[RFC PATCH 0/5] Add smp booting support for Qualcomm ARMv8 SoCs

Kumar Gala
2015-04-10T15:24:46Z

On Apr 10, 2015, at 5:05 AM, Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 09, 2015 at 12:37:06PM -0500, Kumar Gala wrote:
>> This patch set adds support for SMP boot on the MSM8x16 family of Qualcomm SoCs.
>>
>> To support SMP on the MSM8x16 SoCs we need to add ARMv8/64-bit SCM interfaces to
>> setup the boot/release addresses for the secondary CPUs. In addition we need
>> a uniquie set of cpu ops. I'm aware the desired methods for booting secondary
>> CPUs is either via spintable or PSCI. However, these SoCs are shipping with a
>> firmware that does not support those methods.
>
> And the reason is? Some guesses:
>
> a) QC doesn't think boot interface (and cpuidle) standardisation is
> worth the effort (to put it nicely)
> b) The hardware was available before we even mentioned PSCI
> c) PSCI is not suitable for the QC's SCM interface
> d) Any combination of the above
>
> I strongly suspect it's point (a). Should we expect future QC hardware
> to do the same?
>
> You could argue the reason was (b), though we've been discussing PSCI
> for at least two years and, according to QC press releases, MSM8916
> started sampling in 2014.
>
> The only valid reason is (c) and if that's the case, I would expect a
> proposal for a new firmware interface protocol (it could be PSCI-based),
> well documented, that can be shared with others that may encounter the
> same shortcomings.
>
> --
> Catalin

Does it matter? I?ve always felt the kernel was a place of inclusion. Qualcomm choose for whatever reason to not use PSCI or spin table. You don?t like it, I might not like it, but it is what it is.

- k

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