i965: Add a big comment explaining my understanding of URB management.

It shouldn't offer anything new over what's in the docs (except for G4X notes),
but here it's all in one place.

1 files changed, 38 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_urb.c b/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_urb.c
index 1a004176de1..5cc51ad4ec4 100644
--- a/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_urb.c
+++ b/src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_urb.c
@@ -42,7 +42,44 @@
 #define SF 3
 #define CS 4
 
-/* XXX: Are the min_entry_size numbers useful?
+/** @file brw_urb.c
+ *
+ * Manages the division of the URB space between the various fixed-function
+ * units.
+ *
+ * See the Thread Initiation Management section of the GEN4 B-Spec, and
+ * the individual *_STATE structures for restrictions on numbers of
+ * entries and threads.
+ */
+
+/*
+ * Generally, a unit requires a min_nr_entries based on how many entries
+ * it produces before the downstream unit gets unblocked and can use and
+ * dereference some of its handles.
+ *
+ * The SF unit preallocates a PUE at the start of thread dispatch, and only
+ * uses that one.  So it requires one entry per thread.
+ *
+ * For CLIP, the SF unit will hold the previous primitive while the
+ * next is getting assembled, meaning that linestrips require 3 CLIP VUEs
+ * (vertices) to ensure continued processing, trifans require 4, and tristrips
+ * require 5.  There can be 1 or 2 threads, and each has the same requirement.
+ *
+ * GS has the same requirement as CLIP, but it never handles tristrips,
+ * so we can lower the minimum to 4 for the POLYGONs (trifans) it produces.
+ * We only run it single-threaded.
+ *
+ * For VS, the number of entries may be 8, 12, 16, or 32 (or 64 on G4X).
+ * Each thread processes 2 preallocated VUEs (vertices) at a time, and they
+ * get streamed down as soon as threads processing earlier vertices get
+ * theirs accepted.
+ *
+ * Each unit will take the number of URB entries we give it (based on the
+ * entry size calculated in brw_vs_emit.c for VUEs, brw_sf_emit.c for PUEs,
+ * and brw_curbe.c for the CURBEs) and decide its maximum number of
+ * threads it can support based on that. in brw_*_state.c.
+ *
+ * XXX: Are the min_entry_size numbers useful?
  * XXX: Verify min_nr_entries, esp for VS.
  * XXX: Verify SF min_entry_size.
  */