| Linux voltage and current regulator framework |
| ============================================= |
| |
| About |
| ===== |
| |
| This framework is designed to provide a standard kernel interface to control |
| voltage and current regulators. |
| |
| The intention is to allow systems to dynamically control regulator power output |
| in order to save power and prolong battery life. This applies to both voltage |
| regulators (where voltage output is controllable) and current sinks (where |
| current limit is controllable). |
| |
| (C) 2008 Wolfson Microelectronics PLC. |
| Author: Liam Girdwood <lrg@slimlogic.co.uk> |
| |
| |
| Nomenclature |
| ============ |
| |
| Some terms used in this document:- |
| |
| o Regulator - Electronic device that supplies power to other devices. |
| Most regulators can enable and disable their output while |
| some can control their output voltage and or current. |
| |
| Input Voltage -> Regulator -> Output Voltage |
| |
| |
| o PMIC - Power Management IC. An IC that contains numerous regulators |
| and often contains other subsystems. |
| |
| |
| o Consumer - Electronic device that is supplied power by a regulator. |
| Consumers can be classified into two types:- |
| |
| Static: consumer does not change its supply voltage or |
| current limit. It only needs to enable or disable its |
| power supply. Its supply voltage is set by the hardware, |
| bootloader, firmware or kernel board initialisation code. |
| |
| Dynamic: consumer needs to change its supply voltage or |
| current limit to meet operation demands. |
| |
| |
| o Power Domain - Electronic circuit that is supplied its input power by the |
| output power of a regulator, switch or by another power |
| domain. |
| |
| The supply regulator may be behind a switch(s). i.e. |
| |
| Regulator -+-> Switch-1 -+-> Switch-2 --> [Consumer A] |
| | | |
| | +-> [Consumer B], [Consumer C] |
| | |
| +-> [Consumer D], [Consumer E] |
| |
| That is one regulator and three power domains: |
| |
| Domain 1: Switch-1, Consumers D & E. |
| Domain 2: Switch-2, Consumers B & C. |
| Domain 3: Consumer A. |
| |
| and this represents a "supplies" relationship: |
| |
| Domain-1 --> Domain-2 --> Domain-3. |
| |
| A power domain may have regulators that are supplied power |
| by other regulators. i.e. |
| |
| Regulator-1 -+-> Regulator-2 -+-> [Consumer A] |
| | |
| +-> [Consumer B] |
| |
| This gives us two regulators and two power domains: |
| |
| Domain 1: Regulator-2, Consumer B. |
| Domain 2: Consumer A. |
| |
| and a "supplies" relationship: |
| |
| Domain-1 --> Domain-2 |
| |
| |
| o Constraints - Constraints are used to define power levels for performance |
| and hardware protection. Constraints exist at three levels: |
| |
| Regulator Level: This is defined by the regulator hardware |
| operating parameters and is specified in the regulator |
| datasheet. i.e. |
| |
| - voltage output is in the range 800mV -> 3500mV. |
| - regulator current output limit is 20mA @ 5V but is |
| 10mA @ 10V. |
| |
| Power Domain Level: This is defined in software by kernel |
| level board initialisation code. It is used to constrain a |
| power domain to a particular power range. i.e. |
| |
| - Domain-1 voltage is 3300mV |
| - Domain-2 voltage is 1400mV -> 1600mV |
| - Domain-3 current limit is 0mA -> 20mA. |
| |
| Consumer Level: This is defined by consumer drivers |
| dynamically setting voltage or current limit levels. |
| |
| e.g. a consumer backlight driver asks for a current increase |
| from 5mA to 10mA to increase LCD illumination. This passes |
| to through the levels as follows :- |
| |
| Consumer: need to increase LCD brightness. Lookup and |
| request next current mA value in brightness table (the |
| consumer driver could be used on several different |
| personalities based upon the same reference device). |
| |
| Power Domain: is the new current limit within the domain |
| operating limits for this domain and system state (e.g. |
| battery power, USB power) |
| |
| Regulator Domains: is the new current limit within the |
| regulator operating parameters for input/output voltage. |
| |
| If the regulator request passes all the constraint tests |
| then the new regulator value is applied. |
| |
| |
| Design |
| ====== |
| |
| The framework is designed and targeted at SoC based devices but may also be |
| relevant to non SoC devices and is split into the following four interfaces:- |
| |
| |
| 1. Consumer driver interface. |
| |
| This uses a similar API to the kernel clock interface in that consumer |
| drivers can get and put a regulator (like they can with clocks atm) and |
| get/set voltage, current limit, mode, enable and disable. This should |
| allow consumers complete control over their supply voltage and current |
| limit. This also compiles out if not in use so drivers can be reused in |
| systems with no regulator based power control. |
| |
| See Documentation/power/regulator/consumer.txt |
| |
| 2. Regulator driver interface. |
| |
| This allows regulator drivers to register their regulators and provide |
| operations to the core. It also has a notifier call chain for propagating |
| regulator events to clients. |
| |
| See Documentation/power/regulator/regulator.txt |
| |
| 3. Machine interface. |
| |
| This interface is for machine specific code and allows the creation of |
| voltage/current domains (with constraints) for each regulator. It can |
| provide regulator constraints that will prevent device damage through |
| overvoltage or overcurrent caused by buggy client drivers. It also |
| allows the creation of a regulator tree whereby some regulators are |
| supplied by others (similar to a clock tree). |
| |
| See Documentation/power/regulator/machine.txt |
| |
| 4. Userspace ABI. |
| |
| The framework also exports a lot of useful voltage/current/opmode data to |
| userspace via sysfs. This could be used to help monitor device power |
| consumption and status. |
| |
| See Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-regulator |
