From 4fc0840006bf3df69dcf92397fdcaf85a542f939 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: David Brownell Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 16:38:28 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] updated Documentation/power/devices.txt This turned into a rewrite of Documentation/power/devices.txt: - Provide more of the "big picture" - Fixup some of the horribly ancient/obsolete description of device suspend() semantics; lots of text just got deleted. - Add a decent description of PM_EVENT_* codes, including the new PRETHAW code needed in some swsusp scenarios. - Describe the new PM factorization from Linus: * class suspend, current suspend, then suspend_late * NOT suspend_prepare, it wasn't really usable * resume_early, current resume, class resume. - Updates power/state docs to be correct, and deprecate its usage except for driver testing. Signed-off-by: David Brownell Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman --- Documentation/power/devices.txt | 725 +++++++++++++++++++++++--------- 1 file changed, 535 insertions(+), 190 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/power/devices.txt b/Documentation/power/devices.txt index fba1e05c47..d0e79d5820 100644 --- a/Documentation/power/devices.txt +++ b/Documentation/power/devices.txt @@ -1,208 +1,553 @@ +Most of the code in Linux is device drivers, so most of the Linux power +management code is also driver-specific. Most drivers will do very little; +others, especially for platforms with small batteries (like cell phones), +will do a lot. + +This writeup gives an overview of how drivers interact with system-wide +power management goals, emphasizing the models and interfaces that are +shared by everything that hooks up to the driver model core. Read it as +background for the domain-specific work you'd do with any specific driver. + + +Two Models for Device Power Management +====================================== +Drivers will use one or both of these models to put devices into low-power +states: + + System Sleep model: + Drivers can enter low power states as part of entering system-wide + low-power states like "suspend-to-ram", or (mostly for systems with + disks) "hibernate" (suspend-to-disk). + + This is something that device, bus, and class drivers collaborate on + by implementing various role-specific suspend and resume methods to + cleanly power down hardware and software subsystems, then reactivate + them without loss of data. + + Some drivers can manage hardware wakeup events, which make the system + leave that low-power state. This feature may be disabled using the + relevant /sys/devices/.../power/wakeup file; enabling it may cost some + power usage, but let the whole system enter low power states more often. + + Runtime Power Management model: + Drivers may also enter low power states while the system is running, + independently of other power management activity. Upstream drivers + will normally not know (or care) if the device is in some low power + state when issuing requests; the driver will auto-resume anything + that's needed when it gets a request. + + This doesn't have, or need much infrastructure; it's just something you + should do when writing your drivers. For example, clk_disable() unused + clocks as part of minimizing power drain for currently-unused hardware. + Of course, sometimes clusters of drivers will collaborate with each + other, which could involve task-specific power management. + +There's not a lot to be said about those low power states except that they +are very system-specific, and often device-specific. Also, that if enough +drivers put themselves into low power states (at "runtime"), the effect may be +the same as entering some system-wide low-power state (system sleep) ... and +that synergies exist, so that several drivers using runtime pm might put the +system into a state where even deeper power saving options are available. + +Most suspended devices will have quiesced all I/O: no more DMA or irqs, no +more data read or written, and requests from upstream drivers are no longer +accepted. A given bus or platform may have different requirements though. + +Examples of hardware wakeup events include an alarm from a real time clock, +network wake-on-LAN packets, keyboard or mouse activity, and media insertion +or removal (for PCMCIA, MMC/SD, USB, and so on). + + +Interfaces for Entering System Sleep States +=========================================== +Most of the programming interfaces a device driver needs to know about +relate to that first model: entering a system-wide low power state, +rather than just minimizing power consumption by one device. + + +Bus Driver Methods +------------------ +The core methods to suspend and resume devices reside in struct bus_type. +These are mostly of interest to people writing infrastructure for busses +like PCI or USB, or because they define the primitives that device drivers +may need to apply in domain-specific ways to their devices: -Device Power Management +struct bus_type { + ... + int (*suspend)(struct device *dev, pm_message_t state); + int (*suspend_late)(struct device *dev, pm_message_t state); + int (*resume_early)(struct device *dev); + int (*resume)(struct device *dev); +}; -Device power management encompasses two areas - the ability to save -state and transition a device to a low-power state when the system is -entering a low-power state; and the ability to transition a device to -a low-power state while the system is running (and independently of -any other power management activity). +Bus drivers implement those methods as appropriate for the hardware and +the drivers using it; PCI works differently from USB, and so on. Not many +people write bus drivers; most driver code is a "device driver" that +builds on top of bus-specific framework code. + +For more information on these driver calls, see the description later; +they are called in phases for every device, respecting the parent-child +sequencing in the driver model tree. Note that as this is being written, +only the suspend() and resume() are widely available; not many bus drivers +leverage all of those phases, or pass them down to lower driver levels. + + +/sys/devices/.../power/wakeup files +----------------------------------- +All devices in the driver model have two flags to control handling of +wakeup events, which are hardware signals that can force the device and/or +system out of a low power state. These are initialized by bus or device +driver code using device_init_wakeup(dev,can_wakeup). + +The "can_wakeup" flag just records whether the device (and its driver) can +physically support wakeup events. When that flag is clear, the sysfs +"wakeup" file is empty, and device_may_wakeup() returns false. + +For devices that can issue wakeup events, a separate flag controls whether +that device should try to use its wakeup mechanism. The initial value of +device_may_wakeup() will be true, so that the device's "wakeup" file holds +the value "enabled". Userspace can change that to "disabled" so that +device_may_wakeup() returns false; or change it back to "enabled" (so that +it returns true again). + + +EXAMPLE: PCI Device Driver Methods +----------------------------------- +PCI framework software calls these methods when the PCI device driver bound +to a device device has provided them: + +struct pci_driver { + ... + int (*suspend)(struct pci_device *pdev, pm_message_t state); + int (*suspend_late)(struct pci_device *pdev, pm_message_t state); + + int (*resume_early)(struct pci_device *pdev); + int (*resume)(struct pci_device *pdev); +}; +Drivers will implement those methods, and call PCI-specific procedures +like pci_set_power_state(), pci_enable_wake(), pci_save_state(), and +pci_restore_state() to manage PCI-specific mechanisms. (PCI config space +could be saved during driver probe, if it weren't for the fact that some +systems rely on userspace tweaking using setpci.) Devices are suspended +before their bridges enter low power states, and likewise bridges resume +before their devices. + + +Upper Layers of Driver Stacks +----------------------------- +Device drivers generally have at least two interfaces, and the methods +sketched above are the ones which apply to the lower level (nearer PCI, USB, +or other bus hardware). The network and block layers are examples of upper +level interfaces, as is a character device talking to userspace. + +Power management requests normally need to flow through those upper levels, +which often use domain-oriented requests like "blank that screen". In +some cases those upper levels will have power management intelligence that +relates to end-user activity, or other devices that work in cooperation. + +When those interfaces are structured using class interfaces, there is a +standard way to have the upper layer stop issuing requests to a given +class device (and restart later): + +struct class { + ... + int (*suspend)(struct device *dev, pm_message_t state); + int (*resume)(struct device *dev); +}; -Methods +Those calls are issued in specific phases of the process by which the +system enters a low power "suspend" state, or resumes from it. + + +Calling Drivers to Enter System Sleep States +============================================ +When the system enters a low power state, each device's driver is asked +to suspend the device by putting it into state compatible with the target +system state. That's usually some version of "off", but the details are +system-specific. Also, wakeup-enabled devices will usually stay partly +functional in order to wake the system. + +When the system leaves that low power state, the device's driver is asked +to resume it. The suspend and resume operations always go together, and +both are multi-phase operations. + +For simple drivers, suspend might quiesce the device using the class code +and then turn its hardware as "off" as possible with late_suspend. The +matching resume calls would then completely reinitialize the hardware +before reactivating its class I/O queues. + +More power-aware drivers drivers will use more than one device low power +state, either at runtime or during system sleep states, and might trigger +system wakeup events. + + +Call Sequence Guarantees +------------------------ +To ensure that bridges and similar links needed to talk to a device are +available when the device is suspended or resumed, the device