1 Booting the Linux/ppc kernel without Open Firmware
2 --------------------------------------------------
4 (c) 2005 Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh at kernel.crashing.org>,
6 (c) 2005 Becky Bruce <becky.bruce at freescale.com>,
7 Freescale Semiconductor, FSL SOC and 32-bit additions
8 (c) 2006 MontaVista Software, Inc.
9 Flash chip node definition
15 1) Entry point for arch/powerpc
18 II - The DT block format
20 2) Device tree generalities
21 3) Device tree "structure" block
22 4) Device tree "strings" block
24 III - Required content of the device tree
25 1) Note about cells and address representation
26 2) Note about "compatible" properties
27 3) Note about "name" properties
28 4) Note about node and property names and character set
29 5) Required nodes and properties
33 d) the /memory node(s)
35 f) the /soc<SOCname> node
37 IV - "dtc", the device tree compiler
39 V - Recommendations for a bootloader
41 VI - System-on-a-chip devices and nodes
42 1) Defining child nodes of an SOC
43 2) Representing devices without a current OF specification
45 b) Interrupt controllers
46 c) 4xx/Axon EMAC ethernet nodes
48 e) USB EHCI controllers
52 VII - Specifying interrupt information for devices
53 1) interrupts property
54 2) interrupt-parent property
55 3) OpenPIC Interrupt Controllers
56 4) ISA Interrupt Controllers
58 VIII - Specifying device power management information (sleep property)
60 Appendix A - Sample SOC node for MPC8540
66 May 18, 2005: Rev 0.1 - Initial draft, no chapter III yet.
68 May 19, 2005: Rev 0.2 - Add chapter III and bits & pieces here or
69 clarifies the fact that a lot of things are
70 optional, the kernel only requires a very
71 small device tree, though it is encouraged
72 to provide an as complete one as possible.
74 May 24, 2005: Rev 0.3 - Precise that DT block has to be in RAM
76 - Define version 3 and new format version 16
77 for the DT block (version 16 needs kernel
78 patches, will be fwd separately).
79 String block now has a size, and full path
80 is replaced by unit name for more
82 linux,phandle is made optional, only nodes
83 that are referenced by other nodes need it.
84 "name" property is now automatically
85 deduced from the unit name
87 June 1, 2005: Rev 0.4 - Correct confusion between OF_DT_END and
88 OF_DT_END_NODE in structure definition.
89 - Change version 16 format to always align
90 property data to 4 bytes. Since tokens are
91 already aligned, that means no specific
92 required alignment between property size
93 and property data. The old style variable
94 alignment would make it impossible to do
95 "simple" insertion of properties using
96 memmove (thanks Milton for
97 noticing). Updated kernel patch as well
98 - Correct a few more alignment constraints
99 - Add a chapter about the device-tree
100 compiler and the textural representation of
101 the tree that can be "compiled" by dtc.
103 November 21, 2005: Rev 0.5
104 - Additions/generalizations for 32-bit
105 - Changed to reflect the new arch/powerpc
111 - Add some definitions of interrupt tree (simple/complex)
112 - Add some definitions for PCI host bridges
113 - Add some common address format examples
114 - Add definitions for standard properties and "compatible"
115 names for cells that are not already defined by the existing
117 - Compare FSL SOC use of PCI to standard and make sure no new
118 node definition required.
119 - Add more information about node definitions for SOC devices
120 that currently have no standard, like the FSL CPM.
126 During the recent development of the Linux/ppc64 kernel, and more
127 specifically, the addition of new platform types outside of the old
128 IBM pSeries/iSeries pair, it was decided to enforce some strict rules
129 regarding the kernel entry and bootloader <-> kernel interfaces, in
130 order to avoid the degeneration that had become the ppc32 kernel entry
131 point and the way a new platform should be added to the kernel. The
132 legacy iSeries platform breaks those rules as it predates this scheme,
133 but no new board support will be accepted in the main tree that
134 doesn't follows them properly. In addition, since the advent of the
135 arch/powerpc merged architecture for ppc32 and ppc64, new 32-bit
136 platforms and 32-bit platforms which move into arch/powerpc will be
137 required to use these rules as well.
139 The main requirement that will be defined in more detail below is
140 the presence of a device-tree whose format is defined after Open
141 Firmware specification. However, in order to make life easier
142 to embedded board vendors, the kernel doesn't require the device-tree
143 to represent every device in the system and only requires some nodes
144 and properties to be present. This will be described in detail in
145 section III, but, for example, the kernel does not require you to
146 create a node for every PCI device in the system. It is a requirement
147 to have a node for PCI host bridges in order to provide interrupt
148 routing informations and memory/IO ranges, among others. It is also
149 recommended to define nodes for on chip devices and other busses that
150 don't specifically fit in an existing OF specification. This creates a
151 great flexibility in the way the kernel can then probe those and match
152 drivers to device, without having to hard code all sorts of tables. It
153 also makes it more flexible for board vendors to do minor hardware
154 upgrades without significantly impacting the kernel code or cluttering
155 it with special cases.
158 1) Entry point for arch/powerpc
159 -------------------------------
161 There is one and one single entry point to the kernel, at the start
162 of the kernel image. That entry point supports two calling
165 a) Boot from Open Firmware. If your firmware is compatible
166 with Open Firmware (IEEE 1275) or provides an OF compatible
167 client interface API (support for "interpret" callback of
168 forth words isn't required), you can enter the kernel with:
170 r5 : OF callback pointer as defined by IEEE 1275
171 bindings to powerpc. Only the 32-bit client interface
172 is currently supported
174 r3, r4 : address & length of an initrd if any or 0
176 The MMU is either on or off; the kernel will run the
177 trampoline located in arch/powerpc/kernel/prom_init.c to
178 extract the device-tree and other information from open
179 firmware and build a flattened device-tree as described
180 in b). prom_init() will then re-enter the kernel using
181 the second method. This trampoline code runs in the
182 context of the firmware, which is supposed to handle all
183 exceptions during that time.
