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  <book id="Generic-IRQ-Guide">
   <bookinfo>
    <title>Linux generic IRQ handling</title>
  
    <authorgroup>
     <author>
      <firstname>Thomas</firstname>
      <surname>Gleixner</surname>
      <affiliation>
       <address>
        <email>tglx@linutronix.de</email>
       </address>
      </affiliation>
     </author>
     <author>
      <firstname>Ingo</firstname>
      <surname>Molnar</surname>
      <affiliation>
       <address>
        <email>mingo@elte.hu</email>
       </address>
      </affiliation>
     </author>
    </authorgroup>
  
    <copyright>
     <year>2005-2010</year>
     <holder>Thomas Gleixner</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright>
     <year>2005-2006</year>
     <holder>Ingo Molnar</holder>
    </copyright>
  
    <legalnotice>
     <para>
       This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
       it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
     </para>
  
     <para>
       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
       useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
       warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
       See the GNU General Public License for more details.
     </para>
  
     <para>
       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
       License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
       Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
       MA 02111-1307 USA
     </para>
  
     <para>
       For more details see the file COPYING in the source
       distribution of Linux.
     </para>
    </legalnotice>
   </bookinfo>
  
  <toc></toc>
  
    <chapter id="intro">
      <title>Introduction</title>
      <para>
  	The generic interrupt handling layer is designed to provide a
  	complete abstraction of interrupt handling for device drivers.
  	It is able to handle all the different types of interrupt controller
  	hardware. Device drivers use generic API functions to request, enable,
  	disable and free interrupts. The drivers do not have to know anything
  	about interrupt hardware details, so they can be used on different
  	platforms without code changes.
      </para>
      <para>
    	This documentation is provided to developers who want to implement
  	an interrupt subsystem based for their architecture, with the help
  	of the generic IRQ handling layer.
      </para>
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="rationale">
      <title>Rationale</title>
  	<para>
  	The original implementation of interrupt handling in Linux uses
  	the __do_IRQ() super-handler, which is able to deal with every
  	type of interrupt logic.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	Originally, Russell King identified different types of handlers to
  	build a quite universal set for the ARM interrupt handler
  	implementation in Linux 2.5/2.6. He distinguished between:
  	<itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>Level type</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>Edge type</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>Simple type</para></listitem>
  	</itemizedlist>
  	During the implementation we identified another type:
  	<itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>Fast EOI type</para></listitem>
  	</itemizedlist>
  	In the SMP world of the __do_IRQ() super-handler another type
  	was identified:
  	<itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>Per CPU type</para></listitem>
  	</itemizedlist>
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	This split implementation of high-level IRQ handlers allows us to
  	optimize the flow of the interrupt handling for each specific
  	interrupt type. This reduces complexity in that particular code path
  	and allows the optimized handling of a given type.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	The original general IRQ implementation used hw_interrupt_type
  	structures and their ->ack(), ->end() [etc.] callbacks to
  	differentiate the flow control in the super-handler. This leads to
  	a mix of flow logic and low-level hardware logic, and it also leads
  	to unnecessary code duplication: for example in i386, there is an
  	ioapic_level_irq and an ioapic_edge_irq IRQ-type which share many
  	of the low-level details but have different flow handling.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	A more natural abstraction is the clean separation of the
  	'irq flow' and the 'chip details'.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	Analysing a couple of architecture's IRQ subsystem implementations
  	reveals that most of them can use a generic set of 'irq flow'
  	methods and only need to add the chip-level specific code.
  	The separation is also valuable for (sub)architectures
  	which need specific quirks in the IRQ flow itself but not in the
  	chip details - and thus provides a more transparent IRQ subsystem
  	design.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	Each interrupt descriptor is assigned its own high-level flow
  	handler, which is normally one of the generic
  	implementations. (This high-level flow handler implementation also
  	makes it simple to provide demultiplexing handlers which can be
  	found in embedded platforms on various architectures.)
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	The separation makes the generic interrupt handling layer more
  	flexible and extensible. For example, an (sub)architecture can
  	use a generic IRQ-flow implementation for 'level type' interrupts
  	and add a (sub)architecture specific 'edge type' implementation.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	To make the transition to the new model easier and prevent the
  	breakage of existing implementations, the __do_IRQ() super-handler
  	is still available. This leads to a kind of duality for the time
  	being. Over time the new model should be used in more and more
  	architectures, as it enables smaller and cleaner IRQ subsystems.
  	It's deprecated for three years now and about to be removed.
  	</para>
    </chapter>
    <chapter id="bugs">
      <title>Known Bugs And Assumptions</title>
      <para>
  	None (knock on wood).
      </para>
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="Abstraction">
      <title>Abstraction layers</title>
      <para>
  	There are three main levels of abstraction in the interrupt code:
  	<orderedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>High-level driver API</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>High-level IRQ flow handlers</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>Chip-level hardware encapsulation</para></listitem>
  	</orderedlist>
      </para>
      <sect1 id="Interrupt_control_flow">
  	<title>Interrupt control flow</title>
  	<para>
  	Each interrupt is described by an interrupt descriptor structure
  	irq_desc. The interrupt is referenced by an 'unsigned int' numeric
  	value which selects the corresponding interrupt decription structure
  	in the descriptor structures array.
  	The descriptor structure contains status information and pointers
  	to the interrupt flow method and the interrupt chip structure
  	which are assigned to this interrupt.
  	</para>
  	<para>
  	Whenever an interrupt triggers, the low-level architecture code calls
  	into the generic interrupt code by calling desc->handle_irq().
  	This high-level IRQ handling function only uses desc->irq_data.chip
  	primitives referenced by the assigned chip descriptor structure.
  	</para>
      </sect1>
      <sect1 id="Highlevel_Driver_API">
  	<title>High-level Driver API</title>
  	<para>
  	  The high-level Driver API consists of following functions:
  	  <itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>request_irq()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>free_irq()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>disable_irq()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>enable_irq()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>disable_irq_nosync() (SMP only)</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>synchronize_irq() (SMP only)</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_irq_type()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_irq_wake()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_handler_data()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_chip()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_chip_data()</para></listitem>
            </itemizedlist>
  	  See the autogenerated function documentation for details.
  	</para>
      </sect1>
      <sect1 id="Highlevel_IRQ_flow_handlers">
  	<title>High-level IRQ flow handlers</title>
  	<para>
  	  The generic layer provides a set of pre-defined irq-flow methods:
  	  <itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_level_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_edge_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_fasteoi_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_simple_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_percpu_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_edge_eoi_irq</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>handle_bad_irq</para></listitem>
  	  </itemizedlist>
  	  The interrupt flow handlers (either pre-defined or architecture
  	  specific) are assigned to specific interrupts by the architecture
  	  either during bootup or during device initialization.
  	</para>
  	<sect2 id="Default_flow_implementations">
  	<title>Default flow implementations</title>
  	    <sect3 id="Helper_functions">
  	 	<title>Helper functions</title>
  		<para>
  		The helper functions call the chip primitives and
  		are used by the default flow implementations.
  		The following helper functions are implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  default_enable(struct irq_data *data)
  {
  	desc->irq_data.chip->irq_unmask(data);
  }
  
