The U-Boot Driver Model Project =============================== I/O system analysis =================== Marek Vasut 2012-02-20 I) Overview ----------- The console input and output is currently done using the STDIO subsystem in U-Boot. The design of this subsystem is already flexible enough to be easily converted to new driver model approach. Minor changes will need to be done though. Each device that wants to register with STDIO subsystem has to define struct stdio_dev, defined in include/stdio_dev.h and containing the following fields: struct stdio_dev { int flags; /* Device flags: input/output/system */ int ext; /* Supported extensions */ char name[16]; /* Device name */ /* GENERAL functions */ int (*start) (void); /* To start the device */ int (*stop) (void); /* To stop the device */ /* OUTPUT functions */ void (*putc) (const char c); /* To put a char */ void (*puts) (const char *s); /* To put a string (accelerator) */ /* INPUT functions */ int (*tstc) (void); /* To test if a char is ready... */ int (*getc) (void); /* To get that char */ /* Other functions */ void *priv; /* Private extensions */ struct list_head list; }; Currently used flags are DEV_FLAGS_INPUT, DEV_FLAGS_OUTPUT and DEV_FLAGS_SYSTEM, extensions being only one, the DEV_EXT_VIDEO. The private extensions are now used as a per-device carrier of private data and finally list allows this structure to be a member of linked list of STDIO devices. The STDIN, STDOUT and STDERR routing is handled by environment variables "stdin", "stdout" and "stderr". By configuring the variable to the name of a driver, functions of such driver are called to execute that particular operation. II) Approach ------------ 1) Similarity of serial, video and keyboard drivers --------------------------------------------------- All of these drivers can be unified under the STDIO subsystem if modified slightly. The serial drivers basically define both input and output functions and need function to configure baudrate. The keyboard drivers provide only input. On the other hand, video drivers provide output, but need to be configured in certain way. This configuration might be dynamic, therefore the STDIO has to be modified to provide such flexibility. 2) Unification of serial, video and keyboard drivers ---------------------------------------------------- Every STDIO device would register a structure containing operation it supports with the STDIO core by calling: int stdio_device_register(struct instance *i, struct stdio_device_ops *o); The structure being defined as follows: struct stdio_device_ops { void (*putc)(struct instance *i, const char c); void (*puts)(struct instance *i, const char *s); /* OPTIONAL */ int (*tstc)(struct instance *i); int (*getc)(struct instance *i); int (*init)(struct instance *i); int (*exit)(struct instance *i); int (*conf)(struct instance *i, enum stdio_config c, const void *data); }; The "putc()" function will emit a character, the "puts()" function will emit a string. If both of these are set to NULL, the device is considered STDIN only, aka input only device. The "getc()" retrieves a character from a STDIN device, while "tstc()" tests if there is a character in the buffer of STDIN device. In case these two are set to NULL, this device is STDOUT / STDERR device. Setting all "putc()", "puts()", "getc()" and "tstc()" calls to NULL isn't an error condition, though such device does nothing. By instroducing tests for these functions being NULL, the "flags" and "ext" fields from original struct stdio_dev can be eliminated. The "init()" and "exit()" calls are replacement for "start()" and "exit()" calls in the old approach. The "priv" part of the old struct stdio_dev will be replaced by common private data in the driver model and the struct list_head list will be eliminated by introducing common STDIO core, that tracks all the STDIO devices. Lastly, the "conf()" call will allow the user to configure various options of the driver. The enum stdio_config contains all possible configuration options available to the STDIO devices, const void *data being the argument to be configured. Currently, the enum stdio_config will contain at least the following options: enum stdio_config { STDIO_CONFIG_SERIAL_BAUDRATE, }; 3) Transformation of stdio routing ---------------------------------- By allowing multiple instances of drivers, the environment variables "stdin", "stdout" and "stderr" can no longer be set to the name of the driver. Therefore the STDIO core, tracking all of the STDIO devices in the system will need to have a small amount of internal data for each device: struct stdio_device_node { struct instance *i; struct stdio_device_ops *ops; uint8_t id; uint8_t flags; struct list_head list; } The "id" is the order of the instance of the same driver. The "flags" variable allows multiple drivers to be used at the same time and even for different purpose. The following flags will be defined: STDIO_FLG_STDIN ..... This device will be used as an input device. All input from all devices with this flag set will be received and passed to the upper layers. STDIO_FLG_STDOUT .... This device will be used as an output device. All output sent to stdout will be routed to all devices with this flag set. STDIO_FLG_STDERR .... This device will be used as an standard error output device. All output sent to stderr will be routed to all devices with this flag set. The "list" member of this structure allows to have a linked list of all registered STDIO devices. III) Analysis of in-tree drivers -------------------------------- For in-depth analysis of serial port drivers, refer to [ UDM-serial.txt ]. For in-depth analysis of keyboard drivers, refer to [ UDM-keyboard.txt ]. For in-depth analysis of video drivers, refer to [ UDM-video.txt ]. 1) arch/blackfin/cpu/jtag-console.c ----------------------------------- This driver is a classic STDIO driver, no problem with conversion is expected. 2) board/mpl/pati/pati.c ------------------------ This driver registers with the STDIO framework, though it uses a lot of ad-hoc stuff which will need to be sorted out. 3) board/netphone/phone_console.c --------------------------------- This driver is a classic STDIO driver, no problem with conversion is expected. 4) drivers/net/netconsole.c --------------------------- This driver is a classic STDIO driver, no problem with conversion is expected. IV) Other involved files (To be removed) ---------------------------------------- common/cmd_console.c common/cmd_log.c common/cmd_terminal.c common/console.c common/fdt_support.c common/iomux.c common/lcd.c common/serial.c common/stdio.c common/usb_kbd.c doc/README.iomux