185 b) Direct entry with a flattened device-tree block. This entry
186 point is called by a) after the OF trampoline and can also be
187 called directly by a bootloader that does not support the Open
188 Firmware client interface. It is also used by "kexec" to
189 implement "hot" booting of a new kernel from a previous
190 running one. This method is what I will describe in more
191 details in this document, as method a) is simply standard Open
192 Firmware, and thus should be implemented according to the
193 various standard documents defining it and its binding to the
194 PowerPC platform. The entry point definition then becomes:
196 r3 : physical pointer to the device-tree block
197 (defined in chapter II) in RAM
199 r4 : physical pointer to the kernel itself. This is
200 used by the assembly code to properly disable the MMU
201 in case you are entering the kernel with MMU enabled
202 and a non-1:1 mapping.
204 r5 : NULL (as to differentiate with method a)
206 Note about SMP entry: Either your firmware puts your other
207 CPUs in some sleep loop or spin loop in ROM where you can get
208 them out via a soft reset or some other means, in which case
209 you don't need to care, or you'll have to enter the kernel
210 with all CPUs. The way to do that with method b) will be
211 described in a later revision of this document.
219 Board supports (platforms) are not exclusive config options. An
220 arbitrary set of board supports can be built in a single kernel
221 image. The kernel will "know" what set of functions to use for a
222 given platform based on the content of the device-tree. Thus, you
225 a) add your platform support as a _boolean_ option in
226 arch/powerpc/Kconfig, following the example of PPC_PSERIES,
227 PPC_PMAC and PPC_MAPLE. The later is probably a good
228 example of a board support to start from.
230 b) create your main platform file as
231 "arch/powerpc/platforms/myplatform/myboard_setup.c" and add it
232 to the Makefile under the condition of your CONFIG_
233 option. This file will define a structure of type "ppc_md"
234 containing the various callbacks that the generic code will
235 use to get to your platform specific code
237 c) Add a reference to your "ppc_md" structure in the
238 "machines" table in arch/powerpc/kernel/setup_64.c if you are
241 d) request and get assigned a platform number (see PLATFORM_*
242 constants in arch/powerpc/include/asm/processor.h
244 32-bit embedded kernels:
246 Currently, board support is essentially an exclusive config option.
247 The kernel is configured for a single platform. Part of the reason
248 for this is to keep kernels on embedded systems small and efficient;
249 part of this is due to the fact the code is already that way. In the
250 future, a kernel may support multiple platforms, but only if the
251 platforms feature the same core architecture. A single kernel build
252 cannot support both configurations with Book E and configurations
253 with classic Powerpc architectures.
255 32-bit embedded platforms that are moved into arch/powerpc using a
256 flattened device tree should adopt the merged tree practice of
257 setting ppc_md up dynamically, even though the kernel is currently
258 built with support for only a single platform at a time. This allows
259 unification of the setup code, and will make it easier to go to a
260 multiple-platform-support model in the future.
262 NOTE: I believe the above will be true once Ben's done with the merge
263 of the boot sequences.... someone speak up if this is wrong!
265 To add a 32-bit embedded platform support, follow the instructions
266 for 64-bit platforms above, with the exception that the Kconfig
267 option should be set up such that the kernel builds exclusively for
268 the platform selected. The processor type for the platform should
269 enable another config option to select the specific board
272 NOTE: If Ben doesn't merge the setup files, may need to change this to
276 I will describe later the boot process and various callbacks that
277 your platform should implement.
280 II - The DT block format
281 ========================
284 This chapter defines the actual format of the flattened device-tree
285 passed to the kernel. The actual content of it and kernel requirements
286 are described later. You can find example of code manipulating that
287 format in various places, including arch/powerpc/kernel/prom_init.c
288 which will generate a flattened device-tree from the Open Firmware
289 representation, or the fs2dt utility which is part of the kexec tools
290 which will generate one from a filesystem representation. It is
291 expected that a bootloader like uboot provides a bit more support,
292 that will be discussed later as well.
294 Note: The block has to be in main memory. It has to be accessible in
295 both real mode and virtual mode with no mapping other than main
296 memory. If you are writing a simple flash bootloader, it should copy
297 the block to RAM before passing it to the kernel.
303 The kernel is entered with r3 pointing to an area of memory that is
304 roughly described in arch/powerpc/include/asm/prom.h by the structure
307 struct boot_param_header {
308 u32 magic; /* magic word OF_DT_HEADER */
309 u32 totalsize; /* total size of DT block */
310 u32 off_dt_struct; /* offset to structure */
311 u32 off_dt_strings; /* offset to strings */
312 u32 off_mem_rsvmap; /* offset to memory reserve map
314 u32 version; /* format version */
315 u32 last_comp_version; /* last compatible version */
317 /* version 2 fields below */
318 u32 boot_cpuid_phys; /* Which physical CPU id we're
320 /* version 3 fields below */
321 u32 size_dt_strings; /* size of the strings block */
323 /* version 17 fields below */
324 u32 size_dt_struct; /* size of the DT structure block */
327 Along with the constants:
329 /* Definitions used by the flattened device tree */
330 #define OF_DT_HEADER 0xd00dfeed /* 4: version,
332 #define OF_DT_BEGIN_NODE 0x1 /* Start node: full name
334 #define OF_DT_END_NODE 0x2 /* End node */
335 #define OF_DT_PROP 0x3 /* Property: name off,
337 #define OF_DT_END 0x9
339 All values in this header are in big endian format, the various
340 fields in this header are defined more precisely below. All
341 "offset" values are in bytes from the start of the header; that is
342 from the value of r3.
346 This is a magic value that "marks" the beginning of the
347 device-tree block header. It contains the value 0xd00dfeed and is
348 defined by the constant OF_DT_HEADER
352 This is the total size of the DT block including the header. The
353 "DT" block should enclose all data structures defined in this
354 chapter (who are pointed to by offsets in this header). That is,
355 the device-tree structure, strings, and the memory reserve map.
359 This is an offset from the beginning of the header to the start
360 of the "structure" part the device tree. (see 2) device tree)
364 This is an offset from the beginning of the header to the start
365 of the "strings" part of the device-tree
369 This is an offset from the beginning of the header to the start
370 of the reserved memory map. This map is a list of pairs of 64-
371 bit integers. Each pair is a physical address and a size. The
372 list is terminated by an entry of size 0. This map provides the
373 kernel with a list of physical memory areas that are "reserved"
374 and thus not to be used for memory allocations, especially during
375 early initialization. The kernel needs to allocate memory during
376 boot for things like un-flattening the device-tree, allocating an
377 MMU hash table, etc... Those allocations must be done in such a
378 way to avoid overriding critical things like, on Open Firmware
379 capable machines, the RTAS instance, or on some pSeries, the TCE
380 tables used for the iommu. Typically, the reserve map should
381 contain _at least_ this DT block itself (header,total_size). If
382 you are passing an initrd to the kernel, you should reserve it as
383 well. You do not need to reserve the kernel image itself. The map
384 should be 64-bit aligned.
