Re: [PATCH v2 5/5] dt-bindings: net: ipq4019-mdio: Document ipq5332 platform

From: Jie Luo
Date: Sat Dec 16 2023 - 10:37:55 EST



On 12/16/2023 10:16 PM, Conor Dooley wrote:
On Sat, Dec 16, 2023 at 09:16:49PM +0800, Jie Luo wrote:


On 12/15/2023 9:41 PM, Conor Dooley wrote:
On Fri, Dec 15, 2023 at 08:40:20PM +0800, Jie Luo wrote:


On 12/15/2023 8:19 PM, Krzysztof Kozlowski wrote:
On 15/12/2023 12:42, Jie Luo wrote:
Which clocks are these mentioned in the property? From where do they come?

Anyway, property is in existing form is not correct - this is not a
generic property.


This property cmn-reference-clock is just the hardware register
configuration, since the different IPQ platform needs to select
the different reference clock source for the CMN PLL block that
provides the various clock outputs to the all kinds of Ethernet
devices, which is not from GCC provider.

AGAIN: where do the clocks come from? Which device generates them?

Oh, OK, the reference clock is from wifi that provides 48MHZ to
Ethernet block.

Then WiFi should be providing you the clock and this device should be
clock consumer, right?

Yes, wifi provides 48MHz clock to CMM PLL block, there is no GCC
for this 48MHZ clock output, it is the hardware PIN connection.

All clocks are some hardware pin connections.

Best regards,
Krzysztof


Yes, all reference clocks here are from hardware pin connection.

You keep answering with short sentences without touching the root of the
problem. I don't know exactly why, but I feel this discussion leads
nowhere. After long discussion you finally admitted that clocks came
from another device - Wifi. It took us like 6 emails?

So last statement: if you have clock provider and clock consumer, you
must represent it in the bindings or provide rationale why it should not
or must not be represented in the bindings. So far I do not see any of
such arguments.

If you use arguments like:
"My driver....": sorry, bindings are not about drivers
"I don't have clock driver for WiFi": sorry, it does not matter if you
can write one, right?

Please reach internally your colleagues to solve these problems and make
review process smoother.

These reference clocks source do not need the hardware configuration,
that is the reason why the clock provider is not needed, some reference
clock source are even from external crystal.

I fail to understand how that makes this clock different to the clocks
on any other platform. Clocks from external crystals are present in many
many systems. See for example fixed-clock.yaml.

The reference clock rate has no meaning to the CMN PLL block, since the
software can't control the behavior of CMN PLL, and various output
clocks of CMN PLL block are fixed, adding this custom property is just
for selecting the different reference clock source, since different
IPQ platform needs to be configured the different reference clock source
for the CMN PLL block.

Many, many other systems are in the same situation, where clocks are
provided to a peripheral that has no control over the clock rate, but
has to pick internal dividers or set bits in a config register depending
on what clock rate is provided to it. That is not something special
about this particular platform and other systems are able to use the
clocks property for this purpose.

Sure, Thanks Conor for this information.
i will try to replace this custom property with clocks property and
verify the drive.


let's say if we register 48MHZ reference clock as the fix clock, we
can't distinguish it is internal 48MHZ or external 48MHZ, for these
two reference clock sources, there are different hardware configuration
of CMN PLL block

That's easy, if the reference is external, it is provided by the clocks
property. If it internal, then there will be no clocks property
providing it.

Thanks for this detail.


and this reference clock selection is not applicable
for the IPQ4019 platform.

Isn't this a patch for the IPQ4019? Why would it not be relevant?
IPQ4019 is the legacy chip, and the same MDIO bus driver is also
extended to support the new IPQ platform, since the MDIO hardware
is leveraged by the new IPQ platform.

For the CMN PLL block, which is not existed on the legacy platform
IPQ4019, but it does not matter, we can also distinguish it according
to the CMN register base defined or not, the CMN reference clocks is
configured only when the CMN register base defined in the reg property.


There is also no enable control for the reference clocks since it is
inputted by the hardware PIN connection, i will update these description
in the DT to make it more clear.

Again, this does not justify having custom properties for this clock,
as it is no different to other platforms. As far as I can tell, the only
thing that a standard "clocks" property cannot convey here is the
internal reference. I would suggest that since there is only one
internal clock frequency, the absence of this particular clock in the
"clocks" property can be used to determine that the reference is the
internal on

I'm surprised you didn't pick up on this, but there are actually _2_
internal references, which I have just noticed while double checking the
binding patch.

i noticed this, the reference clock source can be supported by clocks as
you suggested here, it is really helpful.

What is the impact of using the 48 MHz or 96 MHz internal reference?
They works on the different IPQ platform, 96MHZ internal reference is
used on IPQ5018, the internal 48MHZ is used on the IPQ5332, that is
same as what you describe above, the different clock source rate is
selected as the different register value, then the PLL can do the
corresponding config to output the correct clock rate, the external
clock source is also same if the clock rate is same, just the different
hardware PIN is selected if the external reference source is configured.

Thanks.


Thanks,
Conor.

Yes, we can get the clock rate of the clocks property if we register
these as the fix clock to distinguish the different clock source.

Since the reference clock rate value has no matter with the CMN clock
configuration, it is just the reference clock source selection, so
i did not use the fix clock for this.

Thanks for this suggestion, i will verify the fix clock register solution.