tree is +walked in a bottom-up order to suspend devices. A top-down order is +used to resume those devices. + +The ordering of the device tree is defined by the order in which devices +get registered: a child can never be registered, probed or resumed before +its parent; and can't be removed or suspended after that parent. + +The policy is that the device tree should match hardware bus topology. +(Or at least the control bus, for devices which use multiple busses.) + + +Suspending Devices +------------------ +Suspending a given device is done in several phases. Suspending the +system always includes every phase, executing calls for every device +before the next phase begins. Not all busses or classes support all +these callbacks; and not all drivers use all the callbacks. + +The phases are seen by driver notifications issued in this order: + + 1 class.suspend(dev, message) is called after tasks are frozen, for + devices associated with a class that has such a method. This + method may sleep. + + Since I/O activity usually comes from such higher layers, this is + a good place to quiesce all drivers of a given type (and keep such + code out of those drivers). + + 2 bus.suspend(dev, message) is called next. This method may sleep, + and is often morphed into a device driver call with bus-specific + parameters and/or rules. + + This call should handle parts of device suspend logic that require + sleeping. It probably does work to quiesce the device which hasn't + been abstracted into class.suspend() or bus.suspend_late(). + + 3 bus.suspend_late(dev, message) is called with IRQs disabled, and + with only one CPU active. Until the bus.resume_early() phase + completes (see later), IRQs are not enabled again. This method + won't be exposed by all busses; for message based busses like USB, + I2C, or SPI, device interactions normally require IRQs. This bus + call may be morphed into a driver call with bus-specific parameters. + + This call might save low level hardware state that might otherwise + be lost in the upcoming low power state, and actually put the + device into a low power state ... so that in some cases the device + may stay partly usable until this late. This "late" call may also + help when coping with hardware that behaves badly. + +The pm_message_t parameter is currently used to refine those semantics +(described later). + +At the end of those phases, drivers should normally have stopped all I/O +transactions (DMA, IRQs), saved enough state that they can re-initialize +or restore previous state (as needed by the hardware), and placed the +device into a low-power state. On many platforms they will also use +clk_disable() to gate off one or more clock sources; sometimes they will +also switch off power supplies, or reduce voltages. Drivers which have +runtime PM support may already have performed some or all of the steps +needed to prepare for the upcoming system sleep state. + +When any driver sees that its device_can_wakeup(dev), it should make sure +to use the relevant hardware signals to trigger a system wakeup event. +For example, enable_irq_wake() might identify GPIO signals hooked up to +a switch or other external hardware, and pci_enable_wake() does something +similar for PCI's PME# signal. + +If a driver (or bus, or class) fails it suspend method, the system won't +enter the desired low power state; it will resume all the devices it's +suspended so far. + +Note that drivers may need to perform different actions based on the target +system lowpower/sleep state. At this writing, there are only platform +specific APIs through which drivers could determine those target states. + + +Device Low Power (suspend) States +--------------------------------- +Device low-power states aren't very standard. One device might only handle +"on" and "off, while another might support a dozen different versions of +"on" (how many engines are active?), plus a state that gets back to "on" +faster than from a full "off". + +Some busses define rules about what different suspend states mean. PCI +gives one example: after the suspend sequence completes, a non-legacy +PCI device may not perform DMA or issue IRQs, and any wakeup events it +issues would be issued through the PME# bus signal. Plus, there are +several PCI-standard device states, some of which are optional. + +In contrast, integrated system-on-chip processors often use irqs as the +wakeup event sources (so drivers would call enable_irq_wake) and might +be able to treat DMA completion as a wakeup event (sometimes DMA can stay +active too, it'd only be the CPU and some peripherals that sleep). + +Some details here may be platform-specific. Systems may have devices that +can be fully active in certain sleep states, such as an LCD display that's +refreshed using DMA while most of the system is sleeping lightly ... and +its frame buffer might even be updated by a DSP or other non-Linux CPU while +the Linux control processor stays idle. + +Moreover, the specific actions taken may depend on the target system state. +One target system state might allow a given device to be very operational; +another might require a hard shut down with re-initialization on resume. +And two different