Re: [PATCH] Documentation: PCI: Document how to write PCI Host Controller drivers

On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 09:25:24AM +0200, Manivannan Sadhasivam via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email protected]>
> 
> Writing a PCI Host Controller driver requires bringing up the Root Complex
> hardware and registering it with the PCI core in a specific sequence.
> Add a guide describing these steps to help developers write new drivers.
> 
> It covers the Root Complex topology and enumeration, and walks through the
> driver flow, including resource setup, Configuration Space accessors,
> address translation, interrupt handling, Link training, power management,
> shutdown and removal, using standard guidelines/best practices.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email protected]>

Beautiful, thank you for doing this!

Applied to pci/doc for v7.3.

> ---
>  Documentation/PCI/controller/index.rst             |   1 +
>  .../PCI/controller/pci-controller-drivers.rst      | 388 +++++++++++++++++++++
>  MAINTAINERS                                        |   1 +
>  3 files changed, 390 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/PCI/controller/index.rst b/Documentation/PCI/controller/index.rst
> index c2ce9ccdcfa0..c15e2c9ac855 100644
> --- a/Documentation/PCI/controller/index.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/PCI/controller/index.rst
> @@ -7,4 +7,5 @@ PCI Native Host Bridge and Endpoint Drivers
>  .. toctree::
>     :maxdepth: 2
>  
> +   pci-controller-drivers
>     rcar-pcie-firmware
> diff --git a/Documentation/PCI/controller/pci-controller-drivers.rst b/Documentation/PCI/controller/pci-controller-drivers.rst
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000000..76ab8f71da7d
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/Documentation/PCI/controller/pci-controller-drivers.rst
> @@ -0,0 +1,388 @@
> +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
> +
> +===================================
> +Writing PCI Host Controller Drivers
> +===================================
> +
> +:Author: Manivannan Sadhasivam <[email protected]>
> +
> +Introduction
> +============
> +
> +A PCI Host Controller driver is used to control a PCI Root Complex (RC) hardware
> +inside an SoC. The Root Complex hardware comprises a single PCI Host Bridge
> +and one or more Root Port or Root Complex Integrated Endpoint (RCiEP) devices::
> +
> +                     +------------------+
> +                     |       CPU        |
> +                     +------------------+
> +                              |
> +        +--------------------------------------------+
> +        |                     |               Root   |
> +        |            +------------------+   Complex  |
> +        |            |   Host Bridge    |            |
> +        |            +------------------+            |
> +        |                     |                      |
> +        |               Bus 0 |                      |
> +        |        +------------|----------+           |
> +        |        |            |          |           |
> +        |  +----------+ +----------+ +-------+       |
> +        |  |  Root    | |  Root    | | RCiEP |       |
> +        |  |  Port    | |  Port    | +-------+       |
> +        |  +----------+ +----------+                 |
> +        |       |             |                      |
> +        | Bus 1 |       Bus 2 |                      |
> +        |       |             |                      |
> +        +-------|-------------|----------------------+
> +                |             |
> +          +-----------+ +-----------+
> +          | Endpoint  | | Endpoint  |
> +          +-----------+ +-----------+
> +
> +Host Bridge: Used to connect CPU(s) to the PCI hierarchy.
> +Root Port: Virtual PCI-PCI bridge connecting the Host Bridge to a PCI bus.
> +RCiEP: Embedded PCIe Endpoint inside Root Complex connected to the Host Bridge.
> +Endpoint: PCIe device connected to a Root Port through a Link.
> +
> +Enumeration
> +===========
> +
> +The Host Bridge device is not discoverable, so it is typically enumerated with
> +the help of the firmware interface like ACPI or Devicetree. But the Root Port
> +and RCiEP devices are discoverable through the standard enumeration process
