docs/concepts/drivers/driver_interfaces/audio_architecture.md

# Audio Drivers Architecture

In Fuchsia there are many ways drivers can be architected as defined by the
number of drivers used, how they communicate and their responsibilities. Audio
drivers responsibilities are determined by the interface(s) exposed to driver
clients, clients could be other drivers or applications users of the drivers
facilities.

## Definitions

| Term                 | Definition                                            |
| ---------------------| ------------------------------------------------------|
| Codec                | A real or virtual device that encodes/decodes a signal|
:                      : from digital/analog to/from analog/digital including  :
:                      : all combinations, e.g. digital to digital. Example    :
:                      : codecs include DAC-Amplifiers combos and ADC          :
:                      : converters.                                           :
| Controller or engine | The HW part of a system that manages the audio        |
:                      : signals, for example an SOC's audio subsystem.        :
| DAI                  | Digital Audio Interface. Interface between audio HW,  |
:                      : for instance a TDM or PDM link between controllers    :
:                      : and codecs.                                           :

# Audio interfaces

The main API in use by applications is the [Audio Streaming
Interface](audio_streaming.md). This API allows applications to capture or
render audio. Examples of audio applications using audio drivers via the
streaming interface include [audio_core](/src/media/audio/audio_core/README.md)
and [audio-driver-ctl](/src/media/audio/tools/audio-driver-ctl). The former is
the core of the audio system (providing software mixing, routing, etc.) and the
latter is a utility used for testing and bringup of new platforms.

A driver providing the streaming interface abstracts the HW functionality
described in the API, but it does not need to be the driver actually configuring
all the HW. A common split in audio HW is to have an audio engine that
configures a DAI communicating with an audio HW codec. In this split we can have
one driver for the audio engine and one for the codec. The [Codec
Interface](audio_codec.md) allows having a driver for the codec implementation
and another driver configuring the audio engine HW including the DAI and driving
the codec(s) configuration. In this configuration the codec(s) are secondary to
the controller. For instance the
[mt8167-tdm-output](/src/media/audio/drivers/mt8167-tdm-output) is a driver for
the MediaTek MT8167S audio subsystem (audio engine) also providing the streaming
interface for applications and communicating with any codec driver, for example
a [tas58xx](/src/media/audio/drivers/codecs/tas58xx) exposing the codec
interface as shown below:

                               +-----------------+
                               |   audio_core    |
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                               Streaming Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                               |mt8167-tdm-output|
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                                 Codec Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                               |     tas58xx     |
                               +-----------------+

Another way to architect drivers with the engine/codec split is to have a codec
providing the streaming audio interface, and the audio engine providing a
[DAI interface](audio_dai.md). For example a
[aml-g12-tdm-dai](/src/media/audio/drivers/aml-g12-tdm/dai.cc) driver for the
AMLogic g12 audio subsystem (audio engine) providing the DAI interface for other
drivers or applications to use, and a codec can drive the engine and provide
the streaming interface to applications like audio-driver-ctl.

                               +-----------------+
                               |audio-driver-ctl |
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                               Streaming Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                               |  codec-driver   |
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                                  DAI Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                               | aml-g12-tdm-dai |
                               +-----------------+

We can also have a non-driver component use either DAI or codec interface to
access an audio engine or audio HW codec directly. In the figure below we have
Bluetooth Audio providing the streaming interface and making use of the DAI
interface to configure the AMLogic g12 audio subsystem:

             +-----------------+    Streaming    +-----------------+
             |    BT Stack     +-----------------+   audio_core    |
             +-----------------+    Interface    +-----------------+
                      |
                 DAI Interface
                      |
             +-----------------+
             | aml-g12-tdm-dai |
             +-----------------+

It is also possible to have both the DAI and codec interfaces in use, for
example tied with another driver providing the streaming interface. An example
usage of this architecture for a system with two different codecs physically
connected to the same DAI stream.

                               +-----------------+
                               |   audio_core    |
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                               Streaming Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                    +----------+   glue driver   +----------+
                    |          +-----------------+          |
                    |                   |                   |
              DAI Interface      Codec Interface     Codec Interface
                    |                   |                   |
           +-----------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+
           | aml-g12-tdm-dai | |    tas-5720     | |    tas-5720     |
           +-----------------+ +-----------------+ +-----------------+

Finally, it is also possible to just have one driver configuring all HW and exposing the
streaming interface. This should be used when there is no logical DAI or codec HW
separation:

                               +-----------------+
                               |   audio_core    |
                               +-----------------+
                                        |
                               Streaming Interface
                                        |
                               +-----------------+
                               |USB audio driver |
                               +-----------------+