target systems might use the same device in different +ways; the aforementioned LCD might be active in one product's "standby", +but a different product using the same SOC might work differently. + + +Meaning of pm_message_t.event +----------------------------- +Parameters to suspend calls include the device affected and a message of +type pm_message_t, which has one field: the event. If driver does not +recognize the event code, suspend calls may abort the request and return +a negative errno. However, most drivers will be fine if they implement +PM_EVENT_SUSPEND semantics for all messages. + +The event codes are used to refine the goal of suspending the device, and +mostly matter when creating or resuming system memory image snapshots, as +used with suspend-to-disk: + + PM_EVENT_SUSPEND -- quiesce the driver and put hardware into a low-power + state. When used with system sleep states like "suspend-to-RAM" or + "standby", the upcoming resume() call will often be able to rely on + state kept in hardware, or issue system wakeup events. When used + instead with suspend-to-disk, few devices support this capability; + most are completely powered off. + + PM_EVENT_FREEZE -- quiesce the driver, but don't necessarily change into + any low power mode. A system snapshot is about to be taken, often + followed by a call to the driver's resume() method. Neither wakeup + events nor DMA are allowed. + + PM_EVENT_PRETHAW -- quiesce the driver, knowing that the upcoming resume() + will restore a suspend-to-disk snapshot from a different kernel image. + Drivers that are smart enough to look at their hardware state during + resume() processing need that state to be correct ... a PRETHAW could + be used to invalidate that state (by resetting the device), like a + shutdown() invocation would before a kexec() or system halt. Other + drivers might handle this the same way as PM_EVENT_FREEZE. Neither + wakeup events nor DMA are allowed. + +To enter "standby" (ACPI S1) or "Suspend to RAM" (STR, ACPI S3) states, or +the similarly named APM states, only PM_EVENT_SUSPEND is used; for "Suspend +to Disk" (STD, hibernate, ACPI S4), all of those event codes are used. + +There's also PM_EVENT_ON, a value which never appears as a suspend event +but is sometimes used to record the "not suspended" device state. + + +Resuming Devices +---------------- +Resuming is done in multiple phases, much like suspending, with all +devices processing each phase's calls before the next phase begins. + +The phases are seen by driver notifications issued in this order: + + 1 bus.resume_early(dev) is called with IRQs disabled, and with + only one CPU active. As with bus.suspend_late(), this method + won't be supported on busses that require IRQs in order to + interact with devices. + + This reverses the effects of bus.suspend_late(). + + 2 bus.resume(dev) is called next. This may be morphed into a device + driver call with bus-specific parameters; implementations may sleep. + + This reverses the effects of bus.suspend(). + + 3 class.resume(dev) is called for devices associated with a class + that has such a method. Implementations may sleep. + + This reverses the effects of class.suspend(), and would usually + reactivate the device's I/O queue. + +At the end of those phases, drivers should normally be as functional as +they were before suspending: I/O can be performed using DMA and IRQs, and +the relevant clocks are gated on. The device need not be "fully on"; it +might be in a runtime lowpower/suspend state that acts as if it were. + +However, the details here may again be platform-specific. For example, +some systems support multiple "run" states, and the mode in effect at +the end of resume() might not be the one which preceded suspension. +That means availability of certain clocks or power supplies changed, +which could easily affect how a driver works. + + +Drivers need to be able to handle hardware which has been reset since the +suspend methods were called, for example by complete reinitialization. +This may be the hardest part, and the one most protected by NDA'd documents +and chip errata. It's simplest if the hardware state hasn't changed since +the suspend() was called, but that can't always be guaranteed. + +Drivers must also be prepared to notice that the device has been removed +while the system was powered off, whenever that's physically possible. +PCMCIA, MMC, USB, Firewire, SCSI, and even IDE are common examples of busses +where common Linux platforms will see such removal. Details of how drivers +will notice and handle such removals are currently bus-specific, and often +involve a separate thread. -The methods to suspend and resume devices reside in struct bus_type: -struct bus_type { - ... - int (*suspend)(struct device * dev, pm_message_t state); - int (*resume)(struct device * dev); -}; +Note that the bus-specific runtime PM wakeup mechanism can exist, and might +be defined to share some of the same driver code as for system wakeup. For +example, a bus-specific device driver's resume() method might be used there, +so it wouldn't only be called from bus.resume() during system-wide wakeup. +See bus-specific information about how runtime wakeup events are