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-I2C topology
-============
-
-There are a couple of reasons for building more complex i2c topologies
-than a straight-forward i2c bus with one adapter and one or more devices.
-
-1. A mux may be needed on the bus to prevent address collisions.
-
-2. The bus may be accessible from some external bus master, and arbitration
- may be needed to determine if it is ok to access the bus.
-
-3. A device (particularly RF tuners) may want to avoid the digital noise
- from the i2c bus, at least most of the time, and sits behind a gate
- that has to be operated before the device can be accessed.
-
-Etc
-
-These constructs are represented as i2c adapter trees by Linux, where
-each adapter has a parent adapter (except the root adapter) and zero or
-more child adapters. The root adapter is the actual adapter that issues
-i2c transfers, and all adapters with a parent are part of an "i2c-mux"
-object (quoted, since it can also be an arbitrator or a gate).
-
-Depending of the particular mux driver, something happens when there is
-an i2c transfer on one of its child adapters. The mux driver can
-obviously operate a mux, but it can also do arbitration with an external
-bus master or open a gate. The mux driver has two operations for this,
-select and deselect. select is called before the transfer and (the
-optional) deselect is called after the transfer.
-
-
-Locking
-=======
-
-There are two variants of locking available to i2c muxes, they can be
-mux-locked or parent-locked muxes. As is evident from below, it can be
-useful to know if a mux is mux-locked or if it is parent-locked. The
-following list was correct at the time of writing:
-
-In drivers/i2c/muxes/
-i2c-arb-gpio-challenge Parent-locked
-i2c-mux-gpio Normally parent-locked, mux-locked iff
- all involved gpio pins are controlled by the
- same i2c root adapter that they mux.
-i2c-mux-gpmux Normally parent-locked, mux-locked iff
- specified in device-tree.
-i2c-mux-ltc4306 Mux-locked
-i2c-mux-mlxcpld Parent-locked
-i2c-mux-pca9541 Parent-locked
-i2c-mux-pca954x Parent-locked
-i2c-mux-pinctrl Normally parent-locked, mux-locked iff
- all involved pinctrl devices are controlled
- by the same i2c root adapter that they mux.
-i2c-mux-reg Parent-locked
-
-In drivers/iio/
-gyro/mpu3050 Mux-locked
-imu/inv_mpu6050/ Mux-locked
-
-In drivers/media/
-dvb-frontends/lgdt3306a Mux-locked
-dvb-frontends/m88ds3103 Parent-locked
-dvb-frontends/rtl2830 Parent-locked
-dvb-frontends/rtl2832 Mux-locked
-dvb-frontends/si2168 Mux-locked
-usb/cx231xx/ Parent-locked
-
-
-Mux-locked muxes
-----------------
-
-Mux-locked muxes does not lock the entire parent adapter during the
-full select-transfer-deselect transaction, only the muxes on the parent
-adapter are locked. Mux-locked muxes are mostly interesting if the
-select and/or deselect operations must use i2c transfers to complete
-their tasks. Since the parent adapter is not fully locked during the
-full transaction, unrelated i2c transfers may interleave the different
-stages of the transaction. This has the benefit that the mux driver
-may be easier and cleaner to implement, but it has some caveats.
-
-ML1. If you build a topology with a mux-locked mux being the parent
- of a parent-locked mux, this might break the expectation from the
- parent-locked mux that the root adapter is locked during the
- transaction.
-
-ML2. It is not safe to build arbitrary topologies with two (or more)
- mux-locked muxes that are not siblings, when there are address
- collisions between the devices on the child adapters of these
- non-sibling muxes.
-
- I.e. the select-transfer-deselect transaction targeting e.g. device
- address 0x42 behind mux-one may be interleaved with a similar
- operation targeting device address 0x42 behind mux-two. The
- intension with such a topology would in this hypothetical example
- be that mux-one and mux-two should not be selected simultaneously,
- but mux-locked muxes do not guarantee that in all topologies.
-
-ML3. A mux-locked mux cannot be used by a driver for auto-closing
- gates/muxes, i.e. something that closes automatically after a given
- number (one, in most cases) of i2c transfers. Unrelated i2c transfers
- may creep in and close prematurely.
