Re: [PATCH v2 2/2] dt-bindings: net: phy: vsc8531: document 'vsc8531,clkout-freq-mhz' property

[Alexandru Ardelean]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 8:24 PM Rob Herring <robh@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 11:21:23PM +0300, Alexandru Ardelean wrote:
> > For VSC8351 and similar PHYs, a new property was added to generate a clock
> > signal on the CLKOUT pin.
>
> Sorry, didn't think about it on v1, but I would imagine other vendors'
> PHYs have similar functionality. We should have something common. We
> have the clock binding for clocks already, so we should consider if
> that should be used here. It may look like an overkill for what you
> need, but things always start out that way. What if you want to turn the
> clock on and off as well?

So, there's the adin.c PHY driver which has a similar functionality
with the adin_config_clk_out().
Something in the micrel.c PHY driver (with
micrel,rmii-reference-clock-select-25-mhz); hopefully I did not
misread the code about that one.
And the at803x.c PHY driver has a 'qca,clk-out-frequency' property too.

Now with the mscc.c driver, there is a common-ality that could use a framework.

@Rob are you suggesting something like registering a clock provider
(somewhere in the PHY framework) and let the PHY drivers use it?
Usually, these clock signals (once enabled on startup), don't get
turned off; but I've worked mostly on reference designs; somewhere
down the line some people get different requirements.
These clocks get connected back to the MAC (usually), and are usually
like a "fixed-clock" driver.
In our case, turning off the clock would be needed if the PHY
negotiates a non-gigabit link; i.e 100 or 10 Mbps; in that case, the
CLKOUT signal is not needed and it can be turned off.

Maybe start out with a hook in 'struct phy_driver'?
Like "int (*config_clk_out)(struct phy_device *dev);" or something?
And underneath, this delegates to the CLK framework?

I'd let Andrew (or someone in netdev) have a final feedback here.

I can (probably) try to allocate some time to do this change based on
the MSCC driver in the next weeks, if there's a consensus.

Thanks
Alex

>
> > This change documents the change in the device-tree bindings doc.
>
> That's obvious.
>
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Alexandru Ardelean <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > ---
> >
> > Changelog v1 -> v2:
> > * https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/20230706081554.1616839-2-alex@xxxxxxxxxxx/
> > * changed property name 'vsc8531,clkout-freq-mhz' -> 'mscc,clkout-freq-mhz'
> >   as requested by Rob
> > * added 'net-next' tag as requested by Andrew
> >
> >  Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/mscc-phy-vsc8531.txt | 5 +++++
> >  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/mscc-phy-vsc8531.txt b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/mscc-phy-vsc8531.txt
> > index 0a3647fe331b..085d0e8a834e 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/mscc-phy-vsc8531.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/net/mscc-phy-vsc8531.txt
> > @@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ Optional properties:
> >                         VSC8531_LINK_100_ACTIVITY (2),
> >                         VSC8531_LINK_ACTIVITY (0) and
> >                         VSC8531_DUPLEX_COLLISION (8).
> > +- mscc,clkout-freq-mhz       : For VSC8531 and similar PHYs, this will output
> > +                       a clock signal on the CLKOUT pin of the chip.
> > +                       The supported values are 25, 50 & 125 Mhz.
> > +                       Default value is no clock signal on the CLKOUT pin.
> >  - load-save-gpios    : GPIO used for the load/save operation of the PTP
> >                         hardware clock (PHC).
> >
> > @@ -69,5 +73,6 @@ Example:
> >                  vsc8531,edge-slowdown        = <7>;
> >                  vsc8531,led-0-mode   = <VSC8531_LINK_1000_ACTIVITY>;
> >                  vsc8531,led-1-mode   = <VSC8531_LINK_100_ACTIVITY>;
> > +                mscc,clkout-freq-mhz = <50>;
> >               load-save-gpios         = <&gpio 10 GPIO_ACTIVE_HIGH>;
> >          };
> > --
> > 2.41.0
> >