[PATCH 3/3] dts: RISC-V PLIC documentation

From: Palmer Dabbelt
Date: Tue Jun 27 2017 - 01:22:13 EST


This patch adds documentation for the platform-level interrupt
controller (PLIC) found in all RISC-V systems. This interrupt
controller routes interrupts from all the devices in the system to each
hart-local interrupt controller.

Note: the DTS bindings for the PLIC aren't set in stone yet, as we might
want to change how we're specifying holes in the hart list.

Signed-off-by: Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
.../bindings/interrupt-controller/riscv,plic0.txt | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 63 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/devicetree/bindings/interrupt-controller/riscv,plic0.txt

diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/interrupt-controller/riscv,plic0.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/interrupt-controller/riscv,plic0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b51a948d9acc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/interrupt-controller/riscv,plic0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+RISC-V Platform-Level Interrupt Controller (PLIC)
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+The RISC-V supervisor ISA specification allows for the presence of a
+platform-level interrupt contrellor (PLIC). The PLIC connects all external
+interrupts in the system to all hart contexts in the system, via the external
+interrupt source in each hart's hart-local interrupt controller (HLIC). A hart
+context is a priviledge mode in a hardware execution thread. For example, in
+an 4 core system with 2-way SMT, you have 8 harts and probably at least two
+priviledge modes per hart; machine mode and supervisor mode.
+
+Each interrupt can be enabled on per-context basis. Any context can claim
+a pending enabled interrupt and then release it once it has been handled.
+
+Each interrupt has a configurable priority. Higher priority interrupts are
+serviced firs. Each context can specify a priority threshold. Interrupts
+with priority below this threshold will not cause the PLIC to raise its
+interrupt line leading to the context.
+
+While the PLIC supports both edge-triggered and level-triggered interrupts,
+interrupt handlers are oblivious to this distinction and therefor it is not
+specific in the PLIC device-tree binding.
+
+FIXME: I'm going to see if it's viable to change this.
+On RISC-V systems there is no physical hart ID availiable to programs running
+in supervisor mode, only a logical hart ID that is set by the bootloader. As
+such, hart contexts are expected to be mostly contiguous.
+
+Required properties:
+- compatible : "riscv,plic0"
+- #address-cells : should be <0>
+- #interrupt-cells : should be <1>
+- interrupt-controller : Identifies the node as an interrupt controller
+- reg : Should contain 1 register range (address and length)
+- riscv,ndev : Specifies the maximum number of devices this PLIC is capable of
+ recieving interrupts from. While this may usually be the same as the number
+ of devices the PLIC is actually connected to, there may be fewer devices
+ actually connected. Software can be largely oblivious of this, as devices
+ that are not connected will never fire an interrupt.
+- interrupts-extended : Specifies which contexts are connected to the PLIC,
+ with "-1" specifying that a context is not present.
+
+Example:
+
+ plic: interrupt-controller@c000000 {
+ #address-cells = <0>;
+ #interrupt-cells = <1>;
+ compatible = "riscv,plic0";
+ interrupt-controller;
+ interrupts-extended = <
+ &cpu0-intc 11
+ &cpu1-intc 11 &cpu1-intc 9
+ &cpu2-intc 11 &cpu2-intc 9
+ &cpu3-intc 11 &cpu3-intc 9
+ &cpu4-intc 11 &cpu4-intc 9>;
+ reg = <0xc000000 0x4000000>;
+ riscv,ndev = <10>;
+ };
+
+While the RISC-V ISA doesn't specify a memory layout for the PLIC, the
+"riscv,plic0" device is a concrete implementation of the PLIC that contains a
+specific memory layout. More details about the memory layout of the
+"riscv,plic0" device can be found as a comment in the device driver.
--
2.13.0