388 This is the version of this structure. Version 1 stops
389 here. Version 2 adds an additional field boot_cpuid_phys.
390 Version 3 adds the size of the strings block, allowing the kernel
391 to reallocate it easily at boot and free up the unused flattened
392 structure after expansion. Version 16 introduces a new more
393 "compact" format for the tree itself that is however not backward
394 compatible. Version 17 adds an additional field, size_dt_struct,
395 allowing it to be reallocated or moved more easily (this is
396 particularly useful for bootloaders which need to make
397 adjustments to a device tree based on probed information). You
398 should always generate a structure of the highest version defined
399 at the time of your implementation. Currently that is version 17,
400 unless you explicitly aim at being backward compatible.
404 Last compatible version. This indicates down to what version of
405 the DT block you are backward compatible. For example, version 2
406 is backward compatible with version 1 (that is, a kernel build
407 for version 1 will be able to boot with a version 2 format). You
408 should put a 1 in this field if you generate a device tree of
409 version 1 to 3, or 16 if you generate a tree of version 16 or 17
410 using the new unit name format.
414 This field only exist on version 2 headers. It indicate which
415 physical CPU ID is calling the kernel entry point. This is used,
416 among others, by kexec. If you are on an SMP system, this value
417 should match the content of the "reg" property of the CPU node in
418 the device-tree corresponding to the CPU calling the kernel entry
419 point (see further chapters for more informations on the required
420 device-tree contents)
424 This field only exists on version 3 and later headers. It
425 gives the size of the "strings" section of the device tree (which
426 starts at the offset given by off_dt_strings).
430 This field only exists on version 17 and later headers. It gives
431 the size of the "structure" section of the device tree (which
432 starts at the offset given by off_dt_struct).
434 So the typical layout of a DT block (though the various parts don't
435 need to be in that order) looks like this (addresses go from top to
439 ------------------------------
440 r3 -> | struct boot_param_header |
441 ------------------------------
442 | (alignment gap) (*) |
443 ------------------------------
444 | memory reserve map |
445 ------------------------------
447 ------------------------------
449 | device-tree structure |
451 ------------------------------
453 ------------------------------
455 | device-tree strings |
457 -----> ------------------------------
462 (*) The alignment gaps are not necessarily present; their presence
463 and size are dependent on the various alignment requirements of
464 the individual data blocks.
467 2) Device tree generalities
468 ---------------------------
470 This device-tree itself is separated in two different blocks, a
471 structure block and a strings block. Both need to be aligned to a 4
474 First, let's quickly describe the device-tree concept before detailing
475 the storage format. This chapter does _not_ describe the detail of the
476 required types of nodes & properties for the kernel, this is done
477 later in chapter III.
479 The device-tree layout is strongly inherited from the definition of
480 the Open Firmware IEEE 1275 device-tree. It's basically a tree of
481 nodes, each node having two or more named properties. A property can
484 It is a tree, so each node has one and only one parent except for the
485 root node who has no parent.
487 A node has 2 names. The actual node name is generally contained in a
488 property of type "name" in the node property list whose value is a
489 zero terminated string and is mandatory for version 1 to 3 of the
490 format definition (as it is in Open Firmware). Version 16 makes it
491 optional as it can generate it from the unit name defined below.
493 There is also a "unit name" that is used to differentiate nodes with
494 the same name at the same level, it is usually made of the node
495 names, the "@" sign, and a "unit address", which definition is
496 specific to the bus type the node sits on.
498 The unit name doesn't exist as a property per-se but is included in
499 the device-tree structure. It is typically used to represent "path" in
500 the device-tree. More details about the actual format of these will be
503 The kernel powerpc generic code does not make any formal use of the
504 unit address (though some board support code may do) so the only real
505 requirement here for the unit address is to ensure uniqueness of
506 the node unit name at a given level of the tree. Nodes with no notion
507 of address and no possible sibling of the same name (like /memory or
508 /cpus) may omit the unit address in the context of this specification,
509 or use the "@0" default unit address. The unit name is used to define
510 a node "full path", which is the concatenation of all parent node
511 unit names separated with "/".
513 The root node doesn't have a defined name, and isn't required to have
514 a name property either if you are using version 3 or earlier of the
515 format. It also has no unit address (no @ symbol followed by a unit
516 address). The root node unit name is thus an empty string. The full
517 path to the root node is "/".
519 Every node which actually represents an actual device (that is, a node
520 which isn't only a virtual "container" for more nodes, like "/cpus"
521 is) is also required to have a "device_type" property indicating the
524 Finally, every node that can be referenced from a property in another
525 node is required to have a "linux,phandle" property. Real open
526 firmware implementations provide a unique "phandle" value for every
527 node that the "prom_init()" trampoline code turns into
528 "linux,phandle" properties. However, this is made optional if the
529 flattened device tree is used directly. An example of a node
530 referencing another node via "phandle" is when laying out the
531 interrupt tree which will be described in a further version of this
534 This "linux, phandle" property is a 32-bit value that uniquely
535 identifies a node. You are free to use whatever values or system of
536 values, internal pointers, or whatever to generate these, the only
537 requirement is that every node for which you provide that property has
538 a unique value for it.
540 Here is an example of a simple device-tree. In this example, an "o"
541 designates a node followed by the node unit name. Properties are
542 presented with their name followed by their content. "content"
543 represents an ASCII string (zero terminated) value, while <content>
544 represents a 32-bit hexadecimal value. The various nodes in this
545 example will be discussed in a later chapter. At this point, it is
546 only meant to give you a idea of what a device-tree looks like. I have
547 purposefully kept the "name" and "linux,phandle" properties which
548 aren't necessary in order to give you a better idea of what the tree
549 looks like in practice.
