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diff --git a/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt b/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8ed17587a74..00000000000 --- a/Documentation/power/regulator/overview.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,171 +0,0 @@ -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 whilst - 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 it's - power supply. Its supply voltage is set by the hardware, - bootloader, firmware or kernel board initialisation code. - - Dynamic: consumer needs to change it's 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 over current 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 |