Intel Integrated Sensor Hub (ISH)

A sensor hub enables the ability to offload sensor polling and algorithmprocessing to a dedicated low power co-processor. This allows the coreprocessor to go into low power modes more often, resulting in the increasedbattery life.

There are many vendors providing external sensor hubs confirming to HIDSensor usage tables, and used in several tablets, 2 in 1 convertible laptopsand embedded products. Linux had this support since Linux 3.9.

Intel® introduced integrated sensor hubs as a part of the SoC starting fromCherry Trail and now supported on multiple generations of CPU packages. Thereare many commercial devices already shipped with Integrated Sensor Hubs (ISH).These ISH also comply to HID sensor specification, but the difference is thetransport protocol used for communication. The current external sensor hubsmainly use HID over i2C or USB. But ISH doesn’t use either i2c or USB.

1. Overview

Using a analogy with a usbhid implementation, the ISH follows a similar modelfor a very high speed communication:

-----------------               ----------------------|    USB HID    |       -->     |    ISH HID         |-----------------               ---------------------------------------               ----------------------|  USB protocol |       -->     |    ISH Transport   |-----------------               ---------------------------------------               ----------------------|  EHCI/XHCI    |       -->     |    ISH IPC         |-----------------               ----------------------      PCI                                PCI-----------------               ----------------------|Host controller|       -->     |    ISH processor   |-----------------               ----------------------     USB Link-----------------               ----------------------| USB End points|       -->     |    ISH Clients     |-----------------               ----------------------

Like USB protocol provides a method for device enumeration, link managementand user data encapsulation, the ISH also provides similar services. But it isvery light weight tailored to manage and communicate with ISH clientapplications implemented in the firmware.

The ISH allows multiple sensor management applications executing in thefirmware. Like USB endpoints the messaging can be to/from a client. As part ofenumeration process, these clients are identified. These clients can be simpleHID sensor applications, sensor calibration application or senor firmwareupdate application.

The implementation model is similar, like USB bus, ISH transport is alsoimplemented as a bus. Each client application executing in the ISH processoris registered as a device on this bus. The driver, which binds each device(ISH HID driver) identifies the device type and registers with the hid core.

2. ISH Implementation: Block Diagram

       ---------------------------      |  User Space Applications  |       -------------------------------------------IIO ABI----------------       --------------------------      |  IIO Sensor Drivers     |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |        IIO core         |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |   HID Sensor Hub MFD    |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |       HID Core          |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |   HID over ISH Client   |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |   ISH Transport (ISHTP) |       --------------------------       --------------------------      |      IPC Drivers        |       --------------------------OS---------------- PCI -----------------Hardware + Firmware       ----------------------------      | ISH Hardware/Firmware(FW) |       ----------------------------

3. High level processing in above blocks

3.1 Hardware Interface

The ISH is exposed as “Non-VGA unclassified PCI device” to the host. The PCIproduct and vendor IDs are changed from different generations of processors. Sothe source code which enumerate drivers needs to update from generation togeneration.

3.2 Inter Processor Communication (IPC) driver

Location: drivers/hid/intel-ish-hid/ipc

The IPC message used memory mapped I/O. The registers are defined inhw-ish-regs.h.

3.2.1 IPC/FW message types

There are two types of messages, one for management of link and other messagesare to and from transport layers.

TX and RX of Transport messages

A set of memory mapped register offers support of multi byte messages TX andRX (E.g.IPC_REG_ISH2HOST_MSG, IPC_REG_HOST2ISH_MSG). The IPC layer maintainsinternal queues to sequence messages and send them in order to the FW.Optionally the caller can register handler to get notification of completion.A door bell mechanism is used in messaging to trigger processing in host andclient firmware side. When ISH interrupt handler is called, the ISH2HOSTdoorbell register is used by host drivers to determine that the interruptis for ISH.

Each side has 32 32-bit message registers and a 32-bit doorbell. Doorbellregister has the following format:Bits 0..6: fragment length (7 bits are used)Bits 10..13: encapsulated protocolBits 16..19: management command (for IPC management protocol)Bit 31: doorbell trigger (signal H/W interrupt to the other side)Other bits are reserved, should be 0.

3.2.2 Transport layer interface

To abstract HW level IPC communication, a set of callbacks are registered.The transport layer uses them to send and receive messages.Refer to struct ishtp_hw_ops for callbacks.

3.3 ISH Transport layer

Location: drivers/hid/intel-ish-hid/ishtp/

3.3.1 A Generic Transport Layer

The transport layer is a bi-directional protocol, which defines:- Set of commands to start, stop, connect, disconnect and flow control(ishtp/hbm.h) for details- A flow control mechanism to avoid buffer overflows

This protocol resembles bus messages described in the following document:http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/technical-specifications/dcmi-hi-1-0-spec.pdf “Chapter 7: Bus Message Layer”

3.3.2 Connection and Flow Control Mechanism

Each FW client and a protocol is identified by an UUID. In order to communicateto a FW client, a connection must be established using connect request andresponse bus messages. If successful, a pair (host_client_id and fw_client_id)will identify the connection.