552 |- name = "device-tree"
553 |- model = "MyBoardName"
554 |- compatible = "MyBoardFamilyName"
555 |- #address-cells = <2>
557 |- linux,phandle = <0>
561 | | - linux,phandle = <1>
562 | | - #address-cells = <1>
563 | | - #size-cells = <0>
566 | |- name = "PowerPC,970"
567 | |- device_type = "cpu"
569 | |- clock-frequency = <5f5e1000>
571 | |- linux,phandle = <2>
575 | |- device_type = "memory"
576 | |- reg = <00000000 00000000 00000000 20000000>
577 | |- linux,phandle = <3>
581 |- bootargs = "root=/dev/sda2"
582 |- linux,phandle = <4>
584 This tree is almost a minimal tree. It pretty much contains the
585 minimal set of required nodes and properties to boot a linux kernel;
586 that is, some basic model informations at the root, the CPUs, and the
587 physical memory layout. It also includes misc information passed
588 through /chosen, like in this example, the platform type (mandatory)
589 and the kernel command line arguments (optional).
591 The /cpus/PowerPC,970@0/64-bit property is an example of a
592 property without a value. All other properties have a value. The
593 significance of the #address-cells and #size-cells properties will be
594 explained in chapter IV which defines precisely the required nodes and
595 properties and their content.
598 3) Device tree "structure" block
600 The structure of the device tree is a linearized tree structure. The
601 "OF_DT_BEGIN_NODE" token starts a new node, and the "OF_DT_END_NODE"
602 ends that node definition. Child nodes are simply defined before
603 "OF_DT_END_NODE" (that is nodes within the node). A 'token' is a 32
604 bit value. The tree has to be "finished" with a OF_DT_END token
606 Here's the basic structure of a single node:
608 * token OF_DT_BEGIN_NODE (that is 0x00000001)
609 * for version 1 to 3, this is the node full path as a zero
610 terminated string, starting with "/". For version 16 and later,
611 this is the node unit name only (or an empty string for the
613 * [align gap to next 4 bytes boundary]
615 * token OF_DT_PROP (that is 0x00000003)
616 * 32-bit value of property value size in bytes (or 0 if no
618 * 32-bit value of offset in string block of property name
619 * property value data if any
620 * [align gap to next 4 bytes boundary]
621 * [child nodes if any]
622 * token OF_DT_END_NODE (that is 0x00000002)
624 So the node content can be summarized as a start token, a full path,
625 a list of properties, a list of child nodes, and an end token. Every
626 child node is a full node structure itself as defined above.
628 NOTE: The above definition requires that all property definitions for
629 a particular node MUST precede any subnode definitions for that node.
630 Although the structure would not be ambiguous if properties and
631 subnodes were intermingled, the kernel parser requires that the
632 properties come first (up until at least 2.6.22). Any tools
633 manipulating a flattened tree must take care to preserve this
636 4) Device tree "strings" block
638 In order to save space, property names, which are generally redundant,
639 are stored separately in the "strings" block. This block is simply the
640 whole bunch of zero terminated strings for all property names
641 concatenated together. The device-tree property definitions in the
642 structure block will contain offset values from the beginning of the
646 III - Required content of the device tree
647 =========================================
649 WARNING: All "linux,*" properties defined in this document apply only
650 to a flattened device-tree. If your platform uses a real
651 implementation of Open Firmware or an implementation compatible with
652 the Open Firmware client interface, those properties will be created
653 by the trampoline code in the kernel's prom_init() file. For example,
654 that's where you'll have to add code to detect your board model and
655 set the platform number. However, when using the flattened device-tree
656 entry point, there is no prom_init() pass, and thus you have to
657 provide those properties yourself.
660 1) Note about cells and address representation
661 ----------------------------------------------
663 The general rule is documented in the various Open Firmware
664 documentations. If you choose to describe a bus with the device-tree
665 and there exist an OF bus binding, then you should follow the
666 specification. However, the kernel does not require every single
667 device or bus to be described by the device tree.
669 In general, the format of an address for a device is defined by the
670 parent bus type, based on the #address-cells and #size-cells
671 properties. Note that the parent's parent definitions of #address-cells
672 and #size-cells are not inherited so every node with children must specify
673 them. The kernel requires the root node to have those properties defining
674 addresses format for devices directly mapped on the processor bus.
676 Those 2 properties define 'cells' for representing an address and a
677 size. A "cell" is a 32-bit number. For example, if both contain 2
678 like the example tree given above, then an address and a size are both
679 composed of 2 cells, and each is a 64-bit number (cells are
680 concatenated and expected to be in big endian format). Another example
681 is the way Apple firmware defines them, with 2 cells for an address
682 and one cell for a size. Most 32-bit implementations should define
683 #address-cells and #size-cells to 1, which represents a 32-bit value.
684 Some 32-bit processors allow for physical addresses greater than 32
685 bits; these processors should define #address-cells as 2.
687 "reg" properties are always a tuple of the type "address size" where
688 the number of cells of address and size is specified by the bus
689 #address-cells and #size-cells. When a bus supports various address
690 spaces and other flags relative to a given address allocation (like
691 prefetchable, etc...) those flags are usually added to the top level
692 bits of the physical address. For example, a PCI physical address is
693 made of 3 cells, the bottom two containing the actual address itself
694 while the top cell contains address space indication, flags, and pci
695 bus & device numbers.
697 For busses that support dynamic allocation, it's the accepted practice
698 to then not provide the address in "reg" (keep it 0) though while
699 providing a flag indicating the address is dynamically allocated, and
700 then, to provide a separate "assigned-addresses" property that
701 contains the fully allocated addresses. See the PCI OF bindings for
704 In general, a simple bus with no address space bits and no dynamic
705 allocation is preferred if it reflects your hardware, as the existing
706 kernel address parsing functions will work out of the box. If you
707 define a bus type with a more complex address format, including things
708 like address space bits, you'll have to add a bus translator to the
709 prom_parse.c file of the recent kernels for your bus type.
711 The "reg" property only defines addresses and sizes (if #size-cells is
712 non-0) within a given bus. In order to translate addresses upward
713 (that is into parent bus addresses, and possibly into CPU physical
714 addresses), all busses must contain a "ranges" property. If the
715 "ranges" property is missing at a given level, it's assumed that
716 translation isn't possible, i.e., the registers are not visible on the
717 parent bus. The format of the "ranges" property for a bus is a list
720 bus address, parent bus address, size
722 "bus address" is in the format of the bus this bus node is defining,
723 that is, for a PCI bridge, it would be a PCI address. Thus, (bus
724 address, size) defines a range of addresses for child devices. "parent
725 bus address" is in the format of the parent bus of this bus. For
726 example, for a PCI host controller, that would be a CPU address. For a
727 PCI<->ISA bridge, that would be a PCI address. It defines the base
728 address in the parent bus where the beginning of that range is mapped.