handled. -Each bus driver is responsible implementing these methods, translating -the call into a bus-specific request and forwarding the call to the -bus-specific drivers. For example, PCI drivers implement suspend() and -resume() methods in struct pci_driver. The PCI core is simply -responsible for translating the pointers to PCI-specific ones and -calling the low-level driver. - -This is done to a) ease transition to the new power management methods -and leverage the existing PM code in various bus drivers; b) allow -buses to implement generic and default PM routines for devices, and c) -make the flow of execution obvious to the reader. - - -System Power Management - -When the system enters a low-power state, the device tree is walked in -a depth-first fashion to transition each device into a low-power -state. The ordering of the device tree is guaranteed by the order in -which devices get registered - children are never registered before -their ancestors, and devices are placed at the back of the list when -registered. By walking the list in reverse order, we are guaranteed to -suspend devices in the proper order. - -Devices are suspended once with interrupts enabled. Drivers are -expected to stop I/O transactions, save device state, and place the -device into a low-power state. Drivers may sleep, allocate memory, -etc. at will. - -Some devices are broken and will inevitably have problems powering -down or disabling themselves with interrupts enabled. For these -special cases, they may return -EAGAIN. This will put the device on a -list to be taken care of later. When interrupts are disabled, before -we enter the low-power state, their drivers are called again to put -their device to sleep. - -On resume, the devices that returned -EAGAIN will be called to power -themselves back on with interrupts disabled. Once interrupts have been -re-enabled, the rest of the drivers will be called to resume their -devices. On resume, a driver is responsible for powering back on each -device, restoring state, and re-enabling I/O transactions for that -device. +System Devices +-------------- System devices follow a slightly different API, which can be found in include/linux/sysdev.h drivers/base/sys.c -System devices will only be suspended with interrupts disabled, and -after all other devices have been suspended. On resume, they will be -resumed before any other devices, and also with interrupts disabled. +System devices will only be suspended with interrupts disabled, and after +all other devices have been suspended. On resume, they will be resumed +before any other devices, and also with interrupts disabled. +That is, IRQs are disabled, the suspend_late() phase begins, then the +sysdev_driver.suspend() phase, and the system enters a sleep state. Then +the sysdev_driver.resume() phase begins, followed by the resume_early() +phase, after which IRQs are enabled. -Runtime Power Management - -Many devices are able to dynamically power down while the system is -still running. This feature is useful for devices that are not being -used, and can offer significant power savings on a running system. - -In each device's directory, there is a 'power' directory, which -contains at least a 'state' file. Reading from this file displays what -power state the device is currently in. Writing to this file initiates -a transition to the specified power state, which must be a decimal in -the range 1-3, inclusive; or 0 for 'On'. +Code to actually enter and exit the system-wide low power state sometimes +involves hardware details that are only known to the boot firmware, and +may leave a CPU running software (from SRAM or flash memory) that monitors +the system and manages its wakeup sequence. -The PM core will call the ->suspend() method in the bus_type object -that the device belongs to if the specified state is not 0, or -->resume() if it is. -Nothing will happen if the specified state is the same state the -device is currently in. - -If the device is already in a low-power state, and the specified state -is another, but different, low-power state, the ->resume() method will -first be called to power the device back on, then ->suspend() will be -called again with the new state. - -The driver is responsible for saving the working state of the device -and putting it into the low-power state specified. If this was -successful, it returns 0, and the device's power_state field is -updated. - -The driver must take care to know whether or not it is able to -properly resume the device, including all step of reinitialization -necessary. (This is the hardest part, and the one most protected by -NDA'd documents). - -The driver must also take care not to suspend a device that is -currently in use. It is their responsibility to provide their own -exclusion mechanisms. - -The runtime power transition happens with interrupts enabled. If a -device cannot support being powered down with interrupts, it may -return -EAGAIN (as it would during a system power management -transition), but it will _not_ be called again, and the transaction -will fail. - -There is currently no way to know what states a device or driver -supports a priori. This will change in the future. - -pm_message_t