Once connection is established, peers send each other flow control bus messagesindependently. Every peer may send a message only if it has received aflow-control credit before. Once it sent a message, it may not send another onebefore receiving the next flow control credit.Either side can send disconnect request bus message to end communication. Alsothe link will be dropped if major FW reset occurs.

3.3.3 Peer to Peer data transfer

Peer to Peer data transfer can happen with or without using DMA. Depending onthe sensor bandwidth requirement DMA can be enabled by using module parameterishtp_use_dma under intel_ishtp.

Each side (host and FW) manages its DMA transfer memory independently. When anISHTP client from either host or FW side wants to send something, it decideswhether to send over IPC or over DMA; for each transfer the decision isindependent. The sending side sends DMA_XFER message when the message is inthe respective host buffer (TX when host client sends, RX when FW clientsends). The recipient of DMA message responds with DMA_XFER_ACK, indicatingthe sender that the memory region for that message may be reused.

DMA initialization is started with host sending DMA_ALLOC_NOTIFY bus message(that includes RX buffer) and FW responds with DMA_ALLOC_NOTIFY_ACK.Additionally to DMA address communication, this sequence checks capabilities:if thw host doesn’t support DMA, then it won’t send DMA allocation, so FW can’tsend DMA; if FW doesn’t support DMA then it won’t respond withDMA_ALLOC_NOTIFY_ACK, in which case host will not use DMA transfers.Here ISH acts as busmaster DMA controller. Hence when host sends DMA_XFER,it’s request to do host->ISH DMA transfer; when FW sends DMA_XFER, it meansthat it already did DMA and the message resides at host. Thus, DMA_XFERand DMA_XFER_ACK act as ownership indicators.

At initial state all outgoing memory belongs to the sender (TX to host, RX toFW), DMA_XFER transfers ownership on the region that contains ISHTP message tothe receiving side, DMA_XFER_ACK returns ownership to the sender. A senderneeds not wait for previous DMA_XFER to be ack’ed, and may send another messageas long as remaining continuous memory in its ownership is enough.In principle, multiple DMA_XFER and DMA_XFER_ACK messages may be sent at once(up to IPC MTU), thus allowing for interrupt throttling.Currently, ISH FW decides to send over DMA if ISHTP message is more than 3 IPCfragments and via IPC otherwise.

3.3.4 Ring Buffers

When a client initiate a connection, a ring or RX and TX buffers are allocated.The size of ring can be specified by the client. HID client set 16 and 32 forTX and RX buffers respectively. On send request from client, the data to besent is copied to one of the send ring buffer and scheduled to be sent usingbus message protocol. These buffers are required because the FW may have nothave processed the last message and may not have enough flow control creditsto send. Same thing holds true on receive side and flow control is required.

3.3.5 Host Enumeration

The host enumeration bus command allow discovery of clients present in the FW.There can be multiple sensor clients and clients for calibration function.

To ease in implantation and allow independent driver handle each clientthis transport layer takes advantage of Linux Bus driver model. Eachclient is registered as device on the transport bus (ishtp bus).

Enumeration sequence of messages:

  • Host sends HOST_START_REQ_CMD, indicating that host ISHTP layer is up.
  • FW responds with HOST_START_RES_CMD
  • Host sends HOST_ENUM_REQ_CMD (enumerate FW clients)
  • FW responds with HOST_ENUM_RES_CMD that includes bitmap of available FWclient IDs
  • For each FW ID found in that bitmap host sendsHOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_REQ_CMD
  • FW responds with HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_RES_CMD. Properties include UUID,max ISHTP message size, etc.
  • Once host received properties for that last discovered client, it considersISHTP device fully functional (and allocates DMA buffers)

3.4 HID over ISH Client

Location: drivers/hid/intel-ish-hid

The ISHTP client driver is responsible for:

  • enumerate HID devices under FW ISH client
  • Get Report descriptor
  • Register with HID core as a LL driver
  • Process Get/Set feature request
  • Get input reports

3.5 HID Sensor Hub MFD and IIO sensor drivers

The functionality in these drivers is the same as an external sensor hub.Refer toDocumentation/hid/hid-sensor.rst for HID sensorDocumentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-iio for IIO ABIs to user space

