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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt b/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9e3c3b33 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/cpu-freq/pcc-cpufreq.txt @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ +/* + * 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. |