meaning - -pm_message_t has two fields. event ("major"), and flags. If driver -does not know event code, it aborts the request, returning error. Some -drivers may need to deal with special cases based on the actual type -of suspend operation being done at the system level. This is why -there are flags. - -Event codes are: - -ON -- no need to do anything except special cases like broken -HW. - -# NOTIFICATION -- pretty much same as ON? - -FREEZE -- stop DMA and interrupts, and be prepared to reinit HW from -scratch. That probably means stop accepting upstream requests, the -actual policy of what to do with them being specific to a given -driver. It's acceptable for a network driver to just drop packets -while a block driver is expected to block the queue so no request is -lost. (Use IDE as an example on how to do that). FREEZE requires no -power state change, and it's expected for drivers to be able to -quickly transition back to operating state. - -SUSPEND -- like FREEZE, but also put hardware into low-power state. If -there's need to distinguish several levels of sleep, additional flag -is probably best way to do that. - -Transitions are only from a resumed state to a suspended state, never -between 2 suspended states. (ON -> FREEZE or ON -> SUSPEND can happen, -FREEZE -> SUSPEND or SUSPEND -> FREEZE can not). - -All events are: - -[NOTE NOTE NOTE: If you are driver author, you should not care; you -should only look at event, and ignore flags.] - -#Prepare for suspend -- userland is still running but we are going to -#enter suspend state. This gives drivers chance to load firmware from -#disk and store it in memory, or do other activities taht require -#operating userland, ability to kmalloc GFP_KERNEL, etc... All of these -#are forbiden once the suspend dance is started.. event = ON, flags = -#PREPARE_TO_SUSPEND - -Apm standby -- prepare for APM event. Quiesce devices to make life -easier for APM BIOS. event = FREEZE, flags = APM_STANDBY - -Apm suspend -- same as APM_STANDBY, but it we should probably avoid -spinning down disks. event = FREEZE, flags = APM_SUSPEND - -System halt, reboot -- quiesce devices to make life easier for BIOS. event -= FREEZE, flags = SYSTEM_HALT or SYSTEM_REBOOT - -System shutdown -- at least disks need to be spun down, or data may be -lost. Quiesce devices, just to make life easier for BIOS. event = -FREEZE, flags = SYSTEM_SHUTDOWN - -Kexec -- turn off DMAs and put hardware into some state where new -kernel can take over. event = FREEZE, flags = KEXEC - -Powerdown at end of swsusp -- very similar to SYSTEM_SHUTDOWN, except wake -may need to be enabled on some devices. This actually has at least 3 -subtypes, system can reboot, enter S4 and enter S5 at the end of -swsusp. event = FREEZE, flags = SWSUSP and one of SYSTEM_REBOOT, -SYSTEM_SHUTDOWN, SYSTEM_S4 - -Suspend to ram -- put devices into low power state. event = SUSPEND, -flags = SUSPEND_TO_RAM - -Freeze for swsusp snapshot -- stop DMA and interrupts. No need to put -devices into low power mode, but you must be able to reinitialize -device from scratch in resume method. This has two flavors, its done -once on suspending kernel, once on resuming kernel. event = FREEZE, -flags = DURING_SUSPEND or DURING_RESUME - -Device detach requested from /sys -- deinitialize device; proably same as -SYSTEM_SHUTDOWN, I do not understand this one too much. probably event -= FREEZE, flags = DEV_DETACH. - -#These are not really events sent: -# -#System fully on -- device is working normally; this is probably never -#passed to suspend() method... event = ON, flags = 0 -# -#Ready after resume -- userland is now running, again. Time to free any -#memory you ate during prepare to suspend... event = ON, flags = -#READY_AFTER_RESUME -# +Runtime Power Management +======================== +Many devices are able to dynamically power down while the system is still +running. This feature is useful for devices that are not being used, and +can offer significant power savings on a running system. These devices +often support a range of runtime power states, which might use names such +as "off", "sleep", "idle", "active", and so on. Those states will in some +cases (like PCI) be partially constrained by a bus the device uses, and will +usually include hardware states that are also used in system sleep states. + +However, note that if a driver puts a device into a runtime low power state +and the system then goes into a system-wide sleep state, it normally ought +to resume into that runtime low power state rather than "full on". Such +distinctions would be part of the driver-internal state machine for that +hardware; the whole point of runtime power management is to be sure that +drivers are decoupled in that way from the state machine governing phases +of the system-wide power/sleep state transitions. + + +Power Saving Techniques +----------------------- +Normally runtime power management is handled by the drivers without specific +userspace or kernel intervention, by device-aware use of techniques like: + + Using information provided by other system layers + - stay deeply "off" except between open() and close() + - if transceiver/PHY indicates "nobody connected", stay "off" + - application protocols may include power commands or hints + + Using fewer CPU cycles + - using DMA instead of PIO + - removing timers, or making them lower frequency + - shortening "hot" code paths + - eliminating cache misses + - (sometimes) offloading work to device firmware + + Reducing other resource costs + - gating off unused clocks in software (or hardware) + - switching off unused power supplies + - eliminating (or delaying/merging) IRQs + - tuning DMA to use word and/or burst modes + + Using device-specific low power states + - using lower voltages + - avoiding needless DMA transfers + +Read your hardware documentation carefully to see the opportunities that +may be available. If you can, measure the actual power usage and check +it against the budget established for your project. + + +Examples: USB hosts, system timer, system CPU +---------------------------------------------- +USB host controllers make interesting, if complex, examples. In many cases +these have no work to do: no USB devices are connected, or all of them are +in the USB "suspend" state. Linux host controller drivers can then disable +periodic DMA transfers that would otherwise be a constant power drain on the +memory subsystem, and enter a suspend state. In power-aware controllers, +entering that suspend state may disable the clock used with USB signaling, +saving a certain amount of power. + +The controller will be woken from that state (with an IRQ) by changes to the +signal state on the data lines of a given port, for example by an existing +peripheral requesting "remote wakeup" or by plugging a new peripheral. The +same wakeup mechanism usually works from "standby" sleep states, and on some +systems also from "suspend to RAM" (or even "suspend to disk") states. +(Except that ACPI may be involved instead of normal IRQs, on some hardware.) + +System devices like timers and CPUs may have special roles in the platform +power management scheme. For example, system timers using a "dynamic tick" +approach don't just save CPU cycles (by eliminating needless timer IRQs), +but they may also open the door to using lower power CPU "idle" states that +cost more than a jiffie to enter and exit. On x86 systems these are states +like "C3"; note that periodic DMA transfers from a USB host controller will +also prevent entry to a C3 state, much like a periodic timer IRQ. + +That kind of runtime mechanism interaction is common. "System On Chip" (SOC) +processors often have low power idle modes that can't be entered unless +certain medium-speed clocks (often 12 or 48 MHz) are gated off. When the +drivers gate those clocks effectively, then the system idle task may be able +to use the lower power idle modes and thereby increase battery life. + +If the CPU can have a "cpufreq" driver, there also may be opportunities +to shift to lower voltage settings and reduce the power cost of executing +a given number of instructions. (Without voltage adjustment, it's rare +for cpufreq to save much power; the cost-per-instruction must go down.) + + +/sys/devices/.../power/state files +================================== +For now you can also test some of this functionality using sysfs. + + DEPRECATED: USE "power/state" ONLY FOR DRIVER TESTING, AND + AVOID USING dev->power.power_state IN DRIVERS. + + THESE WILL BE REMOVED. IF THE "power/state" FILE GETS REPLACED, + IT WILL BECOME SOMETHING COUPLED TO THE BUS OR DRIVER. + +In each device's directory, there is a 'power' directory, which contains +at least a 'state' file. The value of this field is effectively boolean, +PM_EVENT_ON or PM_EVENT_SUSPEND. + + * Reading from this file displays a value corresponding to + the power.power_state.event field. All nonzero values are + displayed as "2", corresponding to a low power state; zero + is displayed as "0", corresponding to normal operation. + + * Writing to this file initiates a transition using the + specified event code number; only '0', '2', and '3' are + accepted (without a newline); '2' and '3' are both + mapped to PM_EVENT_SUSPEND. + +On writes, the PM core relies on that recorded event code and the device/bus +capabilities to determine whether it uses a partial suspend() or resume() +sequence to change things so that the recorded event corresponds to the +numeric parameter. + + - If the bus requires the irqs-disabled suspend_late()/resume_early() + phases, writes fail because those operations are not supported here. + + - If the recorded value is the expected value, nothing is done. + + - If the recorded value is nonzero, the device is partially resumed, + using the bus.resume() and/or class.resume() methods. + + - If the target value is nonzero, the device is partially suspended, + using the class.suspend() and/or bus.suspend() methods and the + PM_EVENT_SUSPEND message. + +Drivers have no way to tell whether their suspend() and resume() calls +have come through the sysfs power/state file or as part of entering a +system sleep state, except that when accessed through sysfs the normal +parent/child sequencing rules are ignored. Drivers (such as bus, bridge, +or hub drivers) which expose child devices may need to enforce those rules +on their own. -- 2.39.5