3.6 End to End HID transport Sequence Diagram

HID-ISH-CLN                    ISHTP                    IPC                             HW        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |-----WAKE UP------------------>|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |-----HOST READY--------------->|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |<----MNG_RESET_NOTIFY_ACK----- |        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<----ISHTP_START------ |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<-----------------HOST_START_RES_CMD-------------------|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |------------------QUERY_SUBSCRIBER-------------------->|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |------------------HOST_ENUM_REQ_CMD------------------->|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<-----------------HOST_ENUM_RES_CMD--------------------|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |------------------HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_REQ_CMD------>|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<-----------------HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_RES_CMD-------|        |       Create new device on in ishtp bus        |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |------------------HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_REQ_CMD------>|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<-----------------HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_RES_CMD-------|        |       Create new device on in ishtp bus        |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |--Repeat HOST_CLIENT_PROPERTIES_REQ_CMD-till last one--|        |                        |                       |                               |     probed()        |----ishtp_cl_connect--->|----------------- CLIENT_CONNECT_REQ_CMD-------------->|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |<----------------CLIENT_CONNECT_RES_CMD----------------|        |                        |                       |                               |        |register event callback |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |        |ishtp_cl_send(        HOSTIF_DM_ENUM_DEVICES)  |----------fill ishtp_msg_hdr struct write to HW-----  >|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |<-----IRQ(IPC_PROTOCOL_ISHTP---|        |                        |                       |                               |        |<--ENUM_DEVICE RSP------|                       |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |for each enumerated device        |ishtp_cl_send(        HOSTIF_GET_HID_DESCRIPTOR|----------fill ishtp_msg_hdr struct write to HW-----  >|        |                        |                       |                               |        ...Response        |                        |                       |                               |for each enumerated device        |ishtp_cl_send(     HOSTIF_GET_REPORT_DESCRIPTOR|--------------fill ishtp_msg_hdr struct write to HW-- >|        |                        |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |                               | hid_allocate_device        |                        |                       |                               | hid_add_device                  |                       |                               |        |                        |                       |                               |

3.7 ISH Debugging

To debug ISH, event tracing mechanism is used. To enable debug logsecho 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/intel_ish/enablecat sys/kernel/debug/tracing/trace

3.8 ISH IIO sysfs Example on Lenovo thinkpad Yoga 260

root@otcpl-ThinkPad-Yoga-260:~# tree -l /sys/bus/iio/devices//sys/bus/iio/devices/├── iio:device0 -> ../../../devices/0044:8086:22D8.0001/HID-SENSOR-200073.9.auto/iio:device0│   ├── buffer│   │   ├── enable│   │   ├── length│   │   └── watermark...│   ├── in_accel_hysteresis│   ├── in_accel_offset│   ├── in_accel_sampling_frequency│   ├── in_accel_scale│   ├── in_accel_x_raw│   ├── in_accel_y_raw│   ├── in_accel_z_raw│   ├── name│   ├── scan_elements│   │   ├── in_accel_x_en│   │   ├── in_accel_x_index│   │   ├── in_accel_x_type│   │   ├── in_accel_y_en│   │   ├── in_accel_y_index│   │   ├── in_accel_y_type│   │   ├── in_accel_z_en│   │   ├── in_accel_z_index│   │   └── in_accel_z_type...│   │   ├── devices│   │   │   │   ├── buffer│   │   │   │   │   ├── enable│   │   │   │   │   ├── length│   │   │   │   │   └── watermark│   │   │   │   ├── dev│   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_both_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_hysteresis│   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_offset│   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_sampling_frequency│   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_scale│   │   │   │   ├── name│   │   │   │   ├── scan_elements│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_both_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_intensity_both_index│   │   │   │   │   └── in_intensity_both_type│   │   │   │   ├── trigger│   │   │   │   │   └── current_trigger...│   │   │   │   ├── buffer│   │   │   │   │   ├── enable│   │   │   │   │   ├── length│   │   │   │   │   └── watermark│   │   │   │   ├── dev│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_hysteresis│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_offset│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_sampling_frequency│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_scale│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_x_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_y_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_z_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_from_north_magnetic_tilt_comp_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_hysteresis│   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_offset│   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_sampling_frequency│   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_scale│   │   │   │   ├── name...│   │   │   │   ├── scan_elements│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_x_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_x_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_x_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_y_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_y_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_y_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_z_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_z_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_magn_z_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_from_north_magnetic_tilt_comp_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_rot_from_north_magnetic_tilt_comp_index│   │   │   │   │   └── in_rot_from_north_magnetic_tilt_comp_type│   │   │   │   ├── trigger│   │   │   │   │   └── current_trigger...│   │   │   │   ├── buffer│   │   │   │   │   ├── enable│   │   │   │   │   ├── length│   │   │   │   │   └── watermark│   │   │   │   ├── dev│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_hysteresis│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_offset│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_sampling_frequency│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_scale│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_raw│   │   │   │   ├── name│   │   │   │   ├── scan_elements│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_index│   │   │   │   │   └── in_anglvel_z_type│   │   │   │   ├── trigger│   │   │   │   │   └── current_trigger...│   │   │   │   ├── buffer│   │   │   │   │   ├── enable│   │   │   │   │   ├── length│   │   │   │   │   └── watermark│   │   │   │   ├── dev│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_hysteresis│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_offset│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_sampling_frequency│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_scale│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_raw│   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_raw│   │   │   │   ├── name│   │   │   │   ├── scan_elements│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_x_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_index│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_y_type│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_en│   │   │   │   │   ├── in_anglvel_z_index│   │   │   │   │   └── in_anglvel_z_type│   │   │   │   ├── trigger│   │   │   │   │   └── current_trigger...