Hi,
I would like to propose a talk for the upcoming kernel meet-up.
Title: Decoupling PMU Support from Kernel Code: A Device Tree-Driven (Data driven) Approach for Powerpc
Abstract:
Performance Monitoring Units (PMUs) in PowerPC systems are traditionally managed through platform-specific drivers within the Linux perf subsystem. Currently, each processor generation necessitates a unique driver implementation. While core PMU functionality remains largely consistent across the ISA, incremental feature additions lead to redundant code and maintenance overhead.
This project proposes a unified framework that abstracts PMU configuration into Device Tree Source (DTS) definitions. By representing event definitions, encoding formats, register mappings, and hardware constraints as structured nodes, we enable dynamic PMU discovery at boot time. A generic PMU driver parses these descriptions to expose events via sysfs and integrate with the perf subsystem.
The primary objective is to evaluate a "data-driven" model where new processor revisions can be supported with zero architecture-specific kernel changes, shifting the burden of hardware description from the kernel source to firmware.
Preferred Duration: 10 + 5 mins
Speaker: Shivani Nittor
I am a final year Electronics and Communication Engineering student at PES University and am currently a Software Engineer Intern at IBM-LTC.