Introduction to UFS Subsystem

Mohammad Faiz Abbas Rizvi

ELC 2019
[email protected]

1
About Me
• Software Engineer at Texas Instruments India since 2017.
• Part of the Linux Team that works on supporting various TI SoCs in mainline
kernel and u-boot.
• I work on supporting peripheral drivers on TI SoCs, mainly MMC, CAN and now
UFS.
• This presentation is a result of my experience adding the UFS subsystem to U-
boot.

2
What is Universal Flash Storage?

It is primarily a Managed Flash.

3
Managed Flash
• A non-volatile flash array combined with a
memory controller
Flash
• The controller manages the memory – bad
block management, ECC, wear leveling etc.

• The controller communicates with the outside Flash

Host
world with a defined communication protocol Communication controller
like MMC, Sata, SPI, Hyperflash etc. Protocol

Device

Generic Managed Flash

4
UFS Features
• It’s a high performance serial interface designed for
low power devices.
• Marketed as a replacement for SD card and eMMC
for smartphones, ultra portable PCs and other
embedded devices.
• Theoretical bidirectional full duplex transfer speeds
upto 1.45 GBps
• Can be a removable card or embedded on the board
Image courtesy: dpreview.com

5
 How is UFS better?

Property eMMC 5.1 UFS

I/O speed Upto 400 MBps Upto 1.45 GBps
I/O Voltage 1.2V-3.3V 0.2V-0.4V differential
Random Read 13000 IOPS[1] 68000 IOPS[1]
Protocol Half duplex Full duplex
Theoretical Device Capacity 128 GB 16 TB

[1] androidcentral.com 6
 UFS System Overview

Application

LU-0
UFS Application Layer SCSI Driver

Configuration
LU-N Structures
UFS Transport Layer UFS Driver

MIPI Unipro MIPI Unipro

UFS Interconnect Layer
MIPI M-PHY MIPI M-PHY

UFS Host UFS Device 7

 UFS System Overview

Application

LU-0
UFS Application Layer SCSI Driver

Configuration
LU-N Structures
UFS Transport Layer UFS Driver

MIPI Unipro MIPI Unipro

UFS Interconnect Layer
MIPI M-PHY MIPI M-PHY

UFS Host UFS Device 8

 UFS Application Layer
• Consists of the UFS SCSI command set based on SCSI Architecture Model (SAM)
• Transactions take place with fixed length Command Descriptor Blocks (CBD)
• Each Transaction follows the I_T_L_Q nexus meaning the CDB needs to identify an
Initiator communicating with a specific LUN in a Target with a specific Query.

Example 6 byte CDB format

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UFS SCSI Commands
• A command descriptor block can be of 6, 10 or 16 bytes of length
• Some important commands :
– READ
– WRITE
– READ CAPACITY - get the size of a logical unit
– REPORT LUNS - get list of all logical units
– TEST UNIT READY - check if a logical unit is ready for accepting requests
– START STOP UNIT – switch Power mode of the device
– INQUIRY – More information about a logical unit

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What is a Logical unit?
0x0

• Externally addressable Boot Logical unit 0

• Storage entity Logical unit 1

• Internal Task Queue
• LUs inside a UFS device can be configured in variety of ways: Logical unit 3
• Amount of physical memory allocated to each LU
• Write Protection Logical unit 4
• Boot
• Memory Type (default, system code, non-persistent, enhanced)
• Priority access Logical unit 7
• RPMB

Device Capacity

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Logical unit (continued)
• A UFS device can have a maximum of 32 logical units in it.
• In addition, there might be 4 Well Known Logical Units (W-LUNS).

• REPORT LUNS
– Target for REPORT LUNS SCSI Request Well known logical unit LUN
– Returns number and configuration of all the LUNs on the device

• UFS Device REPORT LUNS 0x81

– Target for INQUIRY SCSI Request
– Configuration, Power Control, Formatting, flags, attributes UFS Device D0h

• Boot Boot B0h

– Used for boot operation
– Can be 1 or 2 boot partitions but only one active one RPMB C4h
• RPMB –
– Replay Protected memory block Well-known LUNS
– Need security protocol to access data

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 Application Layer Transaction View

Report LUNS

LU-0 /dev/sda
Response
LU-1 /dev/sdb

SCSI Driver

Read Capacity
LU-N /dev/sdX

Response
x Device
N

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 UFS System Overview

Application

LU-0
UFS Application Layer SCSI Driver

Configuration
LU-N Structures
UFS Transport Layer UFS Driver

MIPI Unipro MIPI Unipro

UFS Interconnect Layer
MIPI M-PHY MIPI M-PHY

UFS Host UFS Device 14

UFS Interconnect Layer • MIPI-PHY standard defines the physical layer
implementation.
• MIPI-Unipro standard defines the data link layer
implementation.