-
-ML4. If any non-i2c operation in the mux driver changes the i2c mux state,
- the driver has to lock the root adapter during that operation.
- Otherwise garbage may appear on the bus as seen from devices
- behind the mux, when an unrelated i2c transfer is in flight during
- the non-i2c mux-changing operation.
-
-
-Mux-locked Example
-------------------
-
- .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | mux- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D3 |
- '--------'
-
-When there is an access to D1, this happens:
-
- 1. Someone issues an i2c-transfer to D1.
- 2. M1 locks muxes on its parent (the root adapter in this case).
- 3. M1 calls ->select to ready the mux.
- 4. M1 (presumably) does some i2c-transfers as part of its select.
- These transfers are normal i2c-transfers that locks the parent
- adapter.
- 5. M1 feeds the i2c-transfer from step 1 to its parent adapter as a
- normal i2c-transfer that locks the parent adapter.
- 6. M1 calls ->deselect, if it has one.
- 7. Same rules as in step 4, but for ->deselect.
- 8. M1 unlocks muxes on its parent.
-
-This means that accesses to D2 are lockout out for the full duration
-of the entire operation. But accesses to D3 are possibly interleaved
-at any point.
-
-
-Parent-locked muxes
--------------------
-
-Parent-locked muxes lock the parent adapter during the full select-
-transfer-deselect transaction. The implication is that the mux driver
-has to ensure that any and all i2c transfers through that parent
-adapter during the transaction are unlocked i2c transfers (using e.g.
-__i2c_transfer), or a deadlock will follow. There are a couple of
-caveats.
-
-PL1. If you build a topology with a parent-locked mux being the child
- of another mux, this might break a possible assumption from the
- child mux that the root adapter is unused between its select op
- and the actual transfer (e.g. if the child mux is auto-closing
- and the parent mux issus i2c-transfers as part of its select).
- This is especially the case if the parent mux is mux-locked, but
- it may also happen if the parent mux is parent-locked.
-
-PL2. If select/deselect calls out to other subsystems such as gpio,
- pinctrl, regmap or iio, it is essential that any i2c transfers
- caused by these subsystems are unlocked. This can be convoluted to
- accomplish, maybe even impossible if an acceptably clean solution
- is sought.
-
-
-Parent-locked Example
----------------------
-
- .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | parent- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D3 |
- '--------'
-
-When there is an access to D1, this happens:
-
- 1. Someone issues an i2c-transfer to D1.
- 2. M1 locks muxes on its parent (the root adapter in this case).
- 3. M1 locks its parent adapter.
- 4. M1 calls ->select to ready the mux.
- 5. If M1 does any i2c-transfers (on this root adapter) as part of
- its select, those transfers must be unlocked i2c-transfers so
- that they do not deadlock the root adapter.
- 6. M1 feeds the i2c-transfer from step 1 to the root adapter as an
- unlocked i2c-transfer, so that it does not deadlock the parent
- adapter.
- 7. M1 calls ->deselect, if it has one.
- 8. Same rules as in step 5, but for ->deselect.
- 9. M1 unlocks its parent adapter.
-10. M1 unlocks muxes on its parent.
-
-
-This means that accesses to both D2 and D3 are locked out for the full
-duration of the entire operation.
-
-
-Complex Examples
-================
-
-Parent-locked mux as parent of parent-locked mux
-------------------------------------------------
-
-This is a useful topology, but it can be bad.
-
- .----------. .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | parent- |-----| parent- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | | locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D4 | '--| dev D3 |
- '--------' '--------'
-
-When any device is accessed, all other devices are locked out for
-the full duration of the operation (both muxes lock their parent,
-and specifically when M2 requests its parent to lock, M1 passes
-the buck to the root adapter).
-
-This topology is bad if M2 is an auto-closing mux and M1->select
-issues any unlocked i2c transfers on the root adapter that may leak
-through and be seen by the M2 adapter, thus closing M2 prematurely.
-
-
-Mux-locked mux as parent of mux-locked mux
-------------------------------------------
-
-This is a good topology.
