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.

The Case for an SoC Power Management Driver - Stephen Boyd, Google