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The timer logic was designed after a strict idea of modeling an interrupt line level in software, meaning that only transitions in the level need to be reported to the VGIC. This works well for the timer, because the arch timer code is in complete control of the device and can track the transitions of the line. However, as we are about to support using the HW bit in the VGIC not just for the timer, but also for VFIO which cannot track transitions of the interrupt line, we have to decide on an interface between the GIC and other subsystems for level triggered mapped interrupts, which both the timer and VFIO can use. VFIO only sees an asserting transition of the physical interrupt line, and tells the VGIC when that happens. That means that part of the interrupt flow is offloaded to the hardware. To use the same interface for VFIO devices and the timer, we therefore have to change the timer (we cannot change VFIO because it doesn't know the details of the device it is assigning to a VM). Luckily, changing the timer is simple, we just need to stop 'caching' the line level, but instead let the VGIC know the state of the timer every time there is a potential change in the line level, and when the line level should be asserted from the timer ISR. The VGIC can ignore extra notifications using its validate mechanism. Reviewed-by: Marc Zyngier <marc.zyngier@arm.com> Reviewed-by: Andre Przywara <andre.przywara@arm.com> Reviewed-by: Julien Thierry <julien.thierry@arm.com> Signed-off-by: Christoffer Dall <christoffer.dall@linaro.org>
Linux kernel ============ This file was moved to Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst Please notice that there are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs``. There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory, several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation. See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what is contained in each file. Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.