Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] arm64: dts: qcom: Add base QDU1000/QRU1000 DTSIs

[Krzysztof Kozlowski <krzysztof.kozlowski@linaro.org>]

On 20/10/2022 13:18, Stephan Gerhold wrote:
>> No, it puts attention to the board designer that he needs to provide the
>> clock in his design.
>>
>> We had such talks about other platforms, although I do not have any
>> recent bookmarks. Something older:
>>
>> https://lore.kernel.org/all/3382034.5ADO0F7naY@wuerfel/
>>
>> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-samsung-soc/53DAB0A6.9030700@gmail.com/
>>
> 
> If I understand you correctly your argument for having the clock in the
> board DTS instead of the SoC DTSI is:
> 
> The SoC DTSI describes the components of the SoC, while the board DTS
> describes the components of the board (built around the SoC). The clock
> is part of the board (and not the SoC) and therefore belongs into the
> board DTS and not the SoC DTSI. Having the SoC/board components clearly
> separated ensures people writing new board DTS pay attention to
> everything board-specific.
> 
> Correct? This sounds reasonable to me.

Yes.

> 
> However, the main question of my previous mail was: Why do you
> alternatively recommend to keep the clock defined in the SoC DTSI and to
> just put the clock-frequency into the board DTS? This sounds like a
> contradiction of the above to me: the clock is still (partially)
> described as part of the SoC, even though it belongs to the board.

The proposal is a trade-off, compromise between code duplication and
above recommendation of splitting SoC <-> board.

As you said, all boards will provide this clock, so it is reasonable to
put some pieces of it in the SoC DTSI to avoid duplication. But the
final piece - what clock is there exactly (model, frequency etc) should
be put in board DTS to clarify that this comes with board.

> Someone writing a board DTS should not just put attention to the
> clock-frequency, but also if they have a single fixed-clock or
> maybe some kind of clock-fixed-factor setup, as I wrote.

True. If such setup is probably, then my recommendation would be to put
entire clock to the board.

Just note, that even in proposed frequency->board DTS, it is still
possible to use the clock-fixed-factor.

Best regards,
Krzysztof