diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/pinctrl.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/pinctrl.txt | 93 |
1 files changed, 86 insertions, 7 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/pinctrl.txt b/Documentation/pinctrl.txt index e3f322a4b358..c0ffd30eb55e 100644 --- a/Documentation/pinctrl.txt +++ b/Documentation/pinctrl.txt @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ int __init foo_probe(void) struct pinctrl_dev *pctl; pctl = pinctrl_register(&foo_desc, <PARENT>, NULL); - if (IS_ERR(pctl)) + if (!pctl) pr_err("could not register foo pin driver\n"); } @@ -795,18 +795,97 @@ special GPIO-handler is registered. GPIO mode pitfalls ================== -Sometime the developer may be confused by a datasheet talking about a pin -being possible to set into "GPIO mode". It appears that what hardware -engineers mean with "GPIO mode" is not necessarily the use case that is -implied in the kernel interface <linux/gpio.h>: a pin that you grab from -kernel code and then either listen for input or drive high/low to -assert/deassert some external line. +Due to the naming conventions used by hardware engineers, where "GPIO" +is taken to mean different things than what the kernel does, the developer +may be confused by a datasheet talking about a pin being possible to set +into "GPIO mode". It appears that what hardware engineers mean with +"GPIO mode" is not necessarily the use case that is implied in the kernel +interface <linux/gpio.h>: a pin that you grab from kernel code and then +either listen for input or drive high/low to assert/deassert some +external line. Rather hardware engineers think that "GPIO mode" means that you can software-control a few electrical properties of the pin that you would not be able to control if the pin was in some other mode, such as muxed in for a device. +The GPIO portions of a pin and its relation to a certain pin controller +configuration and muxing logic can be constructed in several ways. Here +are two examples: + +(A) + pin config + logic regs + | +- SPI + Physical pins --- pad --- pinmux -+- I2C + | +- mmc + | +- GPIO + pin + multiplex + logic regs + +Here some electrical properties of the pin can be configured no matter +whether the pin is used for GPIO or not. If you multiplex a GPIO onto a +pin, you can also drive it high/low from "GPIO" registers. +Alternatively, the pin can be controlled by a certain peripheral, while +still applying desired pin config properties. GPIO functionality is thus +orthogonal to any other device using the pin. + +In this arrangement the registers for the GPIO portions of the pin controller, +or the registers for the GPIO hardware module are likely to reside in a +separate memory range only intended for GPIO driving, and the register +range dealing with pin config and pin multiplexing get placed into a +different memory range and a separate section of the data sheet. + +(B) + + pin config + logic regs + | +- SPI + Physical pins --- pad --- pinmux -+- I2C + | | +- mmc + | | + GPIO pin + multiplex + logic regs + +In this arrangement, the GPIO functionality can always be enabled, such that +e.g. a GPIO input can be used to "spy" on the SPI/I2C/MMC signal while it is +pulsed out. It is likely possible to disrupt the traffic on the pin by doing +wrong things on the GPIO block, as it is never really disconnected. It is +possible that the GPIO, pin config and pin multiplex registers are placed into +the same memory range and the same section of the data sheet, although that +need not be the case. + +From a kernel point of view, however, these are different aspects of the +hardware and shall be put into different subsystems: + +- Registers (or fields within registers) that control electrical + properties of the pin such as biasing and drive strength should be + exposed through the pinctrl subsystem, as "pin configuration" settings. + +- Registers (or fields within registers) that control muxing of signals + from various other HW blocks (e.g. I2C, MMC, or GPIO) onto pins should + be exposed through the pinctrl subssytem, as mux functions. + +- Registers (or fields within registers) that control GPIO functionality + such as setting a GPIO's output value, reading a GPIO's input value, or + setting GPIO pin direction should be exposed through the GPIO subsystem, + and if they also support interrupt capabilities, through the irqchip + abstraction. + +Depending on the exact HW register design, some functions exposed by the +GPIO subsystem may call into the pinctrl subsystem in order to +co-ordinate register settings across HW modules. In particular, this may +be needed for HW with separate GPIO and pin controller HW modules, where +e.g. GPIO direction is determined by a register in the pin controller HW +module rather than the GPIO HW module. + +Electrical properties of the pin such as biasing and drive strength +may be placed at some pin-specific register in all cases or as part +of the GPIO register in case (B) especially. This doesn't mean that such +properties necessarily pertain to what the Linux kernel calls "GPIO". + Example: a pin is usually muxed in to be used as a UART TX line. But during system sleep, we need to put this pin into "GPIO mode" and ground it. |