linux/Documentation/pwm.txt

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pwm: Add PWM framework support This patch adds framework support for PWM (pulse width modulation) devices. The is a barebone PWM API already in the kernel under include/linux/pwm.h, but it does not allow for multiple drivers as each of them implements the pwm_*() functions. There are other PWM framework patches around from Bill Gatliff. Unlike his framework this one does not change the existing API for PWMs so that this framework can act as a drop in replacement for the existing API. Why another framework? Several people argue that there should not be another framework for PWMs but they should be integrated into one of the existing frameworks like led or hwmon. Unlike these frameworks the PWM framework is agnostic to the purpose of the PWM. In fact, a PWM can drive a LED, but this makes the LED framework a user of a PWM, like already done in leds-pwm.c. The gpio framework also is not suitable for PWMs. Every gpio could be turned into a PWM using timer based toggling, but on the other hand not every PWM hardware device can be turned into a gpio due to the lack of hardware capabilities. This patch does not try to improve the PWM API yet, this could be done in subsequent patches. Signed-off-by: Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Acked-by: Kurt Van Dijck <kurt.van.dijck@eia.be> Reviewed-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Reviewed-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <matthias@kaehlcke.net> Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com> Reviewed-by: Shawn Guo <shawn.guo@linaro.org> [thierry.reding@avionic-design.de: fixup typos, kerneldoc comments] Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding@avionic-design.de>
2011-01-28 08:40:40 +00:00
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) interface
This provides an overview about the Linux PWM interface
PWMs are commonly used for controlling LEDs, fans or vibrators in
cell phones. PWMs with a fixed purpose have no need implementing
the Linux PWM API (although they could). However, PWMs are often
found as discrete devices on SoCs which have no fixed purpose. It's
up to the board designer to connect them to LEDs or fans. To provide
this kind of flexibility the generic PWM API exists.
Identifying PWMs
----------------
Users of the legacy PWM API use unique IDs to refer to PWM devices.
Instead of referring to a PWM device via its unique ID, board setup code
should instead register a static mapping that can be used to match PWM
consumers to providers, as given in the following example:
static struct pwm_lookup board_pwm_lookup[] = {
PWM_LOOKUP("tegra-pwm", 0, "pwm-backlight", NULL),
};
static void __init board_init(void)
{
...
pwm_add_table(board_pwm_lookup, ARRAY_SIZE(board_pwm_lookup));
...
}
pwm: Add PWM framework support This patch adds framework support for PWM (pulse width modulation) devices. The is a barebone PWM API already in the kernel under include/linux/pwm.h, but it does not allow for multiple drivers as each of them implements the pwm_*() functions. There are other PWM framework patches around from Bill Gatliff. Unlike his framework this one does not change the existing API for PWMs so that this framework can act as a drop in replacement for the existing API. Why another framework? Several people argue that there should not be another framework for PWMs but they should be integrated into one of the existing frameworks like led or hwmon. Unlike these frameworks the PWM framework is agnostic to the purpose of the PWM. In fact, a PWM can drive a LED, but this makes the LED framework a user of a PWM, like already done in leds-pwm.c. The gpio framework also is not suitable for PWMs. Every gpio could be turned into a PWM using timer based toggling, but on the other hand not every PWM hardware device can be turned into a gpio due to the lack of hardware capabilities. This patch does not try to improve the PWM API yet, this could be done in subsequent patches. Signed-off-by: Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Acked-by: Kurt Van Dijck <kurt.van.dijck@eia.be> Reviewed-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Reviewed-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <matthias@kaehlcke.net> Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com> Reviewed-by: Shawn Guo <shawn.guo@linaro.org> [thierry.reding@avionic-design.de: fixup typos, kerneldoc comments] Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding@avionic-design.de>
2011-01-28 08:40:40 +00:00
Using PWMs
----------
Legacy users can request a PWM device using pwm_request() and free it
after usage with pwm_free().
New users should use the pwm_get() function and pass to it the consumer
device or a consumer name. pwm_put() is used to free the PWM device. Managed
variants of these functions, devm_pwm_get() and devm_pwm_put(), also exist.
