Re: [PATCH] clocksource: sh_cmt: 32-bit control register support

[Simon Horman]

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 10:27:44PM +0900, Magnus Damm wrote:
> Hi Laurent,
> 
> On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 9:30 PM, Laurent Pinchart
> <laurent.pinchart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi Magnus,
> >
> > On Tuesday 18 June 2013 20:54:47 Magnus Damm wrote:
> >> On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 7:35 PM, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> >> > On Tuesday 18 June 2013 14:39:38 Magnus Damm wrote:
> >> >> On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 3:37 AM, Laurent Pinchart wrote:
> >> >> > On Monday 17 June 2013 15:40:52 Magnus Damm wrote:
> >> >> >> From: Magnus Damm <damm@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> Add support for CMT hardware with 32-bit control and counter
> >> >> >> registers, as found on r8a73a4 and r8a7790. To use the CMT
> >> >> >> with 32-bit hardware a second I/O memory resource needs to
> >> >> >> point out the CMSTR register and it needs to be 32 bit wide.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Is a memory second resource required ? Can't we use a single resource
> >> >> > that will contain all the registers ?
> >> >>
> >> >> The CMT hardware block comes with a shared timer start stop register
> >> >> that historically has been left out of the resource. The location of
> >> >> this register has so far been pointed out by the "channel offset"
> >> >> platform data member, together with information about which bit that
> >> >> happens to be assigned to the timer channel. This start stop register
> >> >> has happened to be kept in the same page of I/O memory as the main
> >> >> timer channel resource, so at this point we're sort of "lucky" that a
> >> >> single ioremap() has covered all cases.
> >> >>
> >> >> With this patch it becomes optional to instead of platform data use a
> >> >> second resource to point out the timer start/stop register. While we
> >> >> do that we can also use the size of that resource to determine the I/O
> >> >> access width, which happens to be something that is needed to enable
> >> >> the driver on certain SoCs.
> >> >
> >> > OK, I get it now. I've had a quick look at the documentation, and I'm
> >> > wondering whether we shouldn't register a single platform device that span
> >> > all the channels contained in the CMT, instead of registering one
> >> > platform device per channel.
> >>
> >> I both agree with you and disagree because of the current state of timers in
> >> the linux kernel. I would have liked a single platform device with all
> >> channles if this would be a generic timer driver that from user space could
> >> be configured to associate channels with various subsystems like PWM,
> >> clocksource, clockevent.
> >>
> >> At this point the driver is doing clockevent and clocksource only, and no
> >> sane user wants 84 channels of equivalent hardware blocks for those two.
> >
> > Of course, but we could always select which channels to register clockevents
> > and clocksources for in platform data. That won't fix the overall problem, but
> > it's one step forward.
> 
> But that's pretty much what we're doing, but only listing timer
> channels that will be used. Of course, moving around things can be
> done but I can't see why we want to do that if we have no selection of
> drivers for the actual timer channels. Also, each timer channel may
> have it's own unique set of possible parent clocks. That's something
> we want to tie in to DT together with CCF. Solving those things
> together makes sense IMO.
> 
> >> So based on that I'd rather do it like today and let people write custom
> >> drivers for whatever applications they may use the other channels for.
> >>
> >> So if you're in hacking mode, why don't you figure out some way timers can
> >> be configured from user space? =)
> >
> > I don't have *that* much free time at the moment I'm afraid, and I'm sure you
> > know why :-)
> 
> Yes I do, and that's why I asked. =)
> 
> >> If so then we can use DT to describe the actual hardware and let the
> >> software policy be decided via some configuration mechanism.
> >
> > Don't we also need timers during early boot, when userspace isn't available
> > yet ?
> 
> It depends on the rest of the system. It is possible to boot to user
> space without a timer, but I don't recommend it. =)

Hi,

I am holding off on this patch until some consensus is reached.
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