730 For a new 64-bit powerpc board, I recommend either the 2/2 format or
731 Apple's 2/1 format which is slightly more compact since sizes usually
732 fit in a single 32-bit word. New 32-bit powerpc boards should use a
733 1/1 format, unless the processor supports physical addresses greater
734 than 32-bits, in which case a 2/1 format is recommended.
736 Alternatively, the "ranges" property may be empty, indicating that the
737 registers are visible on the parent bus using an identity mapping
738 translation. In other words, the parent bus address space is the same
739 as the child bus address space.
741 2) Note about "compatible" properties
742 -------------------------------------
744 These properties are optional, but recommended in devices and the root
745 node. The format of a "compatible" property is a list of concatenated
746 zero terminated strings. They allow a device to express its
747 compatibility with a family of similar devices, in some cases,
748 allowing a single driver to match against several devices regardless
749 of their actual names.
751 3) Note about "name" properties
752 -------------------------------
754 While earlier users of Open Firmware like OldWorld macintoshes tended
755 to use the actual device name for the "name" property, it's nowadays
756 considered a good practice to use a name that is closer to the device
757 class (often equal to device_type). For example, nowadays, ethernet
758 controllers are named "ethernet", an additional "model" property
759 defining precisely the chip type/model, and "compatible" property
760 defining the family in case a single driver can driver more than one
761 of these chips. However, the kernel doesn't generally put any
762 restriction on the "name" property; it is simply considered good
763 practice to follow the standard and its evolutions as closely as
766 Note also that the new format version 16 makes the "name" property
767 optional. If it's absent for a node, then the node's unit name is then
768 used to reconstruct the name. That is, the part of the unit name
769 before the "@" sign is used (or the entire unit name if no "@" sign
772 4) Note about node and property names and character set
773 -------------------------------------------------------
775 While open firmware provides more flexible usage of 8859-1, this
776 specification enforces more strict rules. Nodes and properties should
777 be comprised only of ASCII characters 'a' to 'z', '0' to
778 '9', ',', '.', '_', '+', '#', '?', and '-'. Node names additionally
779 allow uppercase characters 'A' to 'Z' (property names should be
780 lowercase. The fact that vendors like Apple don't respect this rule is
781 irrelevant here). Additionally, node and property names should always
782 begin with a character in the range 'a' to 'z' (or 'A' to 'Z' for node
785 The maximum number of characters for both nodes and property names
786 is 31. In the case of node names, this is only the leftmost part of
787 a unit name (the pure "name" property), it doesn't include the unit
788 address which can extend beyond that limit.
791 5) Required nodes and properties
792 --------------------------------
793 These are all that are currently required. However, it is strongly
794 recommended that you expose PCI host bridges as documented in the
795 PCI binding to open firmware, and your interrupt tree as documented
796 in OF interrupt tree specification.
800 The root node requires some properties to be present:
802 - model : this is your board name/model
803 - #address-cells : address representation for "root" devices
804 - #size-cells: the size representation for "root" devices
805 - device_type : This property shouldn't be necessary. However, if
806 you decide to create a device_type for your root node, make sure it
807 is _not_ "chrp" unless your platform is a pSeries or PAPR compliant
808 one for 64-bit, or a CHRP-type machine for 32-bit as this will
809 matched by the kernel this way.
811 Additionally, some recommended properties are:
813 - compatible : the board "family" generally finds its way here,
814 for example, if you have 2 board models with a similar layout,
815 that typically get driven by the same platform code in the
816 kernel, you would use a different "model" property but put a
817 value in "compatible". The kernel doesn't directly use that
818 value but it is generally useful.
820 The root node is also generally where you add additional properties
821 specific to your board like the serial number if any, that sort of
822 thing. It is recommended that if you add any "custom" property whose
823 name may clash with standard defined ones, you prefix them with your
824 vendor name and a comma.
828 This node is the parent of all individual CPU nodes. It doesn't
829 have any specific requirements, though it's generally good practice
832 #address-cells = <00000001>
833 #size-cells = <00000000>
835 This defines that the "address" for a CPU is a single cell, and has
836 no meaningful size. This is not necessary but the kernel will assume
837 that format when reading the "reg" properties of a CPU node, see
842 So under /cpus, you are supposed to create a node for every CPU on
843 the machine. There is no specific restriction on the name of the
844 CPU, though It's common practice to call it PowerPC,<name>. For
845 example, Apple uses PowerPC,G5 while IBM uses PowerPC,970FX.
849 - device_type : has to be "cpu"
850 - reg : This is the physical CPU number, it's a single 32-bit cell
851 and is also used as-is as the unit number for constructing the
852 unit name in the full path. For example, with 2 CPUs, you would
854 /cpus/PowerPC,970FX@0
855 /cpus/PowerPC,970FX@1
856 (unit addresses do not require leading zeroes)
857 - d-cache-block-size : one cell, L1 data cache block size in bytes (*)
858 - i-cache-block-size : one cell, L1 instruction cache block size in
860 - d-cache-size : one cell, size of L1 data cache in bytes
861 - i-cache-size : one cell, size of L1 instruction cache in bytes
863 (*) The cache "block" size is the size on which the cache management
864 instructions operate. Historically, this document used the cache
865 "line" size here which is incorrect. The kernel will prefer the cache
866 block size and will fallback to cache line size for backward
869 Recommended properties:
871 - timebase-frequency : a cell indicating the frequency of the
872 timebase in Hz. This is not directly used by the generic code,
873 but you are welcome to copy/paste the pSeries code for setting
874 the kernel timebase/decrementer calibration based on this
876 - clock-frequency : a cell indicating the CPU core clock frequency
877 in Hz. A new property will be defined for 64-bit values, but if
878 your frequency is < 4Ghz, one cell is enough. Here as well as
879 for the above, the common code doesn't use that property, but
880 you are welcome to re-use the pSeries or Maple one. A future
881 kernel version might provide a common function for this.
