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Documentation: Add documentation for new platform_profile sysfs attribute 

On modern systems the platform performance, temperature, fan and other
hardware related characteristics are often dynamically configurable. The
profile is often automatically adjusted to the load by some
automatic-mechanism (which may very well live outside the kernel).

These auto platform-adjustment mechanisms often can be configured with
one of several 'platform-profiles', with either a bias towards low-power
consumption or towards performance (and higher power consumption and
thermals).

Introduce a new platform_profile sysfs API which offers a generic API for
selecting the performance-profile of these automatic-mechanisms.

Co-developed-by: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Mark Pearson <markpearson@lenovo.com>
Signed-off-by: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
This commit is contained in:
Mark Pearson 2020-12-29 19:18:25 -05:00 committed by Rafael J. Wysocki
parent 5c8fe583cc
commit 8e0cbf3563
3 changed files with 67 additions and 0 deletions
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What: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices
Date: October 2020
Contact: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
Description: This file contains a space-separated list of profiles supported for this device.
Drivers must use the following standard profile-names:
============ ============================================
low-power Low power consumption
cool Cooler operation
quiet Quieter operation
balanced Balance between low power consumption and performance
performance High performance operation
============ ============================================
Userspace may expect drivers to offer more than one of these
standard profile names.
What: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile
Date: October 2020
Contact: Hans de Goede <hdegoede@redhat.com>
Description: Reading this file gives the current selected profile for this
device. Writing this file with one of the strings from
platform_profile_choices changes the profile to the new value.

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Documentation/userspace-api/index.rst
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@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ place where this information is gathered.
ioctl/index
iommu
media/index
sysfs-platform_profile
.. only:: subproject and html

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Documentation/userspace-api/sysfs-platform_profile.rst Normal file
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=====================================================================
Platform Profile Selection (e.g. /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile)
=====================================================================
On modern systems the platform performance, temperature, fan and other
hardware related characteristics are often dynamically configurable. The
platform configuration is often automatically adjusted to the current
conditions by some automatic mechanism (which may very well live outside
the kernel).
These auto platform adjustment mechanisms often can be configured with
one of several platform profiles, with either a bias towards low power
operation or towards performance.
The purpose of the platform_profile attribute is to offer a generic sysfs
API for selecting the platform profile of these automatic mechanisms.
Note that this API is only for selecting the platform profile, it is
NOT a goal of this API to allow monitoring the resulting performance
characteristics. Monitoring performance is best done with device/vendor
specific tools such as e.g. turbostat.
Specifically when selecting a high performance profile the actual achieved
performance may be limited by various factors such as: the heat generated
by other components, room temperature, free air flow at the bottom of a
laptop, etc. It is explicitly NOT a goal of this API to let userspace know
about any sub-optimal conditions which are impeding reaching the requested
performance level.
Since numbers on their own cannot represent the multiple variables that a
profile will adjust (power consumption, heat generation, etc) this API
uses strings to describe the various profiles. To make sure that userspace
gets a consistent experience the sysfs-platform_profile ABI document defines
a fixed set of profile names. Drivers *must* map their internal profile
representation onto this fixed set.
If there is no good match when mapping then a new profile name may be
added. Drivers which wish to introduce new profile names must:
1. Explain why the existing profile names canot be used.
2. Add the new profile name, along with a clear description of the
expected behaviour, to the sysfs-platform_profile ABI documentation.