Files
i2c-imc-skylake/docs/submission/i2c-imc-skylake.rst
T
Simone 694ed6a712 i2c-imc-skylake: instantiate the SPD EEPROMs at probe
Call i2c_register_spd() per adapter, like i801 and piix4, instead of
telling the user to echo into new_device. The helper counts populated
slots from DMI and probes upwards from 0x50 via i2c_new_scanned_device(),
so it claims no address that does not answer; each channel carries half
the DIMMs and the scan is per adapter, so each finds its own. Verified:
four clients on load, two per channel, none on the empty slots, and
decode-dimms works with no manual step.

This needed Receive Byte to be worth doing — without I2C_FUNC_SMBUS_BYTE
ee1004 would not have bound to what was instantiated.

The write_disable variant is deliberate. This part is DDR4 only, where
the two are equivalent (the split gates spd5118 on DDR5), and of two
equivalent calls the one that does not read as "this driver enables SPD
writes" is the better name to leave in a driver whose bus is the memory
bus. In-tree convention is write_enable; the cover letter offers to
switch.

Kconfig gains select I2C_SMBUS.

Out-of-tree, compat.h maps the call onto the older unsplit
i2c_register_spd() where that is what the target kernel has. It is force
included from the Makefile so i2c-imc-skylake.c stays byte-identical to
the submitted file, and the Makefile detects the API by grepping the
target kernel's header rather than testing a version number, which keeps
it correct on backported trees. Builds clean against both 6.8 and 7.0
headers; DKMS 1.0.2 installs on all four kernels here.

test-smoke.sh needed two fixes to keep testing what it claims:

  - A bound driver owns its address, so the raw transaction checks lost
    the SPDs the moment the driver started instantiating them. The script
    now unbinds ee1004 for the duration rather than deleting the clients:
    sysfs delete_device only removes clients that new_device created,
    and unbinding is sufficient because i2c-dev refuses an address only
    while a driver is bound (i2cdev_check: `return dev->driver ? -EBUSY
    : 0`). Rebound from an EXIT trap.

  - Those checks were guarded on an SPD address having been found, and
    when the lookup failed they vanished from the run silently: the suite
    reported "12 passed, 0 failed" while seven checks had not executed.
    Skipped checks are now counted and printed, which is how the above
    was noticed at all.

Smoke suite: 20 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped. checkpatch --strict 0/0/0,
in-tree W=1 and Sparse clean.
2026-07-27 02:10:33 +02:00

