an even power of 2,
 or present \field{notify_off_multiplier} as 0.
@@ -876,6 +918,23 @@ \subsubsection{Notification structure layout}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options
 cap.length >= queue_notify_off * notify_off_multiplier + 2
 \end{lstlisting}
 
+For devices offering VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA:
+
+The device MUST either present \field{notify_off_multiplier} as a
+number that is a power of 2 that is also a multiple 4,
+or present \field{notify_off_multiplier} as 0.
+
+The \field{cap.offset} MUST be 4-byte aligned.
+
+The value \field{cap.length} presented by the device MUST be at least 4
+and MUST be large enough to support queue notification offsets
+for all supported queues in all possible configurations.
+
+For all queues, the value \field{cap.length} presented by the device MUST satisfy:
+\begin{lstlisting}
+cap.length >= queue_notify_off * notify_off_multiplier + 4
+\end{lstlisting}
+
 \subsubsection{ISR status capability}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI Device Layout / ISR status capability}
 
 The VIRTIO_PCI_CAP_ISR_CFG capability
@@ -1268,8 +1327,21 @@ \subsubsection{Device Initialization}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virti
 
 \subsubsection{Notifying The Device}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI-specific Initialization And Device Operation / Notifying The Device}
 
-The driver notifies the device by writing the 16-bit virtqueue index
-of this virtqueue to the Queue Notify address.  See \ref{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI Device Layout / Notification capability} for how to calculate this address.
+When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has not been negotiated,
+the driver notifies the device by writing the 16-bit virtqueue index
+of this virtqueue (in little-endian byte order format)
+to the Queue Notify address.
+
+When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has been negotiated,
+the driver notifies the device by writing the following
+32-bit value to the Queue Notify address:
+\lstinputlisting{notifications-le.c}
+
+See \ref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}~\nameref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}
+for the definition of the components.
+
+See \ref{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI Device Layout / Notification capability} for how to calculate the
+Queue Notify address.
 
 \subsubsection{Virtqueue Interrupts From The Device}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Virtio Over PCI Bus / PCI-specific Initialization And Device Operation / Virtqueue Interrupts From The Device}
 
@@ -1500,8 +1572,19 @@ \subsection{MMIO Device Register Layout}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Vi
   }
   \hline 
   \mmioreg{QueueNotify}{Queue notifier}{0x050}{W}{%
-    Writing a queue index to this register notifies the device that
-    there are new buffers to process in the queue.
+    Writing a value this register notifies the device that
+    there are new buffers to process in a queue.
+
+    When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has not been negotiated,
+    the value written is the queue index.
+
+    When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has been negotiated,
+    the value has the following format:
+
+    \lstinputlisting{notifications-le.c}
+
+    See \ref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}~\nameref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}
+    for the definition of the components.
   }
   \hline 
   \mmioreg{InterruptStatus}{Interrupt status}{0x60}{R}{%
@@ -2340,12 +2423,22 @@ \subsubsection{Guest->Host Notification}\label{sec:Virtio Transport Options / Vi
 \hline
   2   &  Subchannel ID    & Host Cookie  \\
 \hline
-  3   & Virtqueue number  &              \\
+  3   & Notification data &              \\
 \hline
   4   &   Host Cookie     &              \\
 \hline
 \end{tabular}
 
+When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has not been negotiated,
+the \field{Notification data} contains the Virtqueue number.
+
+When VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA has been negotiated,
+the value has the following format:
+\lstinputlisting{notifications-be.c}
+
+See \ref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}~\nameref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}
+for the definition of the components.
+
 \devicenormative{\paragraph}{Guest->Host Notification}{Virtio Transport Options / Virtio over channel I/O / Device Operation / Guest->Host Notification}
 The device MUST ignore bits 0-31 (counting from the left) of GPR2.
 This aligns passing the subchannel ID with the way it is passed
@@ -5348,6 +5441,10 @@ \chapter{Reserved Feature Bits}\label{sec:Reserved Feature Bits}
   \item[VIRTIO_F_IN_ORDER(35)] This feature indicates
   that all buffers are used by the device in the same
   order in which they have been made available.
+  \item[VIRTIO_F_NOTIFICATION_DATA(36)] This feature indicates
+  that drivers pass extra data (besides identifying the Virtqueue)
+  in their device notifications.
+  See \ref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}~\nameref{sec:Virtqueues / Driver notifications}.
 \end{description}
 
 \drivernormative{\section}{Reserved Feature Bits}{Reserved Feature Bits}

notifications-be.c

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+be32 {
+	vqn : 16;
+	next_off : 15;
+	next_wrap : 1;
+};

notifications-le.c

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+le32 {
+	vqn : 16;
+	next_off : 15;
+	next_wrap : 1;
+};