882 - d-cache-line-size : one cell, L1 data cache line size in bytes
883 if different from the block size
884 - i-cache-line-size : one cell, L1 instruction cache line size in
885 bytes if different from the block size
887 You are welcome to add any property you find relevant to your board,
888 like some information about the mechanism used to soft-reset the
889 CPUs. For example, Apple puts the GPIO number for CPU soft reset
890 lines in there as a "soft-reset" property since they start secondary
891 CPUs by soft-resetting them.
894 d) the /memory node(s)
896 To define the physical memory layout of your board, you should
897 create one or more memory node(s). You can either create a single
898 node with all memory ranges in its reg property, or you can create
899 several nodes, as you wish. The unit address (@ part) used for the
900 full path is the address of the first range of memory defined by a
901 given node. If you use a single memory node, this will typically be
906 - device_type : has to be "memory"
907 - reg : This property contains all the physical memory ranges of
908 your board. It's a list of addresses/sizes concatenated
909 together, with the number of cells of each defined by the
910 #address-cells and #size-cells of the root node. For example,
911 with both of these properties being 2 like in the example given
912 earlier, a 970 based machine with 6Gb of RAM could typically
913 have a "reg" property here that looks like:
915 00000000 00000000 00000000 80000000
916 00000001 00000000 00000001 00000000
918 That is a range starting at 0 of 0x80000000 bytes and a range
919 starting at 0x100000000 and of 0x100000000 bytes. You can see
920 that there is no memory covering the IO hole between 2Gb and
921 4Gb. Some vendors prefer splitting those ranges into smaller
922 segments, but the kernel doesn't care.
926 This node is a bit "special". Normally, that's where open firmware
927 puts some variable environment information, like the arguments, or
928 the default input/output devices.
930 This specification makes a few of these mandatory, but also defines
931 some linux-specific properties that would be normally constructed by
932 the prom_init() trampoline when booting with an OF client interface,
933 but that you have to provide yourself when using the flattened format.
935 Recommended properties:
937 - bootargs : This zero-terminated string is passed as the kernel
939 - linux,stdout-path : This is the full path to your standard
940 console device if any. Typically, if you have serial devices on
941 your board, you may want to put the full path to the one set as
942 the default console in the firmware here, for the kernel to pick
943 it up as its own default console. If you look at the function
944 set_preferred_console() in arch/ppc64/kernel/setup.c, you'll see
945 that the kernel tries to find out the default console and has
946 knowledge of various types like 8250 serial ports. You may want
947 to extend this function to add your own.
949 Note that u-boot creates and fills in the chosen node for platforms
952 (Note: a practice that is now obsolete was to include a property
953 under /chosen called interrupt-controller which had a phandle value
954 that pointed to the main interrupt controller)
956 f) the /soc<SOCname> node
958 This node is used to represent a system-on-a-chip (SOC) and must be
959 present if the processor is a SOC. The top-level soc node contains
960 information that is global to all devices on the SOC. The node name
961 should contain a unit address for the SOC, which is the base address
962 of the memory-mapped register set for the SOC. The name of an soc
963 node should start with "soc", and the remainder of the name should
964 represent the part number for the soc. For example, the MPC8540's
965 soc node would be called "soc8540".
969 - device_type : Should be "soc"
970 - ranges : Should be defined as specified in 1) to describe the
971 translation of SOC addresses for memory mapped SOC registers.
972 - bus-frequency: Contains the bus frequency for the SOC node.
973 Typically, the value of this field is filled in by the boot
977 Recommended properties:
979 - reg : This property defines the address and size of the
980 memory-mapped registers that are used for the SOC node itself.
981 It does not include the child device registers - these will be
982 defined inside each child node. The address specified in the
983 "reg" property should match the unit address of the SOC node.
984 - #address-cells : Address representation for "soc" devices. The
985 format of this field may vary depending on whether or not the
986 device registers are memory mapped. For memory mapped
987 registers, this field represents the number of cells needed to
988 represent the address of the registers. For SOCs that do not
989 use MMIO, a special address format should be defined that
990 contains enough cells to represent the required information.
991 See 1) above for more details on defining #address-cells.
992 - #size-cells : Size representation for "soc" devices
993 - #interrupt-cells : Defines the width of cells used to represent
994 interrupts. Typically this value is <2>, which includes a
995 32-bit number that represents the interrupt number, and a
996 32-bit number that represents the interrupt sense and level.
997 This field is only needed if the SOC contains an interrupt
1000 The SOC node may contain child nodes for each SOC device that the
1001 platform uses. Nodes should not be created for devices which exist
1002 on the SOC but are not used by a particular platform. See chapter VI
1003 for more information on how to specify devices that are part of a SOC.
1005 Example SOC node for the MPC8540:
1008 #address-cells = <1>;
1010 #interrupt-cells = <2>;
1011 device_type = "soc";
1012 ranges = <00000000 e0000000 00100000>
1013 reg = <e0000000 00003000>;
1014 bus-frequency = <0>;
1019 IV - "dtc", the device tree compiler
1020 ====================================
1023 dtc source code can be found at
1024 <http://git.jdl.com/gitweb/?p=dtc.git>
1026 WARNING: This version is still in early development stage; the
1027 resulting device-tree "blobs" have not yet been validated with the
1028 kernel. The current generated bloc lacks a useful reserve map (it will
1029 be fixed to generate an empty one, it's up to the bootloader to fill
1030 it up) among others. The error handling needs work, bugs are lurking,
1033 dtc basically takes a device-tree in a given format and outputs a
1034 device-tree in another format. The currently supported formats are:
1039 - "dtb": "blob" format, that is a flattened device-tree block
1041 header all in a binary blob.
1042 - "dts": "source" format. This is a text file containing a
1043 "source" for a device-tree. The format is defined later in this
1045 - "fs" format. This is a representation equivalent to the
1046 output of /proc/device-tree, that is nodes are directories and
1047 properties are files
1052 - "dtb": "blob" format
1053 - "dts": "source" format
1054 - "asm": assembly language file. This is a file that can be
1055 sourced by gas to generate a device-tree "blob". That file can
1056 then simply be added to your Makefile. Additionally, the
1057 assembly file exports some symbols that can be used.