After being requested a PWM has to be configured using:
pwm: Add PWM framework support This patch adds framework support for PWM (pulse width modulation) devices. The is a barebone PWM API already in the kernel under include/linux/pwm.h, but it does not allow for multiple drivers as each of them implements the pwm_*() functions. There are other PWM framework patches around from Bill Gatliff. Unlike his framework this one does not change the existing API for PWMs so that this framework can act as a drop in replacement for the existing API. Why another framework? Several people argue that there should not be another framework for PWMs but they should be integrated into one of the existing frameworks like led or hwmon. Unlike these frameworks the PWM framework is agnostic to the purpose of the PWM. In fact, a PWM can drive a LED, but this makes the LED framework a user of a PWM, like already done in leds-pwm.c. The gpio framework also is not suitable for PWMs. Every gpio could be turned into a PWM using timer based toggling, but on the other hand not every PWM hardware device can be turned into a gpio due to the lack of hardware capabilities. This patch does not try to improve the PWM API yet, this could be done in subsequent patches. Signed-off-by: Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Acked-by: Kurt Van Dijck <kurt.van.dijck@eia.be> Reviewed-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Reviewed-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <matthias@kaehlcke.net> Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com> Reviewed-by: Shawn Guo <shawn.guo@linaro.org> [thierry.reding@avionic-design.de: fixup typos, kerneldoc comments] Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding@avionic-design.de>
2011-01-28 08:40:40 +00:00
int pwm_config(struct pwm_device *pwm, int duty_ns, int period_ns);
To start/stop toggling the PWM output use pwm_enable()/pwm_disable().
Implementing a PWM driver
-------------------------
Currently there are two ways to implement pwm drivers. Traditionally
there only has been the barebone API meaning that each driver has
to implement the pwm_*() functions itself. This means that it's impossible
to have multiple PWM drivers in the system. For this reason it's mandatory
for new drivers to use the generic PWM framework.
A new PWM controller/chip can be added using pwmchip_add() and removed
again with pwmchip_remove(). pwmchip_add() takes a filled in struct
pwm_chip as argument which provides a description of the PWM chip, the
number of PWM devices provider by the chip and the chip-specific
implementation of the supported PWM operations to the framework.
pwm: Add PWM framework support This patch adds framework support for PWM (pulse width modulation) devices. The is a barebone PWM API already in the kernel under include/linux/pwm.h, but it does not allow for multiple drivers as each of them implements the pwm_*() functions. There are other PWM framework patches around from Bill Gatliff. Unlike his framework this one does not change the existing API for PWMs so that this framework can act as a drop in replacement for the existing API. Why another framework? Several people argue that there should not be another framework for PWMs but they should be integrated into one of the existing frameworks like led or hwmon. Unlike these frameworks the PWM framework is agnostic to the purpose of the PWM. In fact, a PWM can drive a LED, but this makes the LED framework a user of a PWM, like already done in leds-pwm.c. The gpio framework also is not suitable for PWMs. Every gpio could be turned into a PWM using timer based toggling, but on the other hand not every PWM hardware device can be turned into a gpio due to the lack of hardware capabilities. This patch does not try to improve the PWM API yet, this could be done in subsequent patches. Signed-off-by: Sascha Hauer <s.hauer@pengutronix.de> Acked-by: Kurt Van Dijck <kurt.van.dijck@eia.be> Reviewed-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de> Reviewed-by: Matthias Kaehlcke <matthias@kaehlcke.net> Reviewed-by: Mark Brown <broonie@opensource.wolfsonmicro.com> Reviewed-by: Shawn Guo <shawn.guo@linaro.org> [thierry.reding@avionic-design.de: fixup typos, kerneldoc comments] Signed-off-by: Thierry Reding <thierry.reding@avionic-design.de>
2011-01-28 08:40:40 +00:00
Locking
-------
The PWM core list manipulations are protected by a mutex, so pwm_request()
and pwm_free() may not be called from an atomic context. Currently the
PWM core does not enforce any locking to pwm_enable(), pwm_disable() and
pwm_config(), so the calling context is currently driver specific. This
is an issue derived from the former barebone API and should be fixed soon.
Helpers
-------
Currently a PWM can only be configured with period_ns and duty_ns. For several
use cases freq_hz and duty_percent might be better. Instead of calculating
this in your driver please consider adding appropriate helpers to the framework.