Re: [PATCH 10/21] net: phy: add X-Powers AC200 EPHY control driver

Andrew Lunn <[email protected]> Tue, 4 Aug 2026 21:44:15 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.linux.drivers.devicetree,gmane.linux.network,gmane.linux.ports.arm.kernel,gmane.linux.kernel,gmane.linux.ports.arm.rockchip
Message-ID <[email protected]>
> However, the MFD and networking portions necessarily meet at the AC200
> EPHY function. I do not think the correct way to avoid that
> cross-subsystem dependency is to make a driver bound to an MDIO
> phy_device take ownership of registers and resources belonging to an
> MFD device.

We can pull the MFD Maintainer into this, but an MFD core driver
typically just provides methods to access the shared registers, and
instantiates drivers to make use of those shared registers. In this
case, we don't need the instantiate part, that happens via the MDIO
bus model. But we do need access to the shared registers. I personally
don't care too much how that is done, but regmap would be normal.

The PHY driver should then drive the whole, entire PHY, using both
MDIO and whatever method the MFD exports to give access to the
registers.

	Andrew