Re: [PATCH v1 0/3] Add required-opps support to devfreq passive gov

[Viresh Kumar]

On 24-06-19, 22:29, Saravana Kannan wrote:
> No, the CPUs will be the "parent" and the cache will be the "child".
> CPU is a special case when it comes to the actual software (not DT) as
> we'll need the devfreq governor to look at all the CPUfreq policies to
> decide the cache frequency (max of all their requirements).
> 
> I think "master" and "slave" would have been a better term as the
> master device determines its frequency using whatever means and the
> "slave" device just "follows" the master device.

Okay, so to confirm again this is what we will have:

- CPUs are called masters and Caches are slaves.

- The devfreq governor we are talking about takes care of changing
  frequency of caches (slaves) and chooses a target frequency for
  caches based on what the masters are running at.

- The CPUs OPP nodes will have required-opps property and will be
  pointing to the caches OPP nodes. The CPUs may already be using
  required-opps node for PM domain performance state thing.


Now the problem is "required-opp" means something really *required*
and it is not optional. Like a specific voltage level before we can
switch to a particular frequency. And this is how I have though of it
until now. And this shouldn't be handled asynchronously, i.e. required
OPPs must be set while configuring OPP of a device.

So, when a CPU changes frequency, we must change the performance state
of PM domain and change frequency/bw of the cache synchronously. And
in such a case "required-opps" can be a very good fit for this use
case.

But with what you are trying to do it is no longer required-opp but
good-to-have-opp. And that worries me.

-- 
viresh