Hi Thomas, I've investigated the topic for a while, so if you don't mind I will share my thoughts :-) > The patch series removes the use of Exynos4210 specific cpufreq driver > and enables to use the cpufreq-cpu0 driver for Exynos4210 based > platforms. This is being done for few reasons. > > (a) The Exynos4210 cpufreq driver reads/writes clock controller > registers bypassing the Exynos4 CCF driver which is sort of > problematic. Also other, already supported devices suffer from it. Namely - Exynos4x12 and Exynos5250. That's why the solution shall be as generic as possible to also work with those two SoCs. > (b) Removes the need for having clock controller > register definitions in the cpufreq driver and also removes the need > for statically io-remapping clock controller address space (helps in > moving towards multiplatform kernel). > > In order to use cpufreq-cpu0 driver and provide fast cpu clock > switching during dvfs operations, the following apporach has been > used. > > (a) A new CPU clock provider type has been introduced in Samsung's CCF > support. This clock provider type can be a compostion of multiple > clock blocks such as mux, dividers and gates. Typically, in Exynos > platforms, there are multiple clock blocks in between the output > of the APLL and the CPU clock domain output. Representing these > mutiple clock blocks within a opaque CPU clock provider type helps > in reducing the time taken to perform a CPU clock frequency change > operation, which is generally required during DVFS operations. > This approach was suggested by Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx> > during LCE-2013. > > (b) A new optional safe operating point property has been introduced > in the cpufreq-cpu0 driver binding. On some platforms such as the > Samsung Exynos, a change in CPU frequency requires a change in the > PLL output that drives the CPU clock. A change in PLL output > requires the PLL output be turned off, which implies that the CPU > (and other components in the CPU clock domain) be supplied with > an alternate clock source during the time the PLL output is > changed. > > The clock speed of this alternate clock source could be higher > than the clock speed of the PLL at the time of switching over to > the alternate clock source. This temporary increase in clock speed > of the CPU clock domain implies that the blocks within the CPU > clock domain should also be supplied with an appropriate voltage > supply level as required to drive the CPU clock domain components > at the speed of the alternative clock source. This temporary > voltage level required during switching of CPU clock speed is > called safe voltage level. And the cpufreq-cpu0 driver has been > modified to setup the safe voltage levels during the changes > in CPU clock speed. > > (c) The CPU clock supply as been restructured as > [ Output of APLL -> Opaque CPU clock provider -> CPU clock output > ] And with the changes in (a) and (b) above, the cpufreq-cpu0 driver > can now be used and can remove the use of Exynos4210 specific > cpufreq driver. > > This approach is currently tried on Exynos4210 only. The same approach > can be adopted for other Exynos SoCs as well. This patch series is > based on linux-next master branch. > > Thomas Abraham (6): > cpufreq: cpufreq-cpu0: allow optional safe voltage during frequency > transitions clk: samsung: add infrastructure to register CPU clocks > clk: samsung: register cpu clock provider for exynos4210 SoC > cpufreq: exynos: remove Exynos4210 specific cpufreq driver support > arm: exynos4-dt: statically add platform device for cpufreq-cpu0 > platform driver arm: dts: add cpu nodes for Exynos4210 SoC > > .../devicetree/bindings/cpufreq/cpufreq-cpu0.txt | 5 + > arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos4210-origen.dts | 6 + > arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos4210-trats.dts | 6 + > arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos4210-universal_c210.dts | 6 + > arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos4210.dtsi | 22 +++ > arch/arm/mach-exynos/mach-exynos4-dt.c | 6 + > drivers/clk/samsung/clk-exynos4.c | 96 > ++++++++++++- drivers/clk/samsung/clk.c | > 71 +++++++++ drivers/clk/samsung/clk.h | > 37 +++++- drivers/cpufreq/Kconfig.arm | 11 -- > drivers/cpufreq/Makefile | 1 - > drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq-cpu0.c | 49 ++++++- > drivers/cpufreq/exynos-cpufreq.c | 4 +- > drivers/cpufreq/exynos-cpufreq.h | 8 - > drivers/cpufreq/exynos4210-cpufreq.c | 157 > -------------------- 15 files changed, 301 insertions(+), 184 > deletions(-) delete mode 100644 drivers/cpufreq/exynos4210-cpufreq.c > > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe cpufreq" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- Best regards, Lukasz Majewski Samsung R&D Institute Poland (SRPOL) | Linux Platform Group -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe cpufreq" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
