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diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9e3c3b33514c..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,207 +0,0 @@ -/* - * pcc-cpufreq.txt - PCC interface documentation - * - * Copyright (C) 2009 Red Hat, Matthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com> - * Copyright (C) 2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - * Nagananda Chumbalkar <nagananda.chumbalkar@hp.com> - * - * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - * - * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify - * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by - * the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License. - * - * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but - * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of - * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, GOOD TITLE or NON - * INFRINGEMENT. See the GNU General Public License for more details. - * - * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along - * with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., - * 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. - * - * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - */ - - - Processor Clocking Control Driver - --------------------------------- - -Contents: ---------- -1. Introduction -1.1 PCC interface -1.1.1 Get Average Frequency -1.1.2 Set Desired Frequency -1.2 Platforms affected -2. Driver and /sys details -2.1 scaling_available_frequencies -2.2 cpuinfo_transition_latency -2.3 cpuinfo_cur_freq -2.4 related_cpus -3. Caveats - -1. Introduction: ----------------- -Processor Clocking Control (PCC) is an interface between the platform -firmware and OSPM. It is a mechanism for coordinating processor -performance (ie: frequency) between the platform firmware and the OS. - -The PCC driver (pcc-cpufreq) allows OSPM to take advantage of the PCC -interface. - -OS utilizes the PCC interface to inform platform firmware what frequency the -OS wants for a logical processor. The platform firmware attempts to achieve -the requested frequency. If the request for the target frequency could not be -satisfied by platform firmware, then it usually means that power budget -conditions are in place, and "power capping" is taking place. - -1.1 PCC interface: ------------------- -The complete PCC specification is available here: -http://www.acpica.org/download/Processor-Clocking-Control-v1p0.pdf - -PCC relies on a shared memory region that provides a channel for communication -between the OS and platform firmware. PCC also implements a "doorbell" that -is used by the OS to inform the platform firmware that a command has been -sent. - -The ACPI PCCH() method is used to discover the location of the PCC shared -memory region. The shared memory region header contains the "command" and -"status" interface. PCCH() also contains details on how to access the platform -doorbell. - -The following commands are supported by the PCC interface: -* Get Average Frequency -* Set Desired Frequency - -The ACPI PCCP() method is implemented for each logical processor and is -used to discover the offsets for the input and output buffers in the shared -memory region. - -When PCC mode is enabled, the platform will not expose processor performance -or throttle states (_PSS, _TSS and related ACPI objects) to OSPM. Therefore, -the native P-state driver (such as acpi-cpufreq for Intel, powernow-k8 for -AMD) will not load. - -However, OSPM remains in control of policy. The governor (eg: "ondemand") -computes the required performance for each processor based on server workload. -The PCC driver fills in the command interface, and the input buffer and -communicates the request to the platform firmware. The platform firmware is -responsible for delivering the requested performance. - -Each PCC command is "global" in scope and can affect all the logical CPUs in -the system. Therefore, PCC is capable of performing "group" updates. With PCC -the OS is capable of getting/setting the frequency of all the logical CPUs in -the system with a single call to the BIOS. - -1.1.1 Get Average Frequency: ----------------------------- -This command is used by the OSPM to query the running frequency of the -processor since the last time this command was completed. The output buffer -indicates the average unhalted frequency of the logical processor expressed as -a percentage of the nominal (ie: maximum) CPU frequency. The output buffer -also signifies if the CPU frequency is limited by a power budget condition. - -1.1.2 Set Desired Frequency: ----------------------------- -This command is used by the OSPM to communicate to the platform firmware the -desired frequency for a logical processor. The output buffer is currently -ignored by OSPM. The next invocation of "Get Average Frequency" will inform -OSPM if the desired frequency was achieved or not. - -1.2 Platforms affected: ------------------------ -The PCC driver will load on any system where the platform firmware: -* supports the PCC interface, and the associated PCCH() and PCCP() methods -* assumes responsibility for managing the hardware clocking controls in order -to deliver the requested processor performance - -Currently, certain HP ProLiant platforms implement the PCC interface. On those -platforms PCC is the "default" choice. - -However, it is possible to disable this interface via a BIOS setting. In -such an instance, as is also the case on platforms where the PCC interface -is not implemented, the PCC driver will fail to load silently. - -2. Driver and /sys details: ---------------------------- -When the driver loads, it merely prints the lowest and the highest CPU -frequencies supported by the platform firmware. - -The PCC driver loads with a message such as: -pcc-cpufreq: (v1.00.00) driver loaded with frequency limits: 1600 MHz, 2933 -MHz - -This means that the OPSM can request the CPU to run at any frequency in -between the limits (1600 MHz, and 2933 MHz) specified in the message. - -Internally, there is no need for the driver to convert the "target" frequency -to a corresponding P-state. - -The VERSION number for the driver will be of the format v.xy.ab. -eg: 1.00.02 - ----- -- - | | - | -- this will increase with bug fixes/enhancements to the driver - |-- this is the version of the PCC specification the driver adheres to - - -The following is a brief discussion on some of the fields exported via the -/sys filesystem and how their values are affected by the PCC driver: - -2.1 scaling_available_frequencies: ----------------------------------- -scaling_available_frequencies is not created in /sys. No intermediate -frequencies need to be listed because the BIOS will try to achieve any -frequency, within limits, requested by the governor. A frequency does not have -to be strictly associated with a P-state. - -2.2 cpuinfo_transition_latency: -------------------------------- -The cpuinfo_transition_latency field is 0. The PCC specification does -not include a field to expose this value currently. - -2.3 cpuinfo_cur_freq: ---------------------- -A) Often cpuinfo_cur_freq will show a value different than what is declared -in the scaling_available_frequencies or scaling_cur_freq, or scaling_max_freq. -This is due to "turbo boost" available on recent Intel processors. If certain -conditions are met the BIOS can achieve a slightly higher speed than requested -by OSPM. An example: - -scaling_cur_freq : 2933000 -cpuinfo_cur_freq : 3196000 - -B) There is a round-off error associated with the cpuinfo_cur_freq value. -Since the driver obtains the current frequency as a "percentage" (%) of the -nominal frequency from the BIOS, sometimes, the values displayed by -scaling_cur_freq and cpuinfo_cur_freq may not match. An example: - -scaling_cur_freq : 1600000 -cpuinfo_cur_freq : 1583000 - -In this example, the nominal frequency is 2933 MHz. The driver obtains the -current frequency, cpuinfo_cur_freq, as 54% of the nominal frequency: - - 54% of 2933 MHz = 1583 MHz - -Nominal frequency is the maximum frequency of the processor, and it usually -corresponds to the frequency of the P0 P-state. - -2.4 related_cpus: ------------------ -The related_cpus field is identical to affected_cpus. - -affected_cpus : 4 -related_cpus : 4 - -Currently, the PCC driver does not evaluate _PSD. The platforms that support -PCC do not implement SW_ALL. So OSPM doesn't need to perform any coordination -to ensure that the same frequency is requested of all dependent CPUs. - -3. Caveats: ------------ -The "cpufreq_stats" module in its present form cannot be loaded and -expected to work with the PCC driver. Since the "cpufreq_stats" module -provides information wrt each P-state, it is not applicable to the PCC driver. |