The Case for an SoC Power Management Driver

Explore the need for a System-on-Chip (SoC) power management driver in DeviceTree-based systems through this informative conference talk. Delve into the challenges faced by device drivers in managing power states and system resources without a standardized framework. Compare this scenario to ACPI-based systems, where firmware provides standardized device power states. Learn about the proposed solution of implementing an ACPI-like power management framework in the Linux kernel using pmdomains registered by an SoC driver. Examine previously attempted solutions and ongoing efforts in this field. Gain insights from a case study on implementing an SoC power management driver. By the end of this talk, acquire a deeper understanding of SoC power management techniques, the challenges kernel developers face in supporting such hardware upstream, and potential solutions for implementing this design in various contexts.