1060 The syntax of the dtc tool is
1062 dtc [-I <input-format>] [-O <output-format>]
1063 [-o output-filename] [-V output_version] input_filename
1066 The "output_version" defines what version of the "blob" format will be
1067 generated. Supported versions are 1,2,3 and 16. The default is
1068 currently version 3 but that may change in the future to version 16.
1070 Additionally, dtc performs various sanity checks on the tree, like the
1071 uniqueness of linux, phandle properties, validity of strings, etc...
1073 The format of the .dts "source" file is "C" like, supports C and C++
1079 The above is the "device-tree" definition. It's the only statement
1080 supported currently at the toplevel.
1083 property1 = "string_value"; /* define a property containing a 0
1087 property2 = <1234abcd>; /* define a property containing a
1088 * numerical 32-bit value (hexadecimal)
1091 property3 = <12345678 12345678 deadbeef>;
1092 /* define a property containing 3
1093 * numerical 32-bit values (cells) in
1096 property4 = [0a 0b 0c 0d de ea ad be ef];
1097 /* define a property whose content is
1098 * an arbitrary array of bytes
1101 childnode@addresss { /* define a child node named "childnode"
1102 * whose unit name is "childnode at
1106 childprop = "hello\n"; /* define a property "childprop" of
1107 * childnode (in this case, a string)
1112 Nodes can contain other nodes etc... thus defining the hierarchical
1113 structure of the tree.
1115 Strings support common escape sequences from C: "\n", "\t", "\r",
1116 "\(octal value)", "\x(hex value)".
1118 It is also suggested that you pipe your source file through cpp (gcc
1119 preprocessor) so you can use #include's, #define for constants, etc...
1121 Finally, various options are planned but not yet implemented, like
1122 automatic generation of phandles, labels (exported to the asm file so
1123 you can point to a property content and change it easily from whatever
1124 you link the device-tree with), label or path instead of numeric value
1125 in some cells to "point" to a node (replaced by a phandle at compile
1126 time), export of reserve map address to the asm file, ability to
1127 specify reserve map content at compile time, etc...
1129 We may provide a .h include file with common definitions of that
1130 proves useful for some properties (like building PCI properties or
1131 interrupt maps) though it may be better to add a notion of struct
1132 definitions to the compiler...
1135 V - Recommendations for a bootloader
1136 ====================================
1139 Here are some various ideas/recommendations that have been proposed
1140 while all this has been defined and implemented.
1142 - The bootloader may want to be able to use the device-tree itself
1143 and may want to manipulate it (to add/edit some properties,
1144 like physical memory size or kernel arguments). At this point, 2
1145 choices can be made. Either the bootloader works directly on the
1146 flattened format, or the bootloader has its own internal tree
1147 representation with pointers (similar to the kernel one) and
1148 re-flattens the tree when booting the kernel. The former is a bit
1149 more difficult to edit/modify, the later requires probably a bit
1150 more code to handle the tree structure. Note that the structure
1151 format has been designed so it's relatively easy to "insert"
1152 properties or nodes or delete them by just memmoving things
1153 around. It contains no internal offsets or pointers for this
1156 - An example of code for iterating nodes & retrieving properties
1157 directly from the flattened tree format can be found in the kernel
1158 file arch/ppc64/kernel/prom.c, look at scan_flat_dt() function,
1159 its usage in early_init_devtree(), and the corresponding various
1160 early_init_dt_scan_*() callbacks. That code can be re-used in a
1161 GPL bootloader, and as the author of that code, I would be happy
1162 to discuss possible free licensing to any vendor who wishes to
1163 integrate all or part of this code into a non-GPL bootloader.
1167 VI - System-on-a-chip devices and nodes
1168 =======================================
1170 Many companies are now starting to develop system-on-a-chip
1171 processors, where the processor core (CPU) and many peripheral devices
1172 exist on a single piece of silicon. For these SOCs, an SOC node
1173 should be used that defines child nodes for the devices that make
1174 up the SOC. While platforms are not required to use this model in
1175 order to boot the kernel, it is highly encouraged that all SOC
1176 implementations define as complete a flat-device-tree as possible to
1177 describe the devices on the SOC. This will allow for the
1178 genericization of much of the kernel code.
1181 1) Defining child nodes of an SOC
1182 ---------------------------------
1184 Each device that is part of an SOC may have its own node entry inside
1185 the SOC node. For each device that is included in the SOC, the unit
1186 address property represents the address offset for this device's
1187 memory-mapped registers in the parent's address space. The parent's
1188 address space is defined by the "ranges" property in the top-level soc
1189 node. The "reg" property for each node that exists directly under the
1190 SOC node should contain the address mapping from the child address space
1191 to the parent SOC address space and the size of the device's
1192 memory-mapped register file.
1194 For many devices that may exist inside an SOC, there are predefined
1195 specifications for the format of the device tree node. All SOC child
1196 nodes should follow these specifications, except where noted in this
1199 See appendix A for an example partial SOC node definition for the
1203 2) Representing devices without a current OF specification
1204 ----------------------------------------------------------
1206 Currently, there are many devices on SOCs that do not have a standard
1207 representation pre-defined as part of the open firmware
1208 specifications, mainly because the boards that contain these SOCs are
1209 not currently booted using open firmware. This section contains
1210 descriptions for the SOC devices for which new nodes have been
1211 defined; this list will expand as more and more SOC-containing
1212 platforms are moved over to use the flattened-device-tree model.
1214 VII - Specifying interrupt information for devices
1215 ===================================================
1217 The device tree represents the busses and devices of a hardware
1218 system in a form similar to the physical bus topology of the
1221 In addition, a logical 'interrupt tree' exists which represents the
1222 hierarchy and routing of interrupts in the hardware.
1224 The interrupt tree model is fully described in the
1225 document "Open Firmware Recommended Practice: Interrupt
1226 Mapping Version 0.9". The document is available at:
1227 <http://playground.sun.com/1275/practice>.
1229 1) interrupts property
1230 ----------------------
1232 Devices that generate interrupts to a single interrupt controller
1233 should use the conventional OF representation described in the
1234 OF interrupt mapping documentation.
1236 Each device which generates interrupts must have an 'interrupt'
1237 property. The interrupt property value is an arbitrary number of
1238 of 'interrupt specifier' values which describe the interrupt or
1239 interrupts for the device.