  default_disable(struct irq_data *data)
  {
  	if (!delay_disable(data))
  		desc->irq_data.chip->irq_mask(data);
  }
  
  default_ack(struct irq_data *data)
  {
  	chip->irq_ack(data);
  }
  
  default_mask_ack(struct irq_data *data)
  {
  	if (chip->irq_mask_ack) {
  		chip->irq_mask_ack(data);
  	} else {
  		chip->irq_mask(data);
  		chip->irq_ack(data);
  	}
  }
  
  noop(struct irq_data *data))
  {
  }
  
  		</programlisting>
  	        </para>
  	    </sect3>
  	</sect2>
  	<sect2 id="Default_flow_handler_implementations">
  	<title>Default flow handler implementations</title>
  	    <sect3 id="Default_Level_IRQ_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>Default Level IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_level_irq provides a generic implementation
  		for level-triggered interrupts.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		The following control flow is implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  desc->irq_data.chip->irq_mask_ack();
  handle_irq_event(desc->action);
  desc->irq_data.chip->irq_unmask();
  		</programlisting>
  		</para>
  	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="Default_FASTEOI_IRQ_flow_handler">
  		<title>Default Fast EOI IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_fasteoi_irq provides a generic implementation
  		for interrupts, which only need an EOI at the end of
  		the handler.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		The following control flow is implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  handle_irq_event(desc->action);
  desc->irq_data.chip->irq_eoi();
  		</programlisting>
  		</para>
  	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="Default_Edge_IRQ_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>Default Edge IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_edge_irq provides a generic implementation
  		for edge-triggered interrupts.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		The following control flow is implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  if (desc->status &amp; running) {
  	desc->irq_data.chip->irq_mask_ack();
  	desc->status |= pending | masked;
  	return;
  }
  desc->irq_data.chip->irq_ack();
  desc->status |= running;
  do {
  	if (desc->status &amp; masked)
  		desc->irq_data.chip->irq_unmask();
  	desc->status &amp;= ~pending;
  	handle_irq_event(desc->action);
  } while (status &amp; pending);
  desc->status &amp;= ~running;
  		</programlisting>
  		</para>
     	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="Default_simple_IRQ_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>Default simple IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_simple_irq provides a generic implementation
  		for simple interrupts.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		Note: The simple flow handler does not call any
  		handler/chip primitives.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		The following control flow is implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  handle_irq_event(desc->action);
  		</programlisting>
  		</para>
     	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="Default_per_CPU_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>Default per CPU flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_percpu_irq provides a generic implementation
  		for per CPU interrupts.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		Per CPU interrupts are only available on SMP and
  		the handler provides a simplified version without
  		locking.
  		</para>
  		<para>
  		The following control flow is implemented (simplified excerpt):
  		<programlisting>
  if (desc->irq_data.chip->irq_ack)
  	desc->irq_data.chip->irq_ack();
  handle_irq_event(desc->action);
  if (desc->irq_data.chip->irq_eoi)
          desc->irq_data.chip->irq_eoi();
  		</programlisting>
  		</para>
     	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="EOI_Edge_IRQ_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>EOI Edge IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_edge_eoi_irq provides an abnomination of the edge
  		handler which is solely used to tame a badly wreckaged
  		irq controller on powerpc/cell.
  		</para>
     	    </sect3>
  	    <sect3 id="BAD_IRQ_flow_handler">
  	 	<title>Bad IRQ flow handler</title>
  		<para>
  		handle_bad_irq is used for spurious interrupts which
  		have no real handler assigned..
  		</para>
     	    </sect3>
  	</sect2>
  	<sect2 id="Quirks_and_optimizations">
  	<title>Quirks and optimizations</title>
  	<para>
  	The generic functions are intended for 'clean' architectures and chips,
  	which have no platform-specific IRQ handling quirks. If an architecture
  	needs to implement quirks on the 'flow' level then it can do so by
  	overriding the high-level irq-flow handler.
  	</para>
  	</sect2>
  	<sect2 id="Delayed_interrupt_disable">
  	<title>Delayed interrupt disable</title>
