summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
committerAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
commit57f0f512b273f60d52568b8c6b77e17f5636edc0 (patch)
tree5e910f0e82173f4ef4f51111366a3f1299037a7b /Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt
Initial import
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt223
1 files changed, 223 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt b/Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3a8e15cba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/IRQ-domain.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+irq_domain interrupt number mapping library
+
+The current design of the Linux kernel uses a single large number
+space where each separate IRQ source is assigned a different number.
+This is simple when there is only one interrupt controller, but in
+systems with multiple interrupt controllers the kernel must ensure
+that each one gets assigned non-overlapping allocations of Linux
+IRQ numbers.
+
+The number of interrupt controllers registered as unique irqchips
+show a rising tendency: for example subdrivers of different kinds
+such as GPIO controllers avoid reimplementing identical callback
+mechanisms as the IRQ core system by modelling their interrupt
+handlers as irqchips, i.e. in effect cascading interrupt controllers.
+
+Here the interrupt number loose all kind of correspondence to
+hardware interrupt numbers: whereas in the past, IRQ numbers could
+be chosen so they matched the hardware IRQ line into the root
+interrupt controller (i.e. the component actually fireing the
+interrupt line to the CPU) nowadays this number is just a number.
+
+For this reason we need a mechanism to separate controller-local
+interrupt numbers, called hardware irq's, from Linux IRQ numbers.
+
+The irq_alloc_desc*() and irq_free_desc*() APIs provide allocation of
+irq numbers, but they don't provide any support for reverse mapping of
+the controller-local IRQ (hwirq) number into the Linux IRQ number
+space.
+
+The irq_domain library adds mapping between hwirq and IRQ numbers on
+top of the irq_alloc_desc*() API. An irq_domain to manage mapping is
+preferred over interrupt controller drivers open coding their own
+reverse mapping scheme.
+
+irq_domain also implements translation from Device Tree interrupt
+specifiers to hwirq numbers, and can be easily extended to support
+other IRQ topology data sources.
+
+=== irq_domain usage ===
+An interrupt controller driver creates and registers an irq_domain by
+calling one of the irq_domain_add_*() functions (each mapping method
+has a different allocator function, more on that later). The function
+will return a pointer to the irq_domain on success. The caller must
+provide the allocator function with an irq_domain_ops structure.
+
+In most cases, the irq_domain will begin empty without any mappings
+between hwirq and IRQ numbers. Mappings are added to the irq_domain
+by calling irq_create_mapping() which accepts the irq_domain and a
+hwirq number as arguments. If a mapping for the hwirq doesn't already
+exist then it will allocate a new Linux irq_desc, associate it with
+the hwirq, and call the .map() callback so the driver can perform any
+required hardware setup.
+
+When an interrupt is received, irq_find_mapping() function should
+be used to find the Linux IRQ number from the hwirq number.
+
+The irq_create_mapping() function must be called *atleast once*
+before any call to irq_find_mapping(), lest the descriptor will not
+be allocated.
+
+If the driver has the Linux IRQ number or the irq_data pointer, and
+needs to know the associated hwirq number (such as in the irq_chip
+callbacks) then it can be directly obtained from irq_data->hwirq.
+
+=== Types of irq_domain mappings ===
+There are several mechanisms available for reverse mapping from hwirq
+to Linux irq, and each mechanism uses a different allocation function.
+Which reverse map type should be used depends on the use case. Each
+of the reverse map types are described below:
+
+==== Linear ====
+irq_domain_add_linear()
+
+The linear reverse map maintains a fixed size table indexed by the
+hwirq number. When a hwirq is mapped, an irq_desc is allocated for
+the hwirq, and the IRQ number is stored in the table.
+
+The Linear map is a good choice when the maximum number of hwirqs is
+fixed and a relatively small number (~ < 256). The advantages of this
+map are fixed time lookup for IRQ numbers, and irq_descs are only
+allocated for in-use IRQs. The disadvantage is that the table must be
+as large as the largest possible hwirq number.
+
+The majority of drivers should use the linear map.
+
+==== Tree ====
+irq_domain_add_tree()
+
+The irq_domain maintains a radix tree map from hwirq numbers to Linux
+IRQs. When an hwirq is mapped, an irq_desc is allocated and the
+hwirq is used as the lookup key for the radix tree.
+
+The tree map is a good choice if the hwirq number can be very large
+since it doesn't need to allocate a table as large as the largest
+hwirq number. The disadvantage is that hwirq to IRQ number lookup is
+dependent on how many entries are in the table.
+
+Very few drivers should need this mapping.
+
+==== No Map ===-
+irq_domain_add_nomap()
+
+The No Map mapping is to be used when the hwirq number is
+programmable in the hardware. In this case it is best to program the
+Linux IRQ number into the hardware itself so that no mapping is
+required. Calling irq_create_direct_mapping() will allocate a Linux
+IRQ number and call the .map() callback so that driver can program the
+Linux IRQ number into the hardware.
+
+Most drivers cannot use this mapping.