1241 The encoding of an interrupt specifier is determined by the
1242 interrupt domain in which the device is located in the
1243 interrupt tree. The root of an interrupt domain specifies in
1244 its #interrupt-cells property the number of 32-bit cells
1245 required to encode an interrupt specifier. See the OF interrupt
1246 mapping documentation for a detailed description of domains.
1248 For example, the binding for the OpenPIC interrupt controller
1249 specifies an #interrupt-cells value of 2 to encode the interrupt
1250 number and level/sense information. All interrupt children in an
1251 OpenPIC interrupt domain use 2 cells per interrupt in their interrupts
1254 The PCI bus binding specifies a #interrupt-cell value of 1 to encode
1255 which interrupt pin (INTA,INTB,INTC,INTD) is used.
1257 2) interrupt-parent property
1258 ----------------------------
1260 The interrupt-parent property is specified to define an explicit
1261 link between a device node and its interrupt parent in
1262 the interrupt tree. The value of interrupt-parent is the
1263 phandle of the parent node.
1265 If the interrupt-parent property is not defined for a node, its
1266 interrupt parent is assumed to be an ancestor in the node's
1267 _device tree_ hierarchy.
1269 3) OpenPIC Interrupt Controllers
1270 --------------------------------
1272 OpenPIC interrupt controllers require 2 cells to encode
1273 interrupt information. The first cell defines the interrupt
1274 number. The second cell defines the sense and level
1277 Sense and level information should be encoded as follows:
1279 0 = low to high edge sensitive type enabled
1280 1 = active low level sensitive type enabled
1281 2 = active high level sensitive type enabled
1282 3 = high to low edge sensitive type enabled
1284 4) ISA Interrupt Controllers
1285 ----------------------------
1287 ISA PIC interrupt controllers require 2 cells to encode
1288 interrupt information. The first cell defines the interrupt
1289 number. The second cell defines the sense and level
1292 ISA PIC interrupt controllers should adhere to the ISA PIC
1293 encodings listed below:
1295 0 = active low level sensitive type enabled
1296 1 = active high level sensitive type enabled
1297 2 = high to low edge sensitive type enabled
1298 3 = low to high edge sensitive type enabled
1300 VIII - Specifying Device Power Management Information (sleep property)
1301 ===================================================================
1303 Devices on SOCs often have mechanisms for placing devices into low-power
1304 states that are decoupled from the devices' own register blocks. Sometimes,
1305 this information is more complicated than a cell-index property can
1306 reasonably describe. Thus, each device controlled in such a manner
1307 may contain a "sleep" property which describes these connections.
1309 The sleep property consists of one or more sleep resources, each of
1310 which consists of a phandle to a sleep controller, followed by a
1311 controller-specific sleep specifier of zero or more cells.
1313 The semantics of what type of low power modes are possible are defined
1314 by the sleep controller. Some examples of the types of low power modes
1315 that may be supported are:
1317 - Dynamic: The device may be disabled or enabled at any time.
1318 - System Suspend: The device may request to be disabled or remain
1319 awake during system suspend, but will not be disabled until then.
1320 - Permanent: The device is disabled permanently (until the next hard
1323 Some devices may share a clock domain with each other, such that they should
1324 only be suspended when none of the devices are in use. Where reasonable,
1325 such nodes should be placed on a virtual bus, where the bus has the sleep
1326 property. If the clock domain is shared among devices that cannot be
1327 reasonably grouped in this manner, then create a virtual sleep controller
1328 (similar to an interrupt nexus, except that defining a standardized
1329 sleep-map should wait until its necessity is demonstrated).
1331 Appendix A - Sample SOC node for MPC8540
1332 ========================================
1335 #address-cells = <1>;
1337 compatible = "fsl,mpc8540-ccsr", "simple-bus";
1338 device_type = "soc";
1339 ranges = <0x00000000 0xe0000000 0x00100000>
1340 bus-frequency = <0>;
1341 interrupt-parent = <&pic>;
1344 #address-cells = <1>;
1346 device_type = "network";
1348 compatible = "gianfar", "simple-bus";
1349 reg = <0x24000 0x1000>;
1350 local-mac-address = [ 00 E0 0C 00 73 00 ];
1351 interrupts = <29 2 30 2 34 2>;
1352 phy-handle = <&phy0>;
1353 sleep = <&pmc 00000080>;
1357 reg = <0x24520 0x20>;
1358 compatible = "fsl,gianfar-mdio";
1360 phy0: ethernet-phy@0 {
1363 device_type = "ethernet-phy";
1366 phy1: ethernet-phy@1 {
1369 device_type = "ethernet-phy";
1372 phy3: ethernet-phy@3 {
1375 device_type = "ethernet-phy";
1381 device_type = "network";
1383 compatible = "gianfar";
1384 reg = <0x25000 0x1000>;
1385 local-mac-address = [ 00 E0 0C 00 73 01 ];
1386 interrupts = <13 2 14 2 18 2>;
1387 phy-handle = <&phy1>;
1388 sleep = <&pmc 00000040>;
1392 device_type = "network";
1394 compatible = "gianfar";
1395 reg = <0x26000 0x1000>;
1396 local-mac-address = [ 00 E0 0C 00 73 02 ];
1397 interrupts = <41 2>;
1398 phy-handle = <&phy3>;
1399 sleep = <&pmc 00000020>;
1403 #address-cells = <1>;
1405 compatible = "fsl,mpc8540-duart", "simple-bus";
1406 sleep = <&pmc 00000002>;
1410 device_type = "serial";
1411 compatible = "ns16550";
1412 reg = <0x4500 0x100>;
1413 clock-frequency = <0>;
1414 interrupts = <42 2>;
1418 device_type = "serial";
1419 compatible = "ns16550";
1420 reg = <0x4600 0x100>;
1421 clock-frequency = <0>;
1422 interrupts = <42 2>;
1427 interrupt-controller;
1428 #address-cells = <0>;
1429 #interrupt-cells = <2>;
1430 reg = <0x40000 0x40000>;
1431 compatible = "chrp,open-pic";
1432 device_type = "open-pic";
1436 interrupts = <43 2>;
1437 reg = <0x3000 0x100>;
1438 compatible = "fsl-i2c";
1440 sleep = <&pmc 00000004>;
1444 compatible = "fsl,mpc8540-pmc", "fsl,mpc8548-pmc";
1445 reg = <0xe0070 0x20>;