| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> | |
| <!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" | |
| "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []> | |
| <book id="LinuxKernelAPI"> | |
| <bookinfo> | |
| <title>The Linux Kernel API</title> | |
| <legalnotice> | |
| <para> | |
| This documentation is free software; you can redistribute | |
| it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public | |
| License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either | |
| version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later | |
| version. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| This program is distributed in the hope that it will be | |
| useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied | |
| warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. | |
| See the GNU General Public License for more details. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public | |
| License along with this program; if not, write to the Free | |
| Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, | |
| MA 02111-1307 USA | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| For more details see the file COPYING in the source | |
| distribution of Linux. | |
| </para> | |
| </legalnotice> | |
| </bookinfo> | |
| <toc></toc> | |
| <chapter id="Basics"> | |
| <title>Driver Basics</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Driver Entry and Exit points</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/init.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Atomic and pointer manipulation</title> | |
| !Iarch/x86/include/asm/atomic_32.h | |
| !Iarch/x86/include/asm/unaligned.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Delaying, scheduling, and timer routines</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/sched.h | |
| !Ekernel/sched.c | |
| !Ekernel/timer.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>High-resolution timers</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/ktime.h | |
| !Iinclude/linux/hrtimer.h | |
| !Ekernel/hrtimer.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Workqueues and Kevents</title> | |
| !Ekernel/workqueue.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Internal Functions</title> | |
| !Ikernel/exit.c | |
| !Ikernel/signal.c | |
| !Iinclude/linux/kthread.h | |
| !Ekernel/kthread.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Kernel objects manipulation</title> | |
| <!-- | |
| X!Iinclude/linux/kobject.h | |
| --> | |
| !Elib/kobject.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Kernel utility functions</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/kernel.h | |
| !Ekernel/printk.c | |
| !Ekernel/panic.c | |
| !Ekernel/sys.c | |
| !Ekernel/rcupdate.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Device Resource Management</title> | |
| !Edrivers/base/devres.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="adt"> | |
| <title>Data Types</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Doubly Linked Lists</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/list.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="libc"> | |
| <title>Basic C Library Functions</title> | |
| <para> | |
| When writing drivers, you cannot in general use routines which are | |
| from the C Library. Some of the functions have been found generally | |
| useful and they are listed below. The behaviour of these functions | |
| may vary slightly from those defined by ANSI, and these deviations | |
| are noted in the text. | |
| </para> | |
| <sect1><title>String Conversions</title> | |
| !Ilib/vsprintf.c | |
| !Elib/vsprintf.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>String Manipulation</title> | |
| <!-- All functions are exported at now | |
| X!Ilib/string.c | |
| --> | |
| !Elib/string.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Bit Operations</title> | |
| !Iarch/x86/include/asm/bitops.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="kernel-lib"> | |
| <title>Basic Kernel Library Functions</title> | |
| <para> | |
| The Linux kernel provides more basic utility functions. | |
| </para> | |
| <sect1><title>Bitmap Operations</title> | |
| !Elib/bitmap.c | |
| !Ilib/bitmap.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Command-line Parsing</title> | |
| !Elib/cmdline.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1 id="crc"><title>CRC Functions</title> | |
| !Elib/crc7.c | |
| !Elib/crc16.c | |
| !Elib/crc-itu-t.c | |
| !Elib/crc32.c | |
| !Elib/crc-ccitt.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="mm"> | |
| <title>Memory Management in Linux</title> | |
| <sect1><title>The Slab Cache</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/slab.h | |
| !Emm/slab.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>User Space Memory Access</title> | |
| !Iarch/x86/include/asm/uaccess_32.h | |
| !Earch/x86/lib/usercopy_32.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>More Memory Management Functions</title> | |
| !Emm/readahead.c | |
| !Emm/filemap.c | |
| !Emm/memory.c | |
| !Emm/vmalloc.c | |
| !Imm/page_alloc.c | |
| !Emm/mempool.c | |
| !Emm/dmapool.c | |
| !Emm/page-writeback.c | |