-
- .----------. .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | mux- |-----| mux- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | | locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D4 | '--| dev D3 |
- '--------' '--------'
-
-When device D1 is accessed, accesses to D2 are locked out for the
-full duration of the operation (muxes on the top child adapter of M1
-are locked). But accesses to D3 and D4 are possibly interleaved at
-any point. Accesses to D3 locks out D1 and D2, but accesses to D4
-are still possibly interleaved.
-
-
-Mux-locked mux as parent of parent-locked mux
----------------------------------------------
-
-This is probably a bad topology.
-
- .----------. .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | mux- |-----| parent- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | | locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D4 | '--| dev D3 |
- '--------' '--------'
-
-When device D1 is accessed, accesses to D2 and D3 are locked out
-for the full duration of the operation (M1 locks child muxes on the
-root adapter). But accesses to D4 are possibly interleaved at any
-point.
-
-This kind of topology is generally not suitable and should probably
-be avoided. The reason is that M2 probably assumes that there will
-be no i2c transfers during its calls to ->select and ->deselect, and
-if there are, any such transfers might appear on the slave side of M2
-as partial i2c transfers, i.e. garbage or worse. This might cause
-device lockups and/or other problems.
-
-The topology is especially troublesome if M2 is an auto-closing
-mux. In that case, any interleaved accesses to D4 might close M2
-prematurely, as might any i2c-transfers part of M1->select.
-
-But if M2 is not making the above stated assumption, and if M2 is not
-auto-closing, the topology is fine.
-
-
-Parent-locked mux as parent of mux-locked mux
----------------------------------------------
-
-This is a good topology.
-
- .----------. .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | parent- |-----| mux- |-----| dev D1 |
- | root |--+--| locked | | locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M1 |--. | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' | '----------' '--| dev D2 |
- | .--------. | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D4 | '--| dev D3 |
- '--------' '--------'
-
-When D1 is accessed, accesses to D2 are locked out for the full
-duration of the operation (muxes on the top child adapter of M1
-are locked). Accesses to D3 and D4 are possibly interleaved at
-any point, just as is expected for mux-locked muxes.
-
-When D3 or D4 are accessed, everything else is locked out. For D3
-accesses, M1 locks the root adapter. For D4 accesses, the root
-adapter is locked directly.
-
-
-Two mux-locked sibling muxes
-----------------------------
-
-This is a good topology.
-
- .--------.
- .----------. .--| dev D1 |
- | mux- |--' '--------'
- .--| locked | .--------.
- | | mux M1 |-----| dev D2 |
- | '----------' '--------'
- | .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | | mux- |-----| dev D3 |
- | root |--+--| locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' '--| dev D4 |
- | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D5 |
- '--------'
-
-When D1 is accessed, accesses to D2, D3 and D4 are locked out. But
-accesses to D5 may be interleaved at any time.
-
-
-Two parent-locked sibling muxes
--------------------------------
-
-This is a good topology.
-
- .--------.
- .----------. .--| dev D1 |
- | parent- |--' '--------'
- .--| locked | .--------.
- | | mux M1 |-----| dev D2 |
- | '----------' '--------'
- | .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | | parent- |-----| dev D3 |
- | root |--+--| locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' '--| dev D4 |
- | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D5 |
- '--------'
-
-When any device is accessed, accesses to all other devices are locked
-out.
-
-
-Mux-locked and parent-locked sibling muxes
-------------------------------------------
-
-This is a good topology.
-
- .--------.
- .----------. .--| dev D1 |
- | mux- |--' '--------'
- .--| locked | .--------.
- | | mux M1 |-----| dev D2 |
- | '----------' '--------'
- | .----------. .--------.
- .--------. | | parent- |-----| dev D3 |
- | root |--+--| locked | '--------'
- '--------' | | mux M2 |--. .--------.
- | '----------' '--| dev D4 |
- | .--------. '--------'
- '--| dev D5 |
- '--------'
-
-When D1 or D2 are accessed, accesses to D3 and D4 are locked out while
-accesses to D5 may interleave. When D3 or D4 are accessed, accesses to
-all other devices are locked out.