179 lines
7.1 KiB
ReStructuredText

.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
=============================
Kernel driver i2c-imc-skylake
=============================
Supported adapters:
* Intel Skylake-X / Cascade Lake-X integrated memory controller (iMC)
SMBus engine, PCU function 8086:2085 (socket LGA 2066, platform X299)
Author: Simone Chifari <[email protected]>
Description
-----------
The integrated memory controller of Intel Skylake-X and Cascade Lake-X
processors contains an SMBus engine wired to the DDR4 DIMMs. It reaches the
SPD EEPROMs (0x50-0x57) and the thermal sensors (TSOD, 0x18-0x1f) of the
installed modules, plus whatever else a particular module carries on those
lines.
The engine has two independent channels. DIMM slots 1 and 2 are on channel 0,
slots 3 and 4 on channel 1, so the driver registers two i2c adapters::
$ i2cdetect -l | grep iMC
i2c-6 smbus iMC SMBus Skylake-X channel 0 SMBus adapter
i2c-7 smbus iMC SMBus Skylake-X channel 1 SMBus adapter
Both channels share one hardware engine, so the driver serializes every
transaction across both adapters.
This driver is not enabled by default
-------------------------------------
The SMBus engine has no arbitration mechanism. System Management Mode, a BMC,
and the memory controller's own closed-loop thermal throttling (CLTT) can all
drive the same registers, and nothing in the PCI ID tells the driver whether
any of them is doing so on a given system. Two masters using the engine at the
same time can send a transaction to the wrong address or return the wrong data.
The driver therefore refuses to bind unless the operator opts in::
modprobe i2c-imc-skylake allow_unsafe_access=1
Do this only on a system where concurrent firmware access has been excluded.
Desktop and HEDT boards have no BMC, but CLTT may still be enabled by the
firmware.
The driver reduces, but cannot remove, the risk.
At probe it reads SMBCNTL on every iMC channel function (device 10 and 12,
function 0; offsets 0xe88 and 0xe98, documented in the Intel Xeon Processor
Scalable Family datasheet volume 2, reference 614073, section 3.1.9).
``SMB_TSOD_POLL_EN`` in that register says whether the memory controller is
polling the DIMM thermal sensors on its own, which Intel documents as mutually
exclusive with SPD command access. If the bit is set on any channel the driver
refuses to bind: the engine is not ours to drive. This covers the memory
controller, not SMM or a BMC, which remain the reason for the opt-in.
Per transfer:
* every transaction waits for both channels to report idle before it
touches any register;
* the previous command state of both channels is saved, the TSOD-active
state is cleared for the duration of the transfer, and both are restored
afterwards;
* after each transfer the command registers are compared against what the
driver left in them. A difference means another master used the engine,
and the transfer is failed with ``-EAGAIN`` rather than reported as
successful.
The last check is what makes an unarbitrated system detectable: if the log
shows
``chN command changed under us (...): another master is using the engine``
then firmware is using the engine and the driver should not be loaded on that
system.
Config space access
-------------------
The engine's registers live at config space offsets 0x9C-0xB8 of the PCU
function and are reached with the ordinary ``pci_read_config_dword()`` and
``pci_write_config_dword()``. Nothing special is required.
Supported transactions
----------------------
The driver implements SMBus Receive Byte and Send Byte, Read/Write Byte Data
and Read/Write Word Data.
That covers ``jc42`` (TSOD) and ``ee1004``, so ``decode-dimms`` reads the whole
512-byte DDR4 SPD, including the manufacturer and part-number fields that live
on page 1.
Receive Byte and Send Byte need a command word that puts no register byte on
the bus. The engine encodes that in bit 18, which is not documented for this
function. It was found by noting that the interface Intel does document for
the iMC channel functions (SMBCMD, datasheet reference 614073, section 3.1.8)
places ``PNTR_SEL`` immediately above ``WORD_ACCESS``, and that word access
here is bit 17. With the bit set, consecutive reads of an SPD EEPROM return
consecutive bytes, which is the auto-increment behaviour of a Receive Byte and
cannot be produced by a transfer that names a register.
SMBus Quick is not implemented. ``i2cdetect`` therefore has to be run in
read mode::
$ i2cdetect -y -r 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 27 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: 30 31 -- -- 34 35 36 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: 50 -- 52 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Not advertising Quick is deliberate as well as accurate. A write to the
0x30-0x37 range is how an EE1004 SPD is write-protected, permanently on many
modules, so an adapter on a memory bus should not offer probing that writes.
Block transfers are not implemented. The engine has block primitives, but no
device on this bus needs them.
Word transfers use the standard SMBus byte order, so ``jc42`` reading through
``i2c_smbus_read_word_swapped()`` gets the value it expects.
Instantiating clients
---------------------
SPD EEPROMs are instantiated at probe with ``i2c_register_spd()``, like the
other SMBus host drivers. It counts the populated slots from DMI and probes
from 0x50 upwards, so an address that does not answer is left alone. Each
channel carries half the DIMMs and the scan runs per adapter, so each finds
its own::
i2c i2c-6: Successfully instantiated SPD at 0x50
ee1004 6-0050: 512 byte EE1004-compliant SPD EEPROM, read-only
``decode-dimms`` therefore works with no manual step.
Nothing else is instantiated: there is no firmware description of these buses
and the driver does not scan for anything but the SPDs. ``jc42`` has to be
added by hand where a thermal sensor is populated::
# echo jc42 0x18 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-6/new_device
Whether one is populated is visible in ``SMBCNTL.TSOD_PRESENT``; on the
development system that mask is empty and no ``jc42`` binds.
Two things about the SPDs are worth knowing on this bus.
A DDR4 SPD is a 512-byte array reached through a 256-byte window, and which
half is visible is a property of the bus, not of the transfer. ``ee1004``
selects a page when it needs one and leaves it selected, so a raw ``i2cget``
issued afterwards may be looking at page 1. Select page 0 explicitly before
reading SPD by hand::
# i2cset -y 6 0x36 0x00 c
And ``ee1004`` owns those addresses once bound, so userspace cannot reach them
through ``/dev/i2c-*`` any more. This is ordinary I2C behaviour, but it is
worth stating here because the userspace tools that motivate this driver share
the bus with the SPDs. Read the SPD through the driver instead::
$ cat /sys/bus/i2c/drivers/ee1004/6-0050/eeprom | hexdump -C
or, if an address really is needed raw, release it::
# echo 0x50 > /sys/bus/i2c/devices/i2c-6/delete_device
Module parameters
-----------------
allow_unsafe_access
Bool, read-only after load, defaults to false. The driver does not bind
unless this is set. See the section above.