1. Introduction¶
1.1. Purpose and Scope¶
To initialize and boot a computer system, various software components interact. Firmware might perform low-level initialization of the system hardware before passing control to software such as an operating system, bootloader, or hypervisor. Bootloaders and hypervisors can, in turn, load and transfer control to operating systems. Standard, consistent interfaces and conventions facilitate the interactions between these software components. In this document the term boot program is used to generically refer to a software component that initializes the system state and executes another software component referred to as a client program. Examples of a boot program include: firmware, bootloaders, and hypervisors. Examples of a client program include: bootloaders, hypervisors, operating systems, and special purpose programs. A piece of software may be both a client program and a boot program (e.g. a hypervisor).
This specification, the Devicetree Specification (DTSpec), provides a complete boot program to client program interface definition, combined with minimum system requirements that facilitate the development of a wide variety of systems.
This specification is targeted towards the requirements of embedded systems. An embedded system typically consists of system hardware, an operating system, and application software that are custom designed to perform a fixed, specific set of tasks. This is unlike general purpose computers, which are designed to be customized by a user with a variety of software and I/O devices. Other characteristics of embedded systems may include:
a fixed set of I/O devices, possibly highly customized for the application
a system board optimized for size and cost
limited user interface
resource constraints like limited memory and limited nonvolatile storage
real-time constraints
use of a wide variety of operating systems, including Linux, real-time operating systems, and custom or proprietary operating systems
Organization of this Document
Chapter 1 introduces the architecture being specified by DTSpec.
Chapter 2 introduces the devicetree concept and describes its logical structure and standard properties.
Chapter 3 specifies the definition of a base set of device nodes required by DTSpec-compliant devicetrees.
Chapter 4 describes device bindings for certain classes of devices and specific device types.
Chapter 5 specifies the DTB encoding of devicetrees.
Chapter 6 specifies the DTS source language.
Conventions Used in this Document
The word shall is used to indicate mandatory requirements strictly to be followed in order to conform to the standard and from which no deviation is permitted (shall equals is required to).
The word should is used to indicate that among several possibilities one is recommended as particularly suitable, without mentioning or excluding others; or that a certain course of action is preferred but not necessarily required; or that (in the negative form) a certain course of action is deprecated but not prohibited (should equals is recommended that).
The word may is used to indicate a course of action permissible within the limits of the standard (may equals is permitted).
Examples of devicetree constructs are frequently shown in Devicetree Syntax form. See Section 6 for an overview of this syntax.
1.2. Relationship to IEEE™ 1275 and ePAPR¶
DTSpec is loosely related to the IEEE 1275 Open Firmware standard—IEEE Standard for Boot (Initialization Configuration) Firmware: Core Requirements and Practices [IEEE1275].
The original IEEE 1275 specification and its derivatives such as CHRP [CHRP] and PAPR [PAPR] address problems of general purpose computers, such as how a single version of an operating system can work on several different computers within the same family and the problem of loading an operating system from user-installed I/O devices.
Because of the nature of embedded systems, some of these problems faced by open, general purpose computers do not apply. Notable features of the IEEE 1275 specification that are omitted from the DTSpec include:
Plug-in device drivers
FCode
The programmable Open Firmware user interface based on Forth
FCode debugging
Operating system debugging
What is retained from IEEE 1275 are concepts from the devicetree architecture by which a boot program can describe and communicate system hardware information to a client program, thus eliminating the need for the client program to have hard-coded descriptions of system hardware.
This specification partially supersedes the ePAPR [EPAPR] specification. ePAPR documents how devicetree is used by the Power ISA, and covers both general concepts, as well as Power ISA specific bindings. The text of this document was derived from ePAPR, but either removes architecture specific bindings, or moves them into an appendix.
1.3. 32-bit and 64-bit Support¶
The DTSpec supports CPUs with both 32-bit and 64-bit addressing capabilities. Where applicable, sections of the DTSpec describe any requirements or considerations for 32-bit and 64-bit addressing.
1.4. Definition of Terms¶
- AMP¶
Asymmetric Multiprocessing. Computer available CPUs are partitioned into groups, each running a distinct operating system image. The CPUs may or may not be identical.
- boot CPU¶
The first CPU which a boot program directs to a client program’s entry point.
- Book III-E¶
Embedded Environment. Section of the Power ISA defining supervisor instructions and related facilities used in embedded Power processor implementations.
- boot program¶
Used to generically refer to a software component that initializes the system state and executes another software component referred to as a client program. Examples of a boot program include: firmware, bootloaders, and hypervisors.
- client program¶
Program that typically contains application or operating system software. Examples of a client program include: bootloaders, hypervisors, operating systems, and special purpose programs.
- cell¶
A unit of information consisting of 32 bits.
- DMA¶
Direct memory access
- DTB¶
Devicetree blob. Compact binary representation of the devicetree.
- DTC¶
Devicetree compiler. An open source tool used to create DTB files from DTS files.
- DTS¶
Devicetree syntax. A textual representation of a devicetree consumed by the DTC. See Appendix A Devicetree Source Format (version 1).
- effective address¶
Memory address as computed by processor storage access or branch instruction.
- physical address¶
Address used by the processor to access external device, typically a memory controller.
- Power ISA¶
Power Instruction Set Architecture.
- interrupt specifier¶
A property value that describes an interrupt. Typically information that specifies an interrupt number and sensitivity and triggering mechanism is included.
- secondary CPU¶
CPUs other than the boot CPU that belong to the client program are considered secondary CPUs.
- SMP¶
Symmetric multiprocessing. A computer architecture where two or more identical CPUs can share memory and IO and operate under a single operating system.
- SoC¶
System on a chip. A single computer chip integrating one or more CPU core as well as number of other peripherals.
- unit address¶
The part of a node name specifying the node’s address in the address space of the parent node.
- quiescent CPU¶
A quiescent CPU is in a state where it cannot interfere with the normal operation of other CPUs, nor can its state be affected by the normal operation of other running CPUs, except by an explicit method for enabling or re-enabling the quiescent CPU.