+
+==== Legacy ====
+irq_domain_add_simple()
+irq_domain_add_legacy()
+irq_domain_add_legacy_isa()
+
+The Legacy mapping is a special case for drivers that already have a
+range of irq_descs allocated for the hwirqs. It is used when the
+driver cannot be immediately converted to use the linear mapping. For
+example, many embedded system board support files use a set of #defines
+for IRQ numbers that are passed to struct device registrations. In that
+case the Linux IRQ numbers cannot be dynamically assigned and the legacy
+mapping should be used.
+
+The legacy map assumes a contiguous range of IRQ numbers has already
+been allocated for the controller and that the IRQ number can be
+calculated by adding a fixed offset to the hwirq number, and
+visa-versa. The disadvantage is that it requires the interrupt
+controller to manage IRQ allocations and it requires an irq_desc to be
+allocated for every hwirq, even if it is unused.
+
+The legacy map should only be used if fixed IRQ mappings must be
+supported. For example, ISA controllers would use the legacy map for
+mapping Linux IRQs 0-15 so that existing ISA drivers get the correct IRQ
+numbers.
+
+Most users of legacy mappings should use irq_domain_add_simple() which
+will use a legacy domain only if an IRQ range is supplied by the
+system and will otherwise use a linear domain mapping. The semantics
+of this call are such that if an IRQ range is specified then
+descriptors will be allocated on-the-fly for it, and if no range is
+specified it will fall through to irq_domain_add_linear() which means
+*no* irq descriptors will be allocated.
+
+A typical use case for simple domains is where an irqchip provider
+is supporting both dynamic and static IRQ assignments.
+
+In order to avoid ending up in a situation where a linear domain is
+used and no descriptor gets allocated it is very important to make sure
+that the driver using the simple domain call irq_create_mapping()
+before any irq_find_mapping() since the latter will actually work
+for the static IRQ assignment case.
+
+==== Hierarchy IRQ domain ====
+On some architectures, there may be multiple interrupt controllers
+involved in delivering an interrupt from the device to the target CPU.
+Let's look at a typical interrupt delivering path on x86 platforms:
+
+Device --> IOAPIC -> Interrupt remapping Controller -> Local APIC -> CPU
+
+There are three interrupt controllers involved:
+1) IOAPIC controller
+2) Interrupt remapping controller
+3) Local APIC controller
+
+To support such a hardware topology and make software architecture match
+hardware architecture, an irq_domain data structure is built for each
+interrupt controller and those irq_domains are organized into hierarchy.
+When building irq_domain hierarchy, the irq_domain near to the device is
+child and the irq_domain near to CPU is parent. So a hierarchy structure
+as below will be built for the example above.
+ CPU Vector irq_domain (root irq_domain to manage CPU vectors)
+ ^
+ |
+ Interrupt Remapping irq_domain (manage irq_remapping entries)
+ ^
+ |
+ IOAPIC irq_domain (manage IOAPIC delivery entries/pins)
+
+There are four major interfaces to use hierarchy irq_domain:
+1) irq_domain_alloc_irqs(): allocate IRQ descriptors and interrupt
+ controller related resources to deliver these interrupts.
+2) irq_domain_free_irqs(): free IRQ descriptors and interrupt controller
+ related resources associated with these interrupts.
+3) irq_domain_activate_irq(): activate interrupt controller hardware to
+ deliver the interrupt.
+3) irq_domain_deactivate_irq(): deactivate interrupt controller hardware
+ to stop delivering the interrupt.
+
+Following changes are needed to support hierarchy irq_domain.
+1) a new field 'parent' is added to struct irq_domain; it's used to
+ maintain irq_domain hierarchy information.
+2) a new field 'parent_data' is added to struct irq_data; it's used to
+ build hierarchy irq_data to match hierarchy irq_domains. The irq_data
+ is used to store irq_domain pointer and hardware irq number.
+3) new callbacks are added to struct irq_domain_ops to support hierarchy
+ irq_domain operations.
+
+With support of hierarchy irq_domain and hierarchy irq_data ready, an
+irq_domain structure is built for each interrupt controller, and an
+irq_data structure is allocated for each irq_domain associated with an
+IRQ. Now we could go one step further to support stacked(hierarchy)
+irq_chip. That is, an irq_chip is associated with each irq_data along
+the hierarchy. A child irq_chip may implement a required action by
+itself or by cooperating with its parent irq_chip.
+
+With stacked irq_chip, interrupt controller driver only needs to deal
+with the hardware managed by itself and may ask for services from its
+parent irq_chip when needed. So we could achieve a much cleaner
+software architecture.
+
+For an interrupt controller driver to support hierarchy irq_domain, it
+needs to:
+1) Implement irq_domain_ops.alloc and irq_domain_ops.free
+2) Optionally implement irq_domain_ops.activate and
+ irq_domain_ops.deactivate.
+3) Optionally implement an irq_chip to manage the interrupt controller
+ hardware.
+4) No need to implement irq_domain_ops.map and irq_domain_ops.unmap,
+ they are unused with hierarchy irq_domain.
+
+Hierarchy irq_domain may also be used to support other architectures,
+such as ARM, ARM64 etc.