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+This page describes the structures and procedures used by the cx2341x DMA
+engine.
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+The cx2341x PCI interface is busmaster capable. This means it has a DMA
+engine to efficiently transfer large volumes of data between the card and main
+memory without requiring help from a CPU. Like most hardware, it must operate
+on contiguous physical memory. This is difficult to come by in large quantities
+on virtual memory machines.
+
+Therefore, it also supports a technique called "scatter-gather". The card can
+transfer multiple buffers in one operation. Instead of allocating one large
+contiguous buffer, the driver can allocate several smaller buffers.
+
+In practice, I've seen the average transfer to be roughly 80K, but transfers
+above 128K were not uncommon, particularly at startup. The 128K figure is
+important, because that is the largest block that the kernel can normally
+allocate. Even still, 128K blocks are hard to come by, so the driver writer is
+urged to choose a smaller block size and learn the scatter-gather technique.
+
+Mailbox #10 is reserved for DMA transfer information.
+
+Note: the hardware expects little-endian data ('intel format').
+
+Flow
+====
+
+This section describes, in general, the order of events when handling DMA
+transfers. Detailed information follows this section.
+
+- The card raises the Encoder interrupt.
+- The driver reads the transfer type, offset and size from Mailbox #10.
+- The driver constructs the scatter-gather array from enough free dma buffers
+  to cover the size.
+- The driver schedules the DMA transfer via the ScheduleDMAtoHost API call.
+- The card raises the DMA Complete interrupt.
+- The driver checks the DMA status register for any errors.
+- The driver post-processes the newly transferred buffers.
+
+NOTE! It is possible that the Encoder and DMA Complete interrupts get raised
+simultaneously. (End of the last, start of the next, etc.)
+
+Mailbox #10
+===========
+
+The Flags, Command, Return Value and Timeout fields are ignored.
+
+Name:       Mailbox #10
+Results[0]: Type: 0: MPEG.
+Results[1]: Offset: The position relative to the card's memory space.
+Results[2]: Size: The exact number of bytes to transfer.
+
+My speculation is that since the StartCapture API has a capture type of "RAW"
+available, that the type field will have other values that correspond to YUV
+and PCM data.
+
+Scatter-Gather Array
+====================
+
+The scatter-gather array is a contiguously allocated block of memory that
+tells the card the source and destination of each data-block to transfer.
+Card "addresses" are derived from the offset supplied by Mailbox #10. Host
+addresses are the physical memory location of the target DMA buffer.
+
+Each S-G array element is a struct of three 32-bit words. The first word is
+the source address, the second is the destination address. Both take up the
+entire 32 bits. The lowest 18 bits of the third word is the transfer byte
+count. The high-bit of the third word is the "last" flag. The last-flag tells
+the card to raise the DMA_DONE interrupt. From hard personal experience, if
+you forget to set this bit, the card will still "work" but the stream will
+most likely get corrupted.
+
+The transfer count must be a multiple of 256. Therefore, the driver will need
+to track how much data in the target buffer is valid and deal with it
+accordingly.
+
+Array Element:
+
+- 32-bit Source Address
+- 32-bit Destination Address
+- 14-bit reserved (high bit is the last flag)
+- 18-bit byte count
+
+DMA Transfer Status
+===================
+
+Register 0x0004 holds the DMA Transfer Status:
+
+Bit
+0   read completed
+1   write completed
+2   DMA read error
+3   DMA write error
+4   Scatter-Gather array error