DMA Transfers (Asynchronous)

Character drivers that support aread(9E) and awrite(9E) use aphysio(9F) instead of physio(9F).

int aphysio(int (*strat)(struct buf *), int (*cancel)(struct buf *),
     dev_t dev, int rw, void (*mincnt)(struct buf *),
     struct aio_req *aio_reqp);

The address of anocancel(9F) is the only value that can currently be passed as the second argument to aphysio(9F).

aphysio(9F) requires the driver to pass the address of a strategy(9E) routine. aphysio(9F) ensures that memory space is locked down, that is, cannot be paged out, for the duration of the data transfer. This lock-down is necessary for DMA transfers because DMA transfers cannot handle page faults. aphysio(9F) also provides an automated way of breaking a larger transfer into a series of smaller, more manageable ones. See minphys() Entry Point for more information.

Example 15–5 and Example 15–6 demonstrate that the aread(9E) and awrite(9E) entry points differ only slightly from the read(9E) and write(9E) entry points. The difference is primarily in their use of aphysio(9F) instead of physio(9F).

Example 15–6 aread(9E) and awrite(9E) Routines Using aphysio(9F)

static int
xxaread(dev_t dev, struct aio_req *aiop, cred_t *cred_p)
{
     struct xxstate *xsp;

     xsp = ddi_get_soft_state(statep, getminor(dev));
     if (xsp == NULL)
         return (ENXIO);
     return (aphysio(xxstrategy, anocancel, dev, B_READ,
     xxminphys, aiop));
}

static int
xxawrite(dev_t dev, struct aio_req *aiop, cred_t *cred_p)
{
     struct xxstate *xsp;

     xsp = ddi_get_soft_state(statep, getminor(dev));
     if (xsp == NULL)
        return (ENXIO);
     return (aphysio(xxstrategy, anocancel, dev, B_WRITE,
     xxminphys,aiop));  
}

In the call to aphysio(9F), xxstrategy() is a pointer to the driver strategy routine. aiop is a pointer to the aio_req(9S) structure. aiop is passed to aread(9E) and awrite(9E). aio_req(9S) describes where the data is to be stored in user space. aphysio(9F) returns zero if the I/O request is scheduled successfully or an error number on failure. After calling strategy(9E), aphysio(9F) returns without waiting for the I/O to complete or fail.