summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst115
1 files changed, 115 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst b/Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..d0d65e58c14b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/driver-api/serial-interfaces.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
+=================================
+
+SPI is the "Serial Peripheral Interface", widely used with embedded
+systems because it is a simple and efficient interface: basically a
+multiplexed shift register. Its three signal wires hold a clock (SCK,
+often in the range of 1-20 MHz), a "Master Out, Slave In" (MOSI) data
+line, and a "Master In, Slave Out" (MISO) data line. SPI is a full
+duplex protocol; for each bit shifted out the MOSI line (one per clock)
+another is shifted in on the MISO line. Those bits are assembled into
+words of various sizes on the way to and from system memory. An
+additional chipselect line is usually active-low (nCS); four signals are
+normally used for each peripheral, plus sometimes an interrupt.
+
+The SPI bus facilities listed here provide a generalized interface to
+declare SPI busses and devices, manage them according to the standard
+Linux driver model, and perform input/output operations. At this time,
+only "master" side interfaces are supported, where Linux talks to SPI
+peripherals and does not implement such a peripheral itself. (Interfaces
+to support implementing SPI slaves would necessarily look different.)
+
+The programming interface is structured around two kinds of driver, and
+two kinds of device. A "Controller Driver" abstracts the controller
+hardware, which may be as simple as a set of GPIO pins or as complex as
+a pair of FIFOs connected to dual DMA engines on the other side of the
+SPI shift register (maximizing throughput). Such drivers bridge between
+whatever bus they sit on (often the platform bus) and SPI, and expose
+the SPI side of their device as a :c:type:`struct spi_master
+<spi_master>`. SPI devices are children of that master,
+represented as a :c:type:`struct spi_device <spi_device>` and
+manufactured from :c:type:`struct spi_board_info
+<spi_board_info>` descriptors which are usually provided by
+board-specific initialization code. A :c:type:`struct spi_driver
+<spi_driver>` is called a "Protocol Driver", and is bound to a
+spi_device using normal driver model calls.
+
+The I/O model is a set of queued messages. Protocol drivers submit one
+or more :c:type:`struct spi_message <spi_message>` objects,
+which are processed and completed asynchronously. (There are synchronous
+wrappers, however.) Messages are built from one or more
+:c:type:`struct spi_transfer <spi_transfer>` objects, each of
+which wraps a full duplex SPI transfer. A variety of protocol tweaking
+options are needed, because different chips adopt very different
+policies for how they use the bits transferred with SPI.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/spi/spi.h
+ :internal:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/spi/spi.c
+ :functions: spi_register_board_info
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/spi/spi.c
+ :export:
+
+I\ :sup:`2`\ C and SMBus Subsystem
+==================================
+
+I\ :sup:`2`\ C (or without fancy typography, "I2C") is an acronym for
+the "Inter-IC" bus, a simple bus protocol which is widely used where low
+data rate communications suffice. Since it's also a licensed trademark,
+some vendors use another name (such as "Two-Wire Interface", TWI) for
+the same bus. I2C only needs two signals (SCL for clock, SDA for data),
+conserving board real estate and minimizing signal quality issues. Most
+I2C devices use seven bit addresses, and bus speeds of up to 400 kHz;
+there's a high speed extension (3.4 MHz) that's not yet found wide use.
+I2C is a multi-master bus; open drain signaling is used to arbitrate
+between masters, as well as to handshake and to synchronize clocks from
+slower clients.
+
+The Linux I2C programming interfaces support only the master side of bus
+interactions, not the slave side. The programming interface is
+structured around two kinds of driver, and two kinds of device. An I2C
+"Adapter Driver" abstracts the controller hardware; it binds to a
+physical device (perhaps a PCI device or platform_device) and exposes a
+:c:type:`struct i2c_adapter <i2c_adapter>` representing each
+I2C bus segment it manages. On each I2C bus segment will be I2C devices
+represented by a :c:type:`struct i2c_client <i2c_client>`.
+Those devices will be bound to a :c:type:`struct i2c_driver
+<i2c_driver>`, which should follow the standard Linux driver
+model. (At this writing, a legacy model is more widely used.) There are
+functions to perform various I2C protocol operations; at this writing
+all such functions are usable only from task context.
+
+The System Management Bus (SMBus) is a sibling protocol. Most SMBus
+systems are also I2C conformant. The electrical constraints are tighter
+for SMBus, and it standardizes particular protocol messages and idioms.
+Controllers that support I2C can also support most SMBus operations, but
+SMBus controllers don't support all the protocol options that an I2C
+controller will. There are functions to perform various SMBus protocol
+operations, either using I2C primitives or by issuing SMBus commands to
+i2c_adapter devices which don't support those I2C operations.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/i2c.h
+ :internal:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/i2c/i2c-boardinfo.c
+ :functions: i2c_register_board_info
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/i2c/i2c-core.c
+ :export:
+
+High Speed Synchronous Serial Interface (HSI)
+=============================================
+
+High Speed Synchronous Serial Interface (HSI) is a serial interface
+mainly used for connecting application engines (APE) with cellular modem
+engines (CMT) in cellular handsets. HSI provides multiplexing for up to
+16 logical channels, low-latency and full duplex communication.
+
+.. kernel-doc:: include/linux/hsi/hsi.h
+ :internal:
+
+.. kernel-doc:: drivers/hsi/hsi_core.c
+ :export:
+