linux/Documentation/arm/Interrupts
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   12.5.2-rmk5
   2----------
   3
   4This is the first kernel that contains a major shake up of some of the
   5major architecture-specific subsystems.
   6
   7Firstly, it contains some pretty major changes to the way we handle the
   8MMU TLB.  Each MMU TLB variant is now handled completely separately -
   9we have TLB v3, TLB v4 (without write buffer), TLB v4 (with write buffer),
  10and finally TLB v4 (with write buffer, with I TLB invalidate entry).
  11There is more assembly code inside each of these functions, mainly to
  12allow more flexible TLB handling for the future.
  13
  14Secondly, the IRQ subsystem.
  15
  16The 2.5 kernels will be having major changes to the way IRQs are handled.
  17Unfortunately, this means that machine types that touch the irq_desc[]
  18array (basically all machine types) will break, and this means every
  19machine type that we currently have.
  20
  21Lets take an example.  On the Assabet with Neponset, we have:
  22
  23                  GPIO25                 IRR:2
  24        SA1100 ------------> Neponset -----------> SA1111
  25                                         IIR:1
  26                                      -----------> USAR
  27                                         IIR:0
  28                                      -----------> SMC9196
  29
  30The way stuff currently works, all SA1111 interrupts are mutually
  31exclusive of each other - if you're processing one interrupt from the
  32SA1111 and another comes in, you have to wait for that interrupt to
  33finish processing before you can service the new interrupt.  Eg, an
  34IDE PIO-based interrupt on the SA1111 excludes all other SA1111 and
  35SMC9196 interrupts until it has finished transferring its multi-sector
  36data, which can be a long time.  Note also that since we loop in the
  37SA1111 IRQ handler, SA1111 IRQs can hold off SMC9196 IRQs indefinitely.
  38
  39
  40The new approach brings several new ideas...
  41
  42We introduce the concept of a "parent" and a "child".  For example,
  43to the Neponset handler, the "parent" is GPIO25, and the "children"d
  44are SA1111, SMC9196 and USAR.
  45
  46We also bring the idea of an IRQ "chip" (mainly to reduce the size of
  47the irqdesc array).  This doesn't have to be a real "IC"; indeed the
  48SA11x0 IRQs are handled by two separate "chip" structures, one for
  49GPIO0-10, and another for all the rest.  It is just a container for
  50the various operations (maybe this'll change to a better name).
  51This structure has the following operations:
  52
  53struct irqchip {
  54        /*
  55         * Acknowledge the IRQ.
  56         * If this is a level-based IRQ, then it is expected to mask the IRQ
  57         * as well.
  58         */
  59        void (*ack)(unsigned int irq);
  60        /*
  61         * Mask the IRQ in hardware.
  62         */
  63        void (*mask)(unsigned int irq);
  64        /*
  65         * Unmask the IRQ in hardware.
  66         */
  67        void (*unmask)(unsigned int irq);
  68        /*
  69         * Re-run the IRQ
  70         */
  71        void (*rerun)(unsigned int irq);
  72        /*
  73         * Set the type of the IRQ.
  74         */
  75        int (*type)(unsigned int irq, unsigned int, type);
  76};
  77
  78ack    - required.  May be the same function as mask for IRQs
  79         handled by do_level_IRQ.
  80mask   - required.
  81unmask - required.
  82rerun  - optional.  Not required if you're using do_level_IRQ for all
  83         IRQs that use this 'irqchip'.  Generally expected to re-trigger
  84         the hardware IRQ if possible.  If not, may call the handler
  85         directly.
  86type   - optional.  If you don't support changing the type of an IRQ,
  87         it should be null so people can detect if they are unable to
  88         set the IRQ type.
  89
  90For each IRQ, we keep the following information:
  91
  92        - "disable" depth (number of disable_irq()s without enable_irq()s)
  93        - flags indicating what we can do with this IRQ (valid, probe,
  94          noautounmask) as before
  95        - status of the IRQ (probing, enable, etc)
  96        - chip
  97        - per-IRQ handler
  98        - irqaction structure list
  99
 100The handler can be one of the 3 standard handlers - "level", "edge" and
 101"simple", or your own specific handler if you need to do something special.
 102
 103The "level" handler is what we currently have - its pretty simple.
 104"edge" knows about the brokenness of such IRQ implementations - that you
 105need to leave the hardware IRQ enabled while processing it, and queueing
 106further IRQ events should the IRQ happen again while processing.  The
 107"simple" handler is very basic, and does not perform any hardware
 108manipulation, nor state tracking.  This is useful for things like the
 109SMC9196 and USAR above.
 110
 111So, what's changed?
 112
 1131. Machine implementations must not write to the irqdesc array.
 114
 1152. New functions to manipulate the irqdesc array.  The first 4 are expected
 116   to be useful only to machine specific code.  The last is recommended to
 117   only be used by machine specific code, but may be used in drivers if
 118   absolutely necessary.
 119
 120        set_irq_chip(irq,chip)
 121
 122                Set the mask/unmask methods for handling this IRQ
 123
 124        set_irq_handler(irq,handler)
 125
 126                Set the handler for this IRQ (level, edge, simple)
 127
 128        set_irq_chained_handler(irq,handler)
 129
 130                Set a "chained" handler for this IRQ - automatically
 131                enables this IRQ (eg, Neponset and SA1111 handlers).
 132
 133        set_irq_flags(irq,flags)
 134
 135                Set the valid/probe/noautoenable flags.
 136
 137        set_irq_type(irq,type)
 138
 139                Set active the IRQ edge(s)/level.  This replaces the
 140                SA1111 INTPOL manipulation, and the set_GPIO_IRQ_edge()
 141                function.  Type should be one of IRQ_TYPE_xxx defined in
 142                <linux/irq.h>
 143
 1443. set_GPIO_IRQ_edge() is obsolete, and should be replaced by set_irq_type.
 145
 1464. Direct access to SA1111 INTPOL is deprecated.  Use set_irq_type instead.
 147
 1485. A handler is expected to perform any necessary acknowledgement of the
 149   parent IRQ via the correct chip specific function.  For instance, if
 150   the SA1111 is directly connected to a SA1110 GPIO, then you should
 151   acknowledge the SA1110 IRQ each time you re-read the SA1111 IRQ status.
 152
 1536. For any child which doesn't have its own IRQ enable/disable controls
 154   (eg, SMC9196), the handler must mask or acknowledge the parent IRQ
 155   while the child handler is called, and the child handler should be the
 156   "simple" handler (not "edge" nor "level").  After the handler completes,
 157   the parent IRQ should be unmasked, and the status of all children must
 158   be re-checked for pending events.  (see the Neponset IRQ handler for
 159   details).
 160
 1617. fixup_irq() is gone, as is arch/arm/mach-*/include/mach/irq.h
 162
 163Please note that this will not solve all problems - some of them are
 164hardware based.  Mixing level-based and edge-based IRQs on the same
 165parent signal (eg neponset) is one such area where a software based
 166solution can't provide the full answer to low IRQ latency.
 167
 168