diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt | 99 |
1 files changed, 99 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..5eee3e0bfc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-model/platform.txt @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +Platform Devices and Drivers +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Platform devices +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Platform devices are devices that typically appear as autonomous +entities in the system. This includes legacy port-based devices and +host bridges to peripheral buses. + + +Platform drivers +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Drivers for platform devices are typically very simple and +unstructured. Either the device was present at a particular I/O port +and the driver was loaded, or it was not. There was no possibility +of hotplugging or alternative discovery besides probing at a specific +I/O address and expecting a specific response. + + +Other Architectures, Modern Firmware, and new Platforms +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +These devices are not always at the legacy I/O ports. This is true on +other architectures and on some modern architectures. In most cases, +the drivers are modified to discover the devices at other well-known +ports for the given platform. However, the firmware in these systems +does usually know where exactly these devices reside, and in some +cases, it's the only way of discovering them. + + +The Platform Bus +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +A platform bus has been created to deal with these issues. First and +foremost, it groups all the legacy devices under a common bus, and +gives them a common parent if they don't already have one. + +But, besides the organizational benefits, the platform bus can also +accommodate firmware-based enumeration. + + +Device Discovery +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +The platform bus has no concept of probing for devices. Devices +discovery is left up to either the legacy drivers or the +firmware. These entities are expected to notify the platform of +devices that it discovers via the bus's add() callback: + + platform_bus.add(parent,bus_id). + + +Bus IDs +~~~~~~~ +Bus IDs are the canonical names for the devices. There is no globally +standard addressing mechanism for legacy devices. In the IA-32 world, +we have Pnp IDs to use, as well as the legacy I/O ports. However, +neither tell what the device really is or have any meaning on other +platforms. + +Since both PnP IDs and the legacy I/O ports (and other standard I/O +ports for specific devices) have a 1:1 mapping, we map the +platform-specific name or identifier to a generic name (at least +within the scope of the kernel). + +For example, a serial driver might find a device at I/O 0x3f8. The +ACPI firmware might also discover a device with PnP ID (_HID) +PNP0501. Both correspond to the same device and should be mapped to the +canonical name 'serial'. + +The bus_id field should be a concatenation of the canonical name and +the instance of that type of device. For example, the device at I/O +port 0x3f8 should have a bus_id of "serial0". This places the +responsibility of enumerating devices of a particular type up to the +discovery mechanism. But, they are the entity that should know best +(as opposed to the platform bus driver). + + +Drivers +~~~~~~~ +Drivers for platform devices should have a name that is the same as +the canonical name of the devices they support. This allows the +platform bus driver to do simple matching with the basic data +structures to determine if a driver supports a certain device. + +For example, a legacy serial driver should have a name of 'serial' and +register itself with the platform bus. + + +Driver Binding +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Legacy drivers assume they are bound to the device once they start up +and probe an I/O port. Divorcing them from this will be a difficult +process. However, that shouldn't prevent us from implementing +firmware-based enumeration. + +The firmware should notify the platform bus about devices before the +legacy drivers have had a chance to load. Once the drivers are loaded, +they driver model core will attempt to bind the driver to any +previously-discovered devices. Once that has happened, it will be free +to discover any other devices it pleases. + |