| !Emm/truncate.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="ipc"> | |
| <title>Kernel IPC facilities</title> | |
| <sect1><title>IPC utilities</title> | |
| !Iipc/util.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="kfifo"> | |
| <title>FIFO Buffer</title> | |
| <sect1><title>kfifo interface</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/kfifo.h | |
| !Ekernel/kfifo.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="relayfs"> | |
| <title>relay interface support</title> | |
| <para> | |
| Relay interface support | |
| is designed to provide an efficient mechanism for tools and | |
| facilities to relay large amounts of data from kernel space to | |
| user space. | |
| </para> | |
| <sect1><title>relay interface</title> | |
| !Ekernel/relay.c | |
| !Ikernel/relay.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="modload"> | |
| <title>Module Support</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Module Loading</title> | |
| !Ekernel/kmod.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Inter Module support</title> | |
| <para> | |
| Refer to the file kernel/module.c for more information. | |
| </para> | |
| <!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source | |
| X!Ekernel/module.c | |
| --> | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="hardware"> | |
| <title>Hardware Interfaces</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Interrupt Handling</title> | |
| !Ekernel/irq/manage.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>DMA Channels</title> | |
| !Ekernel/dma.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Resources Management</title> | |
| !Ikernel/resource.c | |
| !Ekernel/resource.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>MTRR Handling</title> | |
| !Earch/x86/kernel/cpu/mtrr/main.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>PCI Support Library</title> | |
| !Edrivers/pci/pci.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/pci-driver.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/remove.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/pci-acpi.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/search.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/msi.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/bus.c | |
| <!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source | |
| X!Edrivers/pci/hotplug.c | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/pci/probe.c | |
| !Edrivers/pci/rom.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>PCI Hotplug Support Library</title> | |
| !Edrivers/pci/hotplug/pci_hotplug_core.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>MCA Architecture</title> | |
| <sect2><title>MCA Device Functions</title> | |
| <para> | |
| Refer to the file arch/x86/kernel/mca_32.c for more information. | |
| </para> | |
| <!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source | |
| X!Earch/x86/kernel/mca_32.c | |
| --> | |
| </sect2> | |
| <sect2><title>MCA Bus DMA</title> | |
| !Iarch/x86/include/asm/mca_dma.h | |
| </sect2> | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="firmware"> | |
| <title>Firmware Interfaces</title> | |
| <sect1><title>DMI Interfaces</title> | |
| !Edrivers/firmware/dmi_scan.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>EDD Interfaces</title> | |
| !Idrivers/firmware/edd.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="security"> | |
| <title>Security Framework</title> | |
| !Isecurity/security.c | |
| !Esecurity/inode.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="audit"> | |
| <title>Audit Interfaces</title> | |
| !Ekernel/audit.c | |
| !Ikernel/auditsc.c | |
| !Ikernel/auditfilter.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="accounting"> | |
| <title>Accounting Framework</title> | |
| !Ikernel/acct.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="devdrivers"> | |
| <title>Device drivers infrastructure</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Device Drivers Base</title> | |
| <!-- | |
| X!Iinclude/linux/device.h | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/base/driver.c | |
| !Edrivers/base/core.c | |
| !Edrivers/base/class.c | |
| !Edrivers/base/firmware_class.c | |
| !Edrivers/base/transport_class.c | |
| <!-- Cannot be included, because | |
| attribute_container_add_class_device_adapter | |
| and attribute_container_classdev_to_container | |
| exceed allowed 44 characters maximum | |
| X!Edrivers/base/attribute_container.c | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/base/sys.c | |
| <!-- | |
| X!Edrivers/base/interface.c | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/base/platform.c | |
| !Edrivers/base/bus.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Device Drivers Power Management</title> | |
| !Edrivers/base/power/main.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Device Drivers ACPI Support</title> | |
| <!-- Internal functions only | |
| X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/main.c | |
| X!Edrivers/acpi/sleep/wakeup.c | |
| X!Edrivers/acpi/motherboard.c | |
| X!Edrivers/acpi/bus.c | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/acpi/scan.c | |
| !Idrivers/acpi/scan.c | |
