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diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/pwm.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/pwm.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..ab62f1bb0366 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/driver-api/pwm.rst @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +====================================== +Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) interface +====================================== + +This provides an overview about the Linux PWM interface + +PWMs are commonly used for controlling LEDs, fans or vibrators in +cell phones. PWMs with a fixed purpose have no need implementing +the Linux PWM API (although they could). However, PWMs are often +found as discrete devices on SoCs which have no fixed purpose. It's +up to the board designer to connect them to LEDs or fans. To provide +this kind of flexibility the generic PWM API exists. + +Identifying PWMs +---------------- + +Users of the legacy PWM API use unique IDs to refer to PWM devices. + +Instead of referring to a PWM device via its unique ID, board setup code +should instead register a static mapping that can be used to match PWM +consumers to providers, as given in the following example:: + + static struct pwm_lookup board_pwm_lookup[] = { + PWM_LOOKUP("tegra-pwm", 0, "pwm-backlight", NULL, + 50000, PWM_POLARITY_NORMAL), + }; + + static void __init board_init(void) + { + ... + pwm_add_table(board_pwm_lookup, ARRAY_SIZE(board_pwm_lookup)); + ... + } + +Using PWMs +---------- + +Legacy users can request a PWM device using pwm_request() and free it +after usage with pwm_free(). + +New users should use the pwm_get() function and pass to it the consumer +device or a consumer name. pwm_put() is used to free the PWM device. Managed +variants of these functions, devm_pwm_get() and devm_pwm_put(), also exist. + +After being requested, a PWM has to be configured using:: + + int pwm_apply_state(struct pwm_device *pwm, struct pwm_state *state); + +This API controls both the PWM period/duty_cycle config and the +enable/disable state. + +The pwm_config(), pwm_enable() and pwm_disable() functions are just wrappers +around pwm_apply_state() and should not be used if the user wants to change +several parameter at once. For example, if you see pwm_config() and +pwm_{enable,disable}() calls in the same function, this probably means you +should switch to pwm_apply_state(). + +The PWM user API also allows one to query the PWM state with pwm_get_state(). + +In addition to the PWM state, the PWM API also exposes PWM arguments, which +are the reference PWM config one should use on this PWM. +PWM arguments are usually platform-specific and allows the PWM user to only +care about dutycycle relatively to the full period (like, duty = 50% of the +period). struct pwm_args contains 2 fields (period and polarity) and should +be used to set the initial PWM config (usually done in the probe function +of the PWM user). PWM arguments are retrieved with pwm_get_args(). + +All consumers should really be reconfiguring the PWM upon resume as +appropriate. This is the only way to ensure that everything is resumed in +the proper order. + +Using PWMs with the sysfs interface +----------------------------------- + +If CONFIG_SYSFS is enabled in your kernel configuration a simple sysfs +interface is provided to use the PWMs from userspace. It is exposed at +/sys/class/pwm/. Each probed PWM controller/chip will be exported as +pwmchipN, where N is the base of the PWM chip. Inside the directory you +will find: + + npwm + The number of PWM channels this chip supports (read-only). + + export + Exports a PWM channel for use with sysfs (write-only). + + unexport + Unexports a PWM channel from sysfs (write-only). + +The PWM channels are numbered using a per-chip index from 0 to npwm-1. + +When a PWM channel is exported a pwmX directory will be created in the +pwmchipN directory it is associated with, where X is the number of the +channel that was exported. The following properties will then be available: + + period + The total period of the PWM signal (read/write). + Value is in nanoseconds and is the sum of the active and inactive + time of the PWM. + + duty_cycle + The active time of the PWM signal (read/write). + Value is in nanoseconds and must be less than the period. + + polarity + Changes the polarity of the PWM signal (read/write). + Writes to this property only work if the PWM chip supports changing + the polarity. The polarity can only be changed if the PWM is not + enabled. Value is the string "normal" or "inversed". + + enable + Enable/disable the PWM signal (read/write). + + - 0 - disabled + - 1 - enabled + +Implementing a PWM driver +------------------------- + +Currently there are two ways to implement pwm drivers. Traditionally +there only has been the barebone API meaning that each driver has +to implement the pwm_*() functions itself. This means that it's impossible +to have multiple PWM drivers in the system. For this reason it's mandatory +for new drivers to use the generic PWM framework. + +A new PWM controller/chip can be added using pwmchip_add() and removed +again with pwmchip_remove(). pwmchip_add() takes a filled in struct +pwm_chip as argument which provides a description of the PWM chip, the +number of PWM devices provided by the chip and the chip-specific +implementation of the supported PWM operations to the framework. + +When implementing polarity support in a PWM driver, make sure to respect the +signal conventions in the PWM framework. By definition, normal polarity +characterizes a signal starts high for the duration of the duty cycle and +goes low for the remainder of the period. Conversely, a signal with inversed +polarity starts low for the duration of the duty cycle and goes high for the +remainder of the period. + +Drivers are encouraged to implement ->apply() instead of the legacy +->enable(), ->disable() and ->config() methods. Doing that should provide +atomicity in the PWM config workflow, which is required when the PWM controls +a critical device (like a regulator). + +The implementation of ->get_state() (a method used to retrieve initial PWM +state) is also encouraged for the same reason: letting the PWM user know +about the current PWM state would allow him to avoid glitches. + +Drivers should not implement any power management. In other words, +consumers should implement it as described in the "Using PWMs" section. + +Locking +------- + +The PWM core list manipulations are protected by a mutex, so pwm_request() +and pwm_free() may not be called from an atomic context. Currently the +PWM core does not enforce any locking to pwm_enable(), pwm_disable() and +pwm_config(), so the calling context is currently driver specific. This +is an issue derived from the former barebone API and should be fixed soon. + +Helpers +------- + +Currently a PWM can only be configured with period_ns and duty_ns. For several +use cases freq_hz and duty_percent might be better. Instead of calculating +this in your driver please consider adding appropriate helpers to the framework. |