The rest of pcm stuff is the PCM interrupt handler. The
      role of PCM interrupt handler in the sound driver is to update
      the buffer position and to tell the PCM middle layer when the
      buffer position goes across the prescribed period size. To
      inform this, call the snd_pcm_period_elapsed()
      function. 
      
There are several types of sound chips to generate the interrupts.
          This is the most frequently found type:  the hardware
        generates an interrupt at each period boundary.
	In this case, you can call
        snd_pcm_period_elapsed() at each 
        interrupt. 
        
          snd_pcm_period_elapsed() takes the
        substream pointer as its argument. Thus, you need to keep the
        substream pointer accessible from the chip instance. For
        example, define substream field in the chip record to hold the
        current running substream pointer, and set the pointer value
        at open callback (and reset at close callback). 
        
          If you acquire a spinlock in the interrupt handler, and the
        lock is used in other pcm callbacks, too, then you have to
        release the lock before calling
        snd_pcm_period_elapsed(), because
        snd_pcm_period_elapsed() calls other pcm
        callbacks inside. 
        
Typical code would be like:
Example 5.3. Interrupt Handler Case #1
  static irqreturn_t snd_mychip_interrupt(int irq, void *dev_id)
  {
          struct mychip *chip = dev_id;
          spin_lock(&chip->lock);
          ....
          if (pcm_irq_invoked(chip)) {
                  /* call updater, unlock before it */
                  spin_unlock(&chip->lock);
                  snd_pcm_period_elapsed(chip->substream);
                  spin_lock(&chip->lock);
                  /* acknowledge the interrupt if necessary */
          }
          ....
          spin_unlock(&chip->lock);
          return IRQ_HANDLED;
  }
            
        
	This happens when the hardware doesn't generate interrupts
        at the period boundary but issues timer interrupts at a fixed
        timer rate (e.g. es1968 or ymfpci drivers). 
        In this case, you need to check the current hardware
        position and accumulate the processed sample length at each
        interrupt.  When the accumulated size exceeds the period
        size, call 
        snd_pcm_period_elapsed() and reset the
        accumulator. 
        
Typical code would be like the following.
Example 5.4. Interrupt Handler Case #2
  static irqreturn_t snd_mychip_interrupt(int irq, void *dev_id)
  {
          struct mychip *chip = dev_id;
          spin_lock(&chip->lock);
          ....
          if (pcm_irq_invoked(chip)) {
                  unsigned int last_ptr, size;
                  /* get the current hardware pointer (in frames) */
                  last_ptr = get_hw_ptr(chip);
                  /* calculate the processed frames since the
                   * last update
                   */
                  if (last_ptr < chip->last_ptr)
                          size = runtime->buffer_size + last_ptr 
                                   - chip->last_ptr; 
                  else
                          size = last_ptr - chip->last_ptr;
                  /* remember the last updated point */
                  chip->last_ptr = last_ptr;
                  /* accumulate the size */
                  chip->size += size;
                  /* over the period boundary? */
                  if (chip->size >= runtime->period_size) {
                          /* reset the accumulator */
                          chip->size %= runtime->period_size;
                          /* call updater */
                          spin_unlock(&chip->lock);
                          snd_pcm_period_elapsed(substream);
                          spin_lock(&chip->lock);
                  }
                  /* acknowledge the interrupt if necessary */
          }
          ....
          spin_unlock(&chip->lock);
          return IRQ_HANDLED;
  }