Re: [PATCH V6 1/9] PM / OPP: Introduce "power-domain-opp" property

[Kevin Hilman <khilman@baylibre.com>]

Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org> writes:

> On 06-05-17, 11:58, Kevin Hilman wrote:
>> Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org> writes:
>> 
>> > On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 04:27:05PM +0530, Viresh Kumar wrote:
>> >> Power-domains need to express their active states in DT and the devices
>> >> within the power-domain need to express their dependency on those active
>> >> states. The power-domains can use the OPP tables without any
>> >> modifications to the bindings.
>> >> 
>> >> Add a new property "power-domain-opp", which will contain phandle to the
>> >> OPP node of the parent power domain. This is required for devices which
>> >> have dependency on the configured active state of the power domain for
>> >> their working.
>> >> 
>> >> For some platforms the actual frequency and voltages of the power
>> >> domains are managed by the firmware and are so hidden from the high
>> >> level operating system. The "opp-hz" property is relaxed a bit to
>> >> contain indexes instead of actual frequency values to support such
>> >> platforms.
>> >> 
>> >> Signed-off-by: Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
>> >> ---
>> >>  Documentation/devicetree/bindings/opp/opp.txt | 74 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>> >>  1 file changed, 73 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>> >> 
>> >> diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/opp/opp.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/opp/opp.txt
>> >> index 63725498bd20..6e30cae2a936 100644
>> >> --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/opp/opp.txt
>> >> +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/opp/opp.txt
>> >> @@ -77,7 +77,10 @@ This defines voltage-current-frequency combinations along with other related
>> >>  properties.
>> >>  
>> >>  Required properties:
>> >> -- opp-hz: Frequency in Hz, expressed as a 64-bit big-endian integer.
>> >> +- opp-hz: Frequency in Hz, expressed as a 64-bit big-endian integer. In some
>> >> +  cases the exact frequency in Hz may be hidden from the OS by the firmware and
>> >> +  this field may contain values that represent the frequency in a firmware
>> >> +  dependent way, for example an index of an array in the firmware.
>> >
>> > Not really sure OPP binding makes sense here.
>> 
>> I think OPP makes perfect sense here, because microcontroller firmware
>> is managaging OPPs in hardware.  We just may not know the exact voltage
>> and/or frequency (and the firmware/hardware may even be doing AVS for
>> micro-adjustments.)
>
> Yes, AVS is being done for the Qcom SoC as well.
>
>> > What about all the other properties. We expose voltage, but not freq?
>> 
>> I had the same question.  Seems the same comment about an abstract
>> "index" is needed for voltage also.
>
> Why should we do that?

For starters, because the lack of it looks very strange upon first read
(notice that both Rob and I pointed that out), and because you didn't
explain why in the first place, it draws attention.

> Here are the cases that I had in mind while writing this:
>
> - DT only contains the performance-index and nothing else (i.e. voltages aren't
>   exposed).
>
>   We wouldn't be required to fill the microvolt property as it is optional.
>
> - DT contains both performance-index and voltages.
>
>   The microvolts property will contain the actual voltages and opp-hz will
>   contain the index.
>
> I don't see why would we like to put some index value in the microvolts
> property. We are setting the index value in the opp-hz property to avoid adding
> extra fields and making sure opp-hz is still the unique property for the nodes.

What about the case where firmware wants exact frequencies, and
microvolts property is just an index?

The point is, you have a very specific SoC and use-case in mind, but the
goal of a binding change like this is to make something that could be
generically useful.

>> >>  
>> >>  Optional properties:
>> >>  - opp-microvolt: voltage in micro Volts.
>> >> @@ -154,6 +157,13 @@ properties.
>> >>  
>> >>  - status: Marks the node enabled/disabled.
>> >>  
>> >> +- power-domain-opp: Phandle to the OPP node of the parent power-domain. The
>> >> +  parent power-domain should be configured to the OPP whose node is pointed by
>> >> +  the phandle, in order to configure the device for the OPP node that contains
>> >> +  this property. The order in which the device and power domain should be
>> >> +  configured is implementation defined. The OPP table of a device can set this
>> >> +  property only if the device node contains "power-domains" property.
>> >> +
>> 
>> I do understand the need to map a device OPP to a parent power-domain
>> OPP, but I really don't like another phandle.
>> 
>> First, just because a device OPP changes does not mean that a
>> power-domain OPP has to change.  What really needs to be specified is a
>> minimum requirement, not an exact OPP.  IOW, if a device changes OPP,
>> the power-domain OPP has to be *at least* an OPP that can guarantee that
>> level of performance, but could also be a more performant OPP, right?
>
> Right and that's how the code is interpreting it right now. Yes, the description
> above should have been more clear on that though.
>
>> Also, the parent power-domain driver will have a list of all its
>> devices, and be able to get OPPs from those devices.
>> 
>> IMO, we should do the first (few) implementations of this feature from
>> the power-domain driver itself, and not try to figure out how to define
>> this for everyone in DT until we have a better handle on it (pun
>> intended) ;)
>
> Hmm, I am not sure how things are going to work in that case. The opp-hz value
> read from the phandle is passed to the QoS framework in this series, which makes
> sure that we select the highest requested performance point for a particular
> power-domain. The index value is required to be present with the OPP framework
> to make it all work, at least based on the way I have designed it for now.

IMO, this kind of dependency isn't the job of the OPP framework, it's
the job of the power-domain governor.

Kevin