  	<para>
  	This per interrupt selectable feature, which was introduced by Russell
  	King in the ARM interrupt implementation, does not mask an interrupt
  	at the hardware level when disable_irq() is called. The interrupt is
  	kept enabled and is masked in the flow handler when an interrupt event
  	happens. This prevents losing edge interrupts on hardware which does
  	not store an edge interrupt event while the interrupt is disabled at
  	the hardware level. When an interrupt arrives while the IRQ_DISABLED
  	flag is set, then the interrupt is masked at the hardware level and
  	the IRQ_PENDING bit is set. When the interrupt is re-enabled by
  	enable_irq() the pending bit is checked and if it is set, the
  	interrupt is resent either via hardware or by a software resend
  	mechanism. (It's necessary to enable CONFIG_HARDIRQS_SW_RESEND when
  	you want to use the delayed interrupt disable feature and your
  	hardware is not capable of retriggering	an interrupt.)
  	The delayed interrupt disable is not configurable.
  	</para>
  	</sect2>
      </sect1>
      <sect1 id="Chiplevel_hardware_encapsulation">
  	<title>Chip-level hardware encapsulation</title>
  	<para>
  	The chip-level hardware descriptor structure irq_chip
  	contains all the direct chip relevant functions, which
  	can be utilized by the irq flow implementations.
  	  <itemizedlist>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_ack()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_mask_ack() - Optional, recommended for performance</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_mask()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_unmask()</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_eoi() - Optional, required for EOI flow handlers</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_retrigger() - Optional</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_type() - Optional</para></listitem>
  	  <listitem><para>irq_set_wake() - Optional</para></listitem>
  	  </itemizedlist>
  	These primitives are strictly intended to mean what they say: ack means
  	ACK, masking means masking of an IRQ line, etc. It is up to the flow
  	handler(s) to use these basic units of low-level functionality.
  	</para>
      </sect1>
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="doirq">
       <title>__do_IRQ entry point</title>
       <para>
  	The original implementation __do_IRQ() was an alternative entry
  	point for all types of interrupts. It no longer exists.
       </para>
       <para>
  	This handler turned out to be not suitable for all
  	interrupt hardware and was therefore reimplemented with split
  	functionality for edge/level/simple/percpu interrupts. This is not
  	only a functional optimization. It also shortens code paths for
  	interrupts.
        </para>
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="locking">
       <title>Locking on SMP</title>
       <para>
  	The locking of chip registers is up to the architecture that
  	defines the chip primitives. The per-irq structure is
  	protected via desc->lock, by the generic layer.
       </para>
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="genericchip">
       <title>Generic interrupt chip</title>
       <para>
         To avoid copies of identical implementations of IRQ chips the
         core provides a configurable generic interrupt chip
         implementation. Developers should check carefuly whether the
         generic chip fits their needs before implementing the same
         functionality slightly differently themselves.
       </para>
  !Ekernel/irq/generic-chip.c
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="structs">
       <title>Structures</title>
       <para>
       This chapter contains the autogenerated documentation of the structures which are
       used in the generic IRQ layer.
       </para>
  !Iinclude/linux/irq.h
  !Iinclude/linux/interrupt.h
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="pubfunctions">
       <title>Public Functions Provided</title>
       <para>
       This chapter contains the autogenerated documentation of the kernel API functions
        which are exported.
       </para>
  !Ekernel/irq/manage.c
  !Ekernel/irq/chip.c
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="intfunctions">
       <title>Internal Functions Provided</title>
       <para>
       This chapter contains the autogenerated documentation of the internal functions.
       </para>
  !Ikernel/irq/irqdesc.c
  !Ikernel/irq/handle.c
  !Ikernel/irq/chip.c
    </chapter>
  
    <chapter id="credits">
       <title>Credits</title>
  	<para>
  		The following people have contributed to this document:
  		<orderedlist>
  			<listitem><para>Thomas Gleixner<email>tglx@linutronix.de</email></para></listitem>
  			<listitem><para>Ingo Molnar<email>mingo@elte.hu</email></para></listitem>
  		</orderedlist>
  	</para>
    </chapter>
  </book>