2024-04-29 15:39:54

by Mark Brown

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: PoE complex usage of regulator API

On Fri, Apr 26, 2024 at 12:42:53PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:

> Let's begin simple, in PSE world we are more talking about power.
> Would it be ok to add a regulator_get/set_power_limit() and
> regulator_get_power() callback to regulator API. Would regulator API have
> interest to such callbacks?

Why would these be different to the existing support for doing current
limiting? If the voltage for the supply is known then the power is a
simple function of the current and the voltage. I suppose you could try
to do a convenience functions for a fixed voltage, but there'd be issues
there if the voltage isn't configured to an exact voltage and might
vary.

> Port priority, more complex subject:
> Indeed a PSE controller managing several ports may be able to turn off ports
> with low priority if the total power consumption exceed a certain level.
> - There are controller like PD692x0 that can managed this on the hardware side.
> In that case we would have a regulator_get/set_power_limit() callbacks from
> the regulator parent (the PSE contoller) and a regulator_get/set_priory()
> callbacks for the regulator children (PSE ports).

All this priority stuff feels very PSE specific but possibly doable.
You'd have to define the domains in which priorities apply as well as
the priorities themselves.

> - There are controller like TPS23881 or LTC4266 that can set two priorities
> levels on their ports and a level change in one of their input pin can
> shutdown all the low priority ports. In that case the same callbacks could be
> used. regulator_get/set_power_limit() from the parent will be only at software
> level. regulator_get/set_priority() will set the priorities of the ports on
> hardware level. A polling function have to read frequently the total power
> used and compare it to the power budget, then it has to call something like
> regulator_shutdown_consumer() in case of power overflow.

I would expect the regulators can generate notifications when they go
out of regulation? Having to poll feels very crude for something with
configurable power limits.

> https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/
> But in case the port is enabled from Linux then shutdown from the PSE controller
> for any reason, I have to run disable and enable command to enable it again. Not
> really efficient :/

If that is a hot path something has gone very wrong with the system,
especially if it's such a hot path that the cost of a disable is making
a difference. Note that hardware may have multiple error handling
strategies, some hardware will turn off outputs when there's a problem
while other implementations will try to provide as good an output as
they can. Sometimes the strategy will depend on the specific error
condition, and there may be timeouts involved. This all makes it very
difficult to assume any particular state after an error has occurred, or
that the state configured in the control registers reflects the physical
state of the hardware so you probably want some explicit handling for
any new state you're looking for.

> I am thinking of disabling the usage of counters in case of a
> regulator_get_exclusive(). What do you think? Could it break other usage?

Yes, that seems likely to break other users and in general a sharp edge
for people working with the API.


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2024-04-29 17:29:06

by Kory Maincent

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: PoE complex usage of regulator API

On Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:38:10 +0900
Mark Brown <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello all, thank for your replies!
That gives me more hint for the development.

> On Fri, Apr 26, 2024 at 12:42:53PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:
>
> > Let's begin simple, in PSE world we are more talking about power.
> > Would it be ok to add a regulator_get/set_power_limit() and
> > regulator_get_power() callback to regulator API. Would regulator API have
> > interest to such callbacks?
>
> Why would these be different to the existing support for doing current
> limiting? If the voltage for the supply is known then the power is a
> simple function of the current and the voltage. I suppose you could try
> to do a convenience functions for a fixed voltage, but there'd be issues
> there if the voltage isn't configured to an exact voltage and might
> vary.

That's right I was focusing on power where I could use already implemented
voltage and current callbacks. Would you be interested to a new get_current()
callback to know the current and allows regulator to deduce the consumed power
or should it be specific to PSE subsystem.

