mirror of
https://github.com/torvalds/linux.git
synced 2024-11-18 01:51:53 +00:00
eff0df65da
Fix reference to where the code actually is. Noted by Hero Wanders. Signed-off-by: Dominik Brodowski <linux@dominikbrodowski.net> Signed-off-by: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com>
99 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
99 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
CPU frequency and voltage scaling code in the Linux(TM) kernel
|
|
|
|
|
|
L i n u x C P U F r e q
|
|
|
|
C P U F r e q C o r e
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dominik Brodowski <linux@brodo.de>
|
|
David Kimdon <dwhedon@debian.org>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clock scaling allows you to change the clock speed of the CPUs on the
|
|
fly. This is a nice method to save battery power, because the lower
|
|
the clock speed, the less power the CPU consumes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Contents:
|
|
---------
|
|
1. CPUFreq core and interfaces
|
|
2. CPUFreq notifiers
|
|
|
|
1. General Information
|
|
=======================
|
|
|
|
The CPUFreq core code is located in drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c. This
|
|
cpufreq code offers a standardized interface for the CPUFreq
|
|
architecture drivers (those pieces of code that do actual
|
|
frequency transitions), as well as to "notifiers". These are device
|
|
drivers or other part of the kernel that need to be informed of
|
|
policy changes (ex. thermal modules like ACPI) or of all
|
|
frequency changes (ex. timing code) or even need to force certain
|
|
speed limits (like LCD drivers on ARM architecture). Additionally, the
|
|
kernel "constant" loops_per_jiffy is updated on frequency changes
|
|
here.
|
|
|
|
Reference counting is done by cpufreq_get_cpu and cpufreq_put_cpu,
|
|
which make sure that the cpufreq processor driver is correctly
|
|
registered with the core, and will not be unloaded until
|
|
cpufreq_put_cpu is called.
|
|
|
|
2. CPUFreq notifiers
|
|
====================
|
|
|
|
CPUFreq notifiers conform to the standard kernel notifier interface.
|
|
See linux/include/linux/notifier.h for details on notifiers.
|
|
|
|
There are two different CPUFreq notifiers - policy notifiers and
|
|
transition notifiers.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.1 CPUFreq policy notifiers
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
These are notified when a new policy is intended to be set. Each
|
|
CPUFreq policy notifier is called three times for a policy transition:
|
|
|
|
1.) During CPUFREQ_ADJUST all CPUFreq notifiers may change the limit if
|
|
they see a need for this - may it be thermal considerations or
|
|
hardware limitations.
|
|
|
|
2.) During CPUFREQ_INCOMPATIBLE only changes may be done in order to avoid
|
|
hardware failure.
|
|
|
|
3.) And during CPUFREQ_NOTIFY all notifiers are informed of the new policy
|
|
- if two hardware drivers failed to agree on a new policy before this
|
|
stage, the incompatible hardware shall be shut down, and the user
|
|
informed of this.
|
|
|
|
The phase is specified in the second argument to the notifier.
|
|
|
|
The third argument, a void *pointer, points to a struct cpufreq_policy
|
|
consisting of five values: cpu, min, max, policy and max_cpu_freq. min
|
|
and max are the lower and upper frequencies (in kHz) of the new
|
|
policy, policy the new policy, cpu the number of the affected CPU; and
|
|
max_cpu_freq the maximum supported CPU frequency. This value is given
|
|
for informational purposes only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
2.2 CPUFreq transition notifiers
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
These are notified twice when the CPUfreq driver switches the CPU core
|
|
frequency and this change has any external implications.
|
|
|
|
The second argument specifies the phase - CPUFREQ_PRECHANGE or
|
|
CPUFREQ_POSTCHANGE.
|
|
|
|
The third argument is a struct cpufreq_freqs with the following
|
|
values:
|
|
cpu - number of the affected CPU
|
|
old - old frequency
|
|
new - new frequency
|
|
|
|
If the cpufreq core detects the frequency has changed while the system
|
|
was suspended, these notifiers are called with CPUFREQ_RESUMECHANGE as
|
|
second argument.
|