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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/timers/hpet.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/timers/hpet.txt | 43 |
1 files changed, 21 insertions, 22 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/timers/hpet.txt b/Documentation/timers/hpet.txt index 6ad52d9dad6..e7c09abcfab 100644 --- a/Documentation/timers/hpet.txt +++ b/Documentation/timers/hpet.txt @@ -1,21 +1,32 @@ High Precision Event Timer Driver for Linux -The High Precision Event Timer (HPET) hardware is the future replacement -for the 8254 and Real Time Clock (RTC) periodic timer functionality. -Each HPET can have up to 32 timers. It is possible to configure the -first two timers as legacy replacements for 8254 and RTC periodic timers. -A specification done by Intel and Microsoft can be found at -<http://www.intel.com/technology/architecture/hpetspec.htm>. +The High Precision Event Timer (HPET) hardware follows a specification +by Intel and Microsoft which can be found at + + http://www.intel.com/technology/architecture/hpetspec.htm + +Each HPET has one fixed-rate counter (at 10+ MHz, hence "High Precision") +and up to 32 comparators. Normally three or more comparators are provided, +each of which can generate oneshot interupts and at least one of which has +additional hardware to support periodic interrupts. The comparators are +also called "timers", which can be misleading since usually timers are +independent of each other ... these share a counter, complicating resets. + +HPET devices can support two interrupt routing modes. In one mode, the +comparators are additional interrupt sources with no particular system +role. Many x86 BIOS writers don't route HPET interrupts at all, which +prevents use of that mode. They support the other "legacy replacement" +mode where the first two comparators block interrupts from 8254 timers +and from the RTC. The driver supports detection of HPET driver allocation and initialization of the HPET before the driver module_init routine is called. This enables platform code which uses timer 0 or 1 as the main timer to intercept HPET initialization. An example of this initialization can be found in -arch/i386/kernel/time_hpet.c. +arch/x86/kernel/hpet.c. -The driver provides two APIs which are very similar to the API found in -the rtc.c driver. There is a user space API and a kernel space API. -An example user space program is provided below. +The driver provides a userspace API which resembles the API found in the +RTC driver framework. An example user space program is provided below. #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> @@ -286,15 +297,3 @@ out: return; } - -The kernel API has three interfaces exported from the driver: - - hpet_register(struct hpet_task *tp, int periodic) - hpet_unregister(struct hpet_task *tp) - hpet_control(struct hpet_task *tp, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg) - -The kernel module using this interface fills in the ht_func and ht_data -members of the hpet_task structure before calling hpet_register. -hpet_control simply vectors to the hpet_ioctl routine and has the same -commands and respective arguments as the user API. hpet_unregister -is used to terminate usage of the HPET timer reserved by hpet_register. |