RST_N

HS-GEAR Maximum Datarate REF_CLK

UFS
HS-GEAR1 182 MBps
Controller
DIN_t/_c
Device
HS-GEAR2 364 MBps
DOUT_t/_c
HS-GEAR3 728 MBps

HS-GEAR4 1457 MBps

UFS data rates UFS signals

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Simplified UFS Power Modes
ActiveICCLevel

0x0
Sleep
…
0x15

Active Idle

Each of these functions implements a

START STOP UNIT Command
Power
Down
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 UFS System Overview

Application

LU-0
UFS Application Layer SCSI Driver

Configuration
LU-N Structures
UFS Transport Layer UFS Driver

MIPI Unipro MIPI Unipro

UFS Interconnect Layer
MIPI M-PHY MIPI M-PHY

UFS Host UFS Device 17

UFS Transport Layer
• Transactions consist of packets called UFS Protocol Information Units (UPIU).
• The host is the Initiator and the device is the Target.
• There are different types of UPIUs for handling SCSI commands, data operations,
task management operations, query operations etc.
• Each transaction consists of:
– One COMMAND UPIU
– Zero or more DATA IN or DATA OUT UPIU
– RESPONSE UPIU
• Each UPIU contains a 12 bytes header followed by optional fields depending on the
type of UPIU.
UFS Transport Layer

UPIU HEADER

General UPIU Structure

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 Transaction Type
UPIU Structure
Flags

LUN
Initiator Target

Task Tag NOP OUT NOP IN

Initiator ID Command Response

Command Set Type Data Out Data In

Query/Task Manag. Fn Task Manag. Req Task Mang. Resp.

Response - Ready to Transfer

Status Query Request Query Response

Total length - Reject

Device Info Types of UPIUs

Data Length

UPIU Header
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 UTP Read Transaction
UAP Initiator Target

Command
UPIU
READ CDB

Data In
UPIU

Data In
UPIU

Response
UPIU

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 UTP Write Transaction
UAP Initiator Target

Command
UPIU
WRITE CDB

Ready to Transfer
UPIU

Data Out
UPIU

Ready to Transfer
UPIU

Data Out
UPIU

Response
UPIU 22
UTP Host Memory Configuration

UTP Transfer Command UPIU

Request
Descriptor Response UPIU

PRDT Data Buffer

UTP Transfer Command Descriptor

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 Transaction Type
UFS Host Memory Configuration
Flags 0
UTP Transfer Command UPIU
LUN Request
Descriptor Response UPIU
Task Tag 1
UTP Transfer PRDT Data Buffer
Initiator ID Request
Descriptor
Command Set Type Command UPIU

Query/Task Manag. Fn
. Response UPIU

Response . PRDT
.
Data Buffer

Status . .
Total length . Command UPIU
Device Info 31
UTP Transfer Response UPIU
Data Length Request
PRDT Data Buffer
Descriptor
UPIU Header
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 Transaction Type
UFS Task Management
0
Flags Task Management
Request UPIU
LUN
Task Management
Task Tag Response UPIU
Initiator ID 1
Task Management
Command Set Type Request UPIU
Query/Task Manag. Fn Task Management
Response UPIU
Response

Status
.
Total length
7
.
Task Management
Device Info
Request UPIU
Data Length Task Management
Response UPIU
UPIU Header
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UTP Host Memory Configuration

0
Command UPIU
UTP Transfer Request
Descriptor
Response UPIU
1
PRDT Data Buffer
UTP Transfer Request
Descriptor

Command UPIU
0
Task Magement . Response UPIU
Request UPIU
.
PRDT Data Buffer
Task Magement .
Response UPIU
.
1
Task Magement
Request UPIU Command UPIU
31
Response UPIU
Task Magement UTP Transfer Request
Response UPIU Descriptor PRDT Data Buffer

.
.
7
Task Magement
Request UPIU

Task Magement
Response UPIU

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UFS Host Controller Interface
• Host Capabilities Registers: Version, Vendor ID, 64 bit support, number of slots etc.

• Operation and Runtime Registers: Interrupt handling (including aggregator), error status at each layer,
host controller status etc.

• UTP Transfer Registers: Base addresses of UTPTRD table and UTPCMD table, doorbell registers,
complete notifier etc.

• Task Management Registers: Base address of UTPTM table, doorbell, complete notifiers etc.