| <!-- No correct structured comments | |
| X!Edrivers/acpi/pci_bind.c | |
| --> | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Device drivers PnP support</title> | |
| !Idrivers/pnp/core.c | |
| <!-- No correct structured comments | |
| X!Edrivers/pnp/system.c | |
| --> | |
| !Edrivers/pnp/card.c | |
| !Idrivers/pnp/driver.c | |
| !Edrivers/pnp/manager.c | |
| !Edrivers/pnp/support.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Userspace IO devices</title> | |
| !Edrivers/uio/uio.c | |
| !Iinclude/linux/uio_driver.h | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="blkdev"> | |
| <title>Block Devices</title> | |
| !Eblock/blk-core.c | |
| !Iblock/blk-core.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-map.c | |
| !Iblock/blk-sysfs.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-settings.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-exec.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-barrier.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-tag.c | |
| !Iblock/blk-tag.c | |
| !Eblock/blk-integrity.c | |
| !Iblock/blktrace.c | |
| !Iblock/genhd.c | |
| !Eblock/genhd.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="chrdev"> | |
| <title>Char devices</title> | |
| !Efs/char_dev.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="miscdev"> | |
| <title>Miscellaneous Devices</title> | |
| !Edrivers/char/misc.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="parportdev"> | |
| <title>Parallel Port Devices</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/parport.h | |
| !Edrivers/parport/ieee1284.c | |
| !Edrivers/parport/share.c | |
| !Idrivers/parport/daisy.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="message_devices"> | |
| <title>Message-based devices</title> | |
| <sect1><title>Fusion message devices</title> | |
| !Edrivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptbase.c | |
| !Edrivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptscsih.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptctl.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptspi.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptfc.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/fusion/mptlan.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>I2O message devices</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/i2o.h | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/core.h | |
| !Edrivers/message/i2o/iop.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/iop.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/config-osm.c | |
| !Edrivers/message/i2o/exec-osm.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/exec-osm.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/bus-osm.c | |
| !Edrivers/message/i2o/device.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/device.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/driver.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/pci.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/i2o_block.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/i2o_scsi.c | |
| !Idrivers/message/i2o/i2o_proc.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="snddev"> | |
| <title>Sound Devices</title> | |
| !Iinclude/sound/core.h | |
| !Esound/sound_core.c | |
| !Iinclude/sound/pcm.h | |
| !Esound/core/pcm.c | |
| !Esound/core/device.c | |
| !Esound/core/info.c | |
| !Esound/core/rawmidi.c | |
| !Esound/core/sound.c | |
| !Esound/core/memory.c | |
| !Esound/core/pcm_memory.c | |
| !Esound/core/init.c | |
| !Esound/core/isadma.c | |
| !Esound/core/control.c | |
| !Esound/core/pcm_lib.c | |
| !Esound/core/hwdep.c | |
| !Esound/core/pcm_native.c | |
| !Esound/core/memalloc.c | |
| <!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source | |
| X!Isound/sound_firmware.c | |
| --> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="uart16x50"> | |
| <title>16x50 UART Driver</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/serial_core.h | |
| !Edrivers/serial/serial_core.c | |
| !Edrivers/serial/8250.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="fbdev"> | |
| <title>Frame Buffer Library</title> | |
| <para> | |
| The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures. | |
| These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are | |
| fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs. | |
| The last three can be made available to and from userland. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card. | |
| Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a | |
| collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work. | |
| fb_info is only visible to the kernel. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card | |
| that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as | |
| depth and the resolution may be defined. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the | |
| properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't | |
| be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the | |
| frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer | |
| memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was | |
| little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things | |