> > Port priority, more complex subject:
> > Indeed a PSE controller managing several ports may be able to turn off ports
> > with low priority if the total power consumption exceed a certain level.
> > - There are controller like PD692x0 that can managed this on the hardware
> > side. In that case we would have a regulator_get/set_power_limit()
> > callbacks from the regulator parent (the PSE contoller) and a
> > regulator_get/set_priory() callbacks for the regulator children (PSE
> > ports).
>
> All this priority stuff feels very PSE specific but possibly doable.
> You'd have to define the domains in which priorities apply as well as
> the priorities themselves.

If you think that it is really specific to PSE no need to add it in the
regulator API, it will also remove me some brain knots.

> > - There are controller like TPS23881 or LTC4266 that can set two priorities
> > levels on their ports and a level change in one of their input pin can
> > shutdown all the low priority ports. In that case the same callbacks
> > could be used. regulator_get/set_power_limit() from the parent will be only
> > at software level. regulator_get/set_priority() will set the priorities of
> > the ports on hardware level. A polling function have to read frequently the
> > total power used and compare it to the power budget, then it has to call
> > something like regulator_shutdown_consumer() in case of power overflow.
>
> I would expect the regulators can generate notifications when they go
> out of regulation? Having to poll feels very crude for something with
> configurable power limits.

Yep that's true. Indeed using notification would be way better!

> > https://lore.kernel.org/netdev/[email protected]/
> > But in case the port is enabled from Linux then shutdown from the PSE
> > controller for any reason, I have to run disable and enable command to
> > enable it again. Not really efficient :/
>
> If that is a hot path something has gone very wrong with the system,
> especially if it's such a hot path that the cost of a disable is making
> a difference.

That's not in the hotpath.

> Note that hardware may have multiple error handling
> strategies, some hardware will turn off outputs when there's a problem
> while other implementations will try to provide as good an output as
> they can. Sometimes the strategy will depend on the specific error
> condition, and there may be timeouts involved. This all makes it very
> difficult to assume any particular state after an error has occurred, or
> that the state configured in the control registers reflects the physical
> state of the hardware so you probably want some explicit handling for
> any new state you're looking for.

Alright, didn't thought of these different management of an error condition.
We might also see similar things in PSE, so I will keep it like that.

> > I am thinking of disabling the usage of counters in case of a
> > regulator_get_exclusive(). What do you think? Could it break other usage?
>
> Yes, that seems likely to break other users and in general a sharp edge
> for people working with the API.

Okay,

Regards,
--
Köry Maincent, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and kernel engineering
https://bootlin.com

2024-04-30 02:23:38

by Mark Brown

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: PoE complex usage of regulator API

On Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 07:28:48PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:
> Mark Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Fri, Apr 26, 2024 at 12:42:53PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:

> That's right I was focusing on power where I could use already implemented
> voltage and current callbacks. Would you be interested to a new get_current()
> callback to know the current and allows regulator to deduce the consumed power
> or should it be specific to PSE subsystem.

That feels like it belongs in hwmon or possibly power rather than in the
regulator API but it does feel like it's generally useful rather than
PSE specific.


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2024-04-30 06:48:38

by Oleksij Rempel

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: PoE complex usage of regulator API

On Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 11:23:15AM +0900, Mark Brown wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 29, 2024 at 07:28:48PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:
> > Mark Brown <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > On Fri, Apr 26, 2024 at 12:42:53PM +0200, Kory Maincent wrote:
>
> > That's right I was focusing on power where I could use already implemented
> > voltage and current callbacks. Would you be interested to a new get_current()
> > callback to know the current and allows regulator to deduce the consumed power
> > or should it be specific to PSE subsystem.
>
> That feels like it belongs in hwmon or possibly power rather than in the
> regulator API but it does feel like it's generally useful rather than
> PSE specific.

I would say, it depends on use case and abilities of HW. Power
consumption may change rapidly, so it is all about sampling rate. For
real time current measurement you wont to use iio framework. For most
cases and simple diagnostic are more interesting max and probably min
values which self cleared after last read.

If HW provides only real time measurement, then the question is, how
many samples are needed to provide some usable result.

Regards,
Oleksij
--
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