[PATCH v4 1/2] power: supply: add input power and voltage limit properties

From: Enric Balletbo i Serra
Date: Tue May 07 2019 - 05:53:49 EST


For thermal management strategy you might be interested on limit the
input power for a power supply. We already have current limit but
basically what we probably want is to limit power. So, introduce the
input_power_limit property.

Although the common use case is limit the input power, in some
specific cases it is the voltage that is problematic (i.e some regulators
have different efficiencies at higher voltage resulting in more heat).
So introduce also the input_voltage_limit property.

This happens in one Chromebook and is used on the Pixel C's thermal
management strategy to effectively limit the input power to 5V 3A when
the screen is on. When the screen is on, the display, the CPU, and the GPU
all contribute more heat to the system than while the screen is off, and
we made a tradeoff to throttle the charger in order to give more of the
thermal budget to those other components.

So there's nothing fundamentally broken about the hardware that would
cause the Pixel C to malfunction if we were charging at 9V or 12V instead
of 5V when the screen is on, i.e. if userspace doesn't change this.

What would happen is that you wouldn't meet Google's skin temperature
targets on the system if the charger was allowed to run at 9V or 12V with
the screen on.

For folks hacking on Pixel Cs (which is now outside of Google's official
support window for Android) and customizing their own kernel and userspace
this would be acceptable, but we wanted to expose this feature in the
power supply properties because the feature does exist in the Emedded
Controller firmware of the Pixel C and all of Google's Chromebooks with
USB-C made since 2015 in case someone running an up to date kernel wanted
to limit the charging power for thermal or other reasons.

This patch exposes a new property, similar to input current limit, to
re-configure the maximum voltage from the external supply at runtime
based on system-level knowledge or user input.

Signed-off-by: Enric Balletbo i Serra <enric.balletbo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Guenter Roeck <groeck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Adam Thomson <Adam.Thomson.Opensource@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---

Changes in v4:
- Add also input_power_limit.

Changes in v3:
- Improve commit log and documentation with Benson comments.

Changes in v2:
- Document the new property in ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power.
- Add the Reviewed-by Guenter Roeck tag.

Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power | 32 +++++++++++++++++++++
Documentation/power/power_supply_class.txt | 4 +++
drivers/power/supply/power_supply_sysfs.c | 2 ++
include/linux/power_supply.h | 2 ++
4 files changed, 40 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power
index 5e23e22dce1b..962a27a1daf8 100644
--- a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-class-power
@@ -331,10 +331,42 @@ Description:
supply. Normally this is configured based on the type of
connection made (e.g. A configured SDP should output a maximum
of 500mA so the input current limit is set to the same value).
+ Use preferably input_power_limit, and for problems that can be
+ solved using power limit use input_current_limit.

Access: Read, Write
Valid values: Represented in microamps

+What: /sys/class/power_supply/<supply_name>/input_voltage_limit
+Date: May 2019
+Contact: linux-pm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
+Description:
+ This entry configures the incoming VBUS voltage limit currently
+ set in the supply. Normally this is configured based on
+ system-level knowledge or user input (e.g. This is part of the
+ Pixel C's thermal management strategy to effectively limit the
+ input power to 5V when the screen is on to meet Google's skin
+ temperature targets). Note that this feature should not be
+ used for safety critical things.
+ Use preferably input_power_limit, and for problems that can be
+ solved using power limit use input_voltage_limit.
+
+ Access: Read, Write
+ Valid values: Represented in microvolts
+
+What: /sys/class/power_supply/<supply_name>/input_power_limit
+Date: May 2019
+Contact: linux-pm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
+Description:
+ This entry configures the incoming power limit currently set
+ in the supply. Normally this is configured based on
+ system-level knowledge or user input. Use preferably this
+ feature to limit the incoming power and use current/voltage
+ limit only for problems that can be solved using power limit.
+
+ Access: Read, Write
+ Valid values: Represented in microwatts
+
What: /sys/class/power_supply/<supply_name>/online,
Date: May 2007
Contact: linux-pm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
diff --git a/Documentation/power/power_supply_class.txt b/Documentation/power/power_supply_class.txt
index 300d37896e51..1e3c705111db 100644
--- a/Documentation/power/power_supply_class.txt
+++ b/Documentation/power/power_supply_class.txt
@@ -137,6 +137,10 @@ power supply object.

INPUT_CURRENT_LIMIT - input current limit programmed by charger. Indicates
the current drawn from a charging source.
+INPUT_VOLTAGE_LIMIT - input voltage limit programmed by charger. Indicates
+the voltage limit from a charging source.
+INPUT_POWER_LIMIT - input power limit programmed by charger. Indicates
+the power limit from a charging source.

CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT - current charge control limit setting
CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT_MAX - maximum charge control limit setting
diff --git a/drivers/power/supply/power_supply_sysfs.c b/drivers/power/supply/power_supply_sysfs.c
index 5358a80d854f..860db617d241 100644
--- a/drivers/power/supply/power_supply_sysfs.c
+++ b/drivers/power/supply/power_supply_sysfs.c
@@ -275,6 +275,8 @@ static struct device_attribute power_supply_attrs[] = {
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(charge_control_limit),
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(charge_control_limit_max),
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(input_current_limit),
+ POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(input_voltage_limit),
+ POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(input_power_limit),
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(energy_full_design),
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(energy_empty_design),
POWER_SUPPLY_ATTR(energy_full),
diff --git a/include/linux/power_supply.h b/include/linux/power_supply.h
index 2f9c201a54d1..ba135a5d8996 100644
--- a/include/linux/power_supply.h
+++ b/include/linux/power_supply.h
@@ -122,6 +122,8 @@ enum power_supply_property {
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT,
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_CHARGE_CONTROL_LIMIT_MAX,
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_INPUT_CURRENT_LIMIT,
+ POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_INPUT_VOLTAGE_LIMIT,
+ POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_INPUT_POWER_LIMIT,
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_ENERGY_FULL_DESIGN,
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_ENERGY_EMPTY_DESIGN,
POWER_SUPPLY_PROP_ENERGY_FULL,
--
2.20.1