Re: Add system timer driver for Mediatek SoCs

From: Stanley Chu
Date: Tue Jun 26 2018 - 04:03:53 EST


On Tue, 2018-06-26 at 09:31 +0200, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
> On 25/06/2018 11:07, Stanley Chu wrote:
> > On Mon, 2018-06-25 at 09:34 +0200, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
> >> On 25/06/2018 09:09, Stanley Chu wrote:
> >>> This patch adds a new driver for system timer on the Mediatek SoCs.
> >>
> >> Please elaborate why we need yet another timer.
> >>
> >> Is this timer present on all Mediatek platform ? Does it always co-exist
> >> with the existing one ?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > Hi Daniel,
> >
> > This new "system timer" only exists on recent Mediatek platforms,
> > for example, MT6765. We will upstream driver first, and then update
> > device tree on MT6765 later.
> >
> > System timer is designed and optimized as a SoC timer for
> > tick-broadcasting. Besides timer IP has simpler register manipulation
> > and friendly low-power design.
> >
> > There is no plan to remove existed "General Purpose Timer" now.
>
> It is unclear what "General Purpose Timer" and "System Timer" differ
> except they are different timers running on different platforms.
>
> Merge them into a single timer-mediatek.c file.
>
Hi Daniel,

Yes, they are different timers running on different platforms.

"System Timer" can replace "General Purpose Timer" in recent platforms,
for example, MT6765.

Thanks.
Stanley Chu