| such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With | |
| the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used | |
| correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs | |
| will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x. | |
| </para> | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Memory</title> | |
| !Edrivers/video/fbmem.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <!-- | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Console</title> | |
| X!Edrivers/video/console/fbcon.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| --> | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Colormap</title> | |
| !Edrivers/video/fbcmap.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <!-- FIXME: | |
| drivers/video/fbgen.c has no docs, which stuffs up the sgml. Comment | |
| out until somebody adds docs. KAO | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Generic Functions</title> | |
| X!Idrivers/video/fbgen.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| KAO --> | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Video Mode Database</title> | |
| !Idrivers/video/modedb.c | |
| !Edrivers/video/modedb.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Macintosh Video Mode Database</title> | |
| !Edrivers/video/macmodes.c | |
| </sect1> | |
| <sect1><title>Frame Buffer Fonts</title> | |
| <para> | |
| Refer to the file drivers/video/console/fonts.c for more information. | |
| </para> | |
| <!-- FIXME: Removed for now since no structured comments in source | |
| X!Idrivers/video/console/fonts.c | |
| --> | |
| </sect1> | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="input_subsystem"> | |
| <title>Input Subsystem</title> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/input.h | |
| !Edrivers/input/input.c | |
| !Edrivers/input/ff-core.c | |
| !Edrivers/input/ff-memless.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="spi"> | |
| <title>Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)</title> | |
| <para> | |
| SPI is the "Serial Peripheral Interface", widely used with | |
| embedded systems because it is a simple and efficient | |
| interface: basically a multiplexed shift register. | |
| Its three signal wires hold a clock (SCK, often in the range | |
| of 1-20 MHz), a "Master Out, Slave In" (MOSI) data line, and | |
| a "Master In, Slave Out" (MISO) data line. | |
| SPI is a full duplex protocol; for each bit shifted out the | |
| MOSI line (one per clock) another is shifted in on the MISO line. | |
| Those bits are assembled into words of various sizes on the | |
| way to and from system memory. | |
| An additional chipselect line is usually active-low (nCS); | |
| four signals are normally used for each peripheral, plus | |
| sometimes an interrupt. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The SPI bus facilities listed here provide a generalized | |
| interface to declare SPI busses and devices, manage them | |
| according to the standard Linux driver model, and perform | |
| input/output operations. | |
| At this time, only "master" side interfaces are supported, | |
| where Linux talks to SPI peripherals and does not implement | |
| such a peripheral itself. | |
| (Interfaces to support implementing SPI slaves would | |
| necessarily look different.) | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The programming interface is structured around two kinds of driver, | |
| and two kinds of device. | |
| A "Controller Driver" abstracts the controller hardware, which may | |
| be as simple as a set of GPIO pins or as complex as a pair of FIFOs | |
| connected to dual DMA engines on the other side of the SPI shift | |
| register (maximizing throughput). Such drivers bridge between | |
| whatever bus they sit on (often the platform bus) and SPI, and | |
| expose the SPI side of their device as a | |
| <structname>struct spi_master</structname>. | |
| SPI devices are children of that master, represented as a | |
| <structname>struct spi_device</structname> and manufactured from | |
| <structname>struct spi_board_info</structname> descriptors which | |
| are usually provided by board-specific initialization code. | |
| A <structname>struct spi_driver</structname> is called a | |
| "Protocol Driver", and is bound to a spi_device using normal | |
| driver model calls. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The I/O model is a set of queued messages. Protocol drivers | |
| submit one or more <structname>struct spi_message</structname> | |
| objects, which are processed and completed asynchronously. | |
| (There are synchronous wrappers, however.) Messages are | |
| built from one or more <structname>struct spi_transfer</structname> | |
| objects, each of which wraps a full duplex SPI transfer. | |
| A variety of protocol tweaking options are needed, because | |
| different chips adopt very different policies for how they | |
| use the bits transferred with SPI. | |
| </para> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/spi/spi.h | |
| !Fdrivers/spi/spi.c spi_register_board_info | |
| !Edrivers/spi/spi.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="i2c"> | |
| <title>I<superscript>2</superscript>C and SMBus Subsystem</title> | |
