Re: regulators: creating a regulator device for theAC/USB/BAT/charge component of a PMIC?

From: Mark Brown
Date: Thu Jul 26 2012 - 17:01:49 EST


On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 12:02:31PM -0600, Stephen Warren wrote:

> A couple of the regulators I'm looking at (I guess many/most in fact)
> are structured as:

> Battery, AC, USB, ... -> PMIC -> main output (unregulated?)

Yes, that's very normal.

> Should this "main output" be represented as a regulator itself?

It can be if you like - most things will be depending on it, often what
people call the battery supply is actually the main power rail in the
schematic. Having it there certainly won't do any harm and may be
useful.

> However, some of the regulators in the TPS6586x at least are fed
> directly from the SYS output by an internal connection within the PMIC
> (e.g. LDO5). Currently, the driver sets up these regulators as having no
> supply, which seems wrong too. Presumably the PMIC driver should
> internally hook up its SYS as LDO5's supply without needing any platform
> data or DT ldo5-supply property to do this?

Yes, I think if we're going to represent such supplies the driver should
just do it and not force everyone to cut'n'paste. Though to be honest
if it's a supply that's purely internal to the primary PMIC there's no
real need, if the system core rail gets turned off software really isn't
an issue any more.

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