RE: [PATCH v1 1/1] Add driver for Mellanox BlueField-3 GPIO controller

[Asmaa Mnebhi <asmaa@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> All GPIOs are always controlled by HW by default.
> FW_CONTROL_SET is used when we want to release control of the GPIO by 
> HW and give the control to software instead.

What does that mean in practice? What way does hardware control a GPIO?

It's not some way of remuxing the pins is it, so you what you are calling "controlled by hardware" is actually that it is controlled by e.g. I2C and other stuff that may be muxed in?

Yes exactly. These GPIO pins are already assigned a specific HW functionality like I2C SDA/SCL, MDIO etc... but we would like to support the option to control them from software if desired.