• UIC Command Registers: Interconnect layer command register and arguments.

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 UFS System Overview

Application

LU-0
UFS Application Layer SCSI Driver

Configuration
LU-N Structures
UFS Transport Layer UFS Driver

MIPI Unipro MIPI Unipro

UFS Interconnect Layer
MIPI M-PHY MIPI M-PHY

UFS Host UFS Device 28

 Transaction Type Query Request
Flags

LUN • Query request UPIU is used to access information about

Task Tag
configuration, enumeration, device descriptors, flags,
attributes etc.
Initiator ID Query Function Query Operation
OPCODE
Command Set Type Any value 00h NOP

Std. Read 01h Read

Query/Task Manag. Fn Descriptor

Std. Write 02h Write

Response Descriptor

Std. Read 03h Read

Status Attribute

Std. Write 04h Write

Total length Attribute

Std. Read 05h Read Flag

Device Info Std. Write 06h Set Flag

Std. Write 07h Clear Flag

Data Length
Std. Write 08h Toggle Flag

UPIU Header Query functions

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 UFS Descriptors, Flags and Attributes
Descriptor IDN Descriptor Type
UFS Descriptor
• Independently addressable data structure 00h Device

describing something about the device 01h Configuration

02h Unit

• Mostly read only except Configuration 03h -

Descriptor 04h Interconnect

05h String
Query Function Query Operation
OPCODE 06 -
Any value 00h NOP
07h Geometry
Std. Read 01h Read
Descriptor 08h Power
Std. Write 02h Write
09h Device Health
Descriptor

Query UPIU opcode Types of Descriptors

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 UFS Descriptors, Flags and Attributes
Flag IDN Name
UFS Flags
• A single Boolean value that can be set On or 01h fDeviceInit

Off. Can be set, cleared or toggled. 02h fPermanentWPEn

03h fPowerOnWPEn

04h fBackgroundOpsEn

05h fDeviceLifeSpanModeEn
Query Function Query Operation
OPCODE 06h fPurgeEnable
Std. Read 05h Read Flag
07h fRefreshEnable
Std. Write 06h Set Flag
08h fPhyResourceRemoval
Std. Write 07h Clear Flag

Std. Write 08h Toggle Flag 09h fBusyRTC

Query UPIU opcode 0Bh fPermanentlyDisableFwUpdate

Types of Descriptors

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 UFS Descriptors, Flags and Attributes
Attribute IDN Name
UFS Attributes
• A single parameter that represents a specific 00h bBootLunEn

range of numerical values that can be set or 02h bCurrentPowerMode

read. 03h bActiveICCLevel

04h bOutOfOrderDataEn

05h bBackgroundOpStatus

Query Function Query Operation 06h bPurgeStatus

OPCODE
07h bMaxDataInSize
Std. Read 03h Read
Attribute
08h bMaxDataOutSize
Std. Write 04h Write
Attribute 09h dDynCapNeeded

Query UPIU opcode 0Ah bRefClkFreq

Types of Descriptors

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Kernel Implementation
• All the drivers can be found under drivers/scsi/ufs/

• Documentation/scsi/ufs.txt – for information about device enumeration steps

• Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ufs/ - for device tree node implementation

• ufshcd_pltrfm_init() : Call this from your probe()

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Kernel Implementation

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Configuring the device from user space
• UFS appears as a SCSI generic block device “/dev/bsg/ufs-bsg” that can accept
an ioctl system call.
• User space can allocate struct sg_io_v4 and send in the ioctl system call with
request code SG_IO.

int ioctl(int fd, SG_IO, struct sg_io_v4 *)

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ufs-utils
https://github.com/westerndigitalcorporation/ufs-utils

ufs-utils < desc | attr | fl | err_hist | uic >

• Examples:
– Read Configuration descriptor
ufs-utils desc –t 1 –p /dev/bsg/ufs-bsg

– Set Background operations flag

ufs-utils fl –t 4 –e –p /dev/bsg/ufs-bsg

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U-boot Implementation
• Available in 2020.01 release (got merged this Thursday!).
• drivers/ufs/ufs.c
• cmd/ufs.c
– Contains:
• basic command to initialize the ufs device, detect all LUNs and register them as scsi
devices.
– Does not contain:
• commands to access/configure descriptors/flags/attributes

Patches Welcome 
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References
• Universal Flash Storage 3.0

• UFS Host Controller Interface (UFSHCI) version 3.0

• https://git.kernel.org

• J721E Technical Reference Manual: http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/spruil1/spruil1.pdf

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Thank You

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