| <para> | |
| I<superscript>2</superscript>C (or without fancy typography, "I2C") | |
| is an acronym for the "Inter-IC" bus, a simple bus protocol which is | |
| widely used where low data rate communications suffice. | |
| Since it's also a licensed trademark, some vendors use another | |
| name (such as "Two-Wire Interface", TWI) for the same bus. | |
| I2C only needs two signals (SCL for clock, SDA for data), conserving | |
| board real estate and minimizing signal quality issues. | |
| Most I2C devices use seven bit addresses, and bus speeds of up | |
| to 400 kHz; there's a high speed extension (3.4 MHz) that's not yet | |
| found wide use. | |
| I2C is a multi-master bus; open drain signaling is used to | |
| arbitrate between masters, as well as to handshake and to | |
| synchronize clocks from slower clients. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The Linux I2C programming interfaces support only the master | |
| side of bus interactions, not the slave side. | |
| The programming interface is structured around two kinds of driver, | |
| and two kinds of device. | |
| An I2C "Adapter Driver" abstracts the controller hardware; it binds | |
| to a physical device (perhaps a PCI device or platform_device) and | |
| exposes a <structname>struct i2c_adapter</structname> representing | |
| each I2C bus segment it manages. | |
| On each I2C bus segment will be I2C devices represented by a | |
| <structname>struct i2c_client</structname>. Those devices will | |
| be bound to a <structname>struct i2c_driver</structname>, | |
| which should follow the standard Linux driver model. | |
| (At this writing, a legacy model is more widely used.) | |
| There are functions to perform various I2C protocol operations; at | |
| this writing all such functions are usable only from task context. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| The System Management Bus (SMBus) is a sibling protocol. Most SMBus | |
| systems are also I2C conformant. The electrical constraints are | |
| tighter for SMBus, and it standardizes particular protocol messages | |
| and idioms. Controllers that support I2C can also support most | |
| SMBus operations, but SMBus controllers don't support all the protocol | |
| options that an I2C controller will. | |
| There are functions to perform various SMBus protocol operations, | |
| either using I2C primitives or by issuing SMBus commands to | |
| i2c_adapter devices which don't support those I2C operations. | |
| </para> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/i2c.h | |
| !Fdrivers/i2c/i2c-boardinfo.c i2c_register_board_info | |
| !Edrivers/i2c/i2c-core.c | |
| </chapter> | |
| <chapter id="clk"> | |
| <title>Clock Framework</title> | |
| <para> | |
| The clock framework defines programming interfaces to support | |
| software management of the system clock tree. | |
| This framework is widely used with System-On-Chip (SOC) platforms | |
| to support power management and various devices which may need | |
| custom clock rates. | |
| Note that these "clocks" don't relate to timekeeping or real | |
| time clocks (RTCs), each of which have separate frameworks. | |
| These <structname>struct clk</structname> instances may be used | |
| to manage for example a 96 MHz signal that is used to shift bits | |
| into and out of peripherals or busses, or otherwise trigger | |
| synchronous state machine transitions in system hardware. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| Power management is supported by explicit software clock gating: | |
| unused clocks are disabled, so the system doesn't waste power | |
| changing the state of transistors that aren't in active use. | |
| On some systems this may be backed by hardware clock gating, | |
| where clocks are gated without being disabled in software. | |
| Sections of chips that are powered but not clocked may be able | |
| to retain their last state. | |
| This low power state is often called a <emphasis>retention | |
| mode</emphasis>. | |
| This mode still incurs leakage currents, especially with finer | |
| circuit geometries, but for CMOS circuits power is mostly used | |
| by clocked state changes. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| Power-aware drivers only enable their clocks when the device | |
| they manage is in active use. Also, system sleep states often | |
| differ according to which clock domains are active: while a | |
| "standby" state may allow wakeup from several active domains, a | |
| "mem" (suspend-to-RAM) state may require a more wholesale shutdown | |
| of clocks derived from higher speed PLLs and oscillators, limiting | |
| the number of possible wakeup event sources. A driver's suspend | |
| method may need to be aware of system-specific clock constraints | |
| on the target sleep state. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| Some platforms support programmable clock generators. These | |
| can be used by external chips of various kinds, such as other | |
| CPUs, multimedia codecs, and devices with strict requirements | |
| for interface clocking. | |
| </para> | |
| !Iinclude/linux/clk.h | |
| </chapter> | |
| </book> |