> +defined in the PCIe spec.
> +
> +A Host Controller driver usually configures both Host Bridge and Root Port(s)
> +based on the platform requirement. In the case of ACPI on standardized platforms
> +(e.g. x86), no platform specific host controller driver is required as the
> +firmware configures the Root Complex before OS boot and exposes the resource
> +information through ACPI tables. For more info, refer to :doc:`../acpi-info`.
> +
> +But for the Devicetree platforms, a dedicated host controller driver is often
> +required because the Root Complex hardware typically needs vendor specific
> +initialization like PHY, clocks, power domains and there is no standard
> +mechanism equivalent to ACPI/MCFG to convey resource information to the OS. So
> +on these platforms, Root Complex hardware is enumerated through Devicetree
> +nodes as below::
> +
> +        pcie@10000000 {
> +            compatible = "vendor,soc-pcie";
> +            reg = <0x0 0x10000000 0x0 0x1000>,
> +                  <0x0 0x10001000 0x0 0x1000>;
> +            reg-names = "cfg", "app";
> +            device_type = "pci";
> +            bus-range = <0x00 0xff>;
> +            linux,pci-domain = <0>;
> +            num-lanes = <4>;
> +
> +            #address-cells = <3>;
> +            #size-cells = <2>;
> +
> +            ranges = <0x01000000 0x0 0x00000000 0x0 0x20000000 0x0 0x00100000>,
> +                     <0x02000000 0x0 0x20100000 0x0 0x20100000 0x0 0x1ff00000>;
> +            dma-ranges = <0x02000000 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x80000000>;
> +
> +            clocks = <&clkc PCIE_CORE_CLK>,
> +                     <&clkc PCIE_AUX_CLK>;
> +            clock-names = "core", "aux";
> +            resets = <&reset PCIE_RESET>;
> +            power-domains = <&power PCIE_PD>;
> +
> +            #interrupt-cells = <1>;
> +            interrupt-map-mask = <0 0 0 0x7>;
> +            interrupt-map = <0 0 0 1 &gic 0 0 GIC_SPI 100 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
> +                            <0 0 0 2 &gic 0 0 GIC_SPI 101 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
> +                            <0 0 0 3 &gic 0 0 GIC_SPI 102 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>,
> +                            <0 0 0 4 &gic 0 0 GIC_SPI 103 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
> +            interrupts = <GIC_SPI 104 IRQ_TYPE_LEVEL_HIGH>;
> +            interrupt-names = "msi";
> +
> +            pcie@0 {
> +                compatible = "pciclass,0604";
> +                device_type = "pci";
> +                reg = <0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0 0x0>;
> +                bus-range = <0x01 0xff>;
> +
> +                #address-cells = <3>;
> +                #size-cells = <2>;
> +                ranges;
> +
> +                phys = <&pcie_phy>;
> +                reset-gpios = <&gpio 10 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
> +                wake-gpios = <&gpio 11 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
> +            };
> +        };
> +
> +
> +Note the presence of two nodes in the above example. ``pcie@10000000`` node
> +represents a PCI Host Bridge device and ``pcie@0`` represents a single Root Port
> +device. The Host Bridge node should contain the properties associated with the
> +Host Bridge device such as ranges, interrupts, clocks, power-domains etc... and
> +the Root Port node should contain the port specific properties such as phys,
> +reset-gpios, wake-gpios etc...
> +
> +NOTE: Legacy Devicetrees used a single node to describe both Host Bridge and
> +Root Port devices. But that design is now deprecated.
> +
> +Driver Design
> +=============
> +
> +Prerequisites
> +-------------
> +
> +Before starting to write a new Host Controller driver, check if any of the
> +existing drivers can be reused. For example, if the Root Complex supports
> +Enhanced Configuration Access Mechanism (ECAM) and the bootloader has configured
> +the ECAM mapping before OS boot, ``CONFIG_PCI_HOST_GENERIC`` driver can be used.
> +
> +If the Root Complex hardware (IP) is from known IP vendors such as Synopsys or
> +Cadence, then the existing ``CONFIG_PCIE_DW_PLAT_HOST`` and
> +``CONFIG_PCIE_CADENCE_PLAT_HOST`` drivers can be reused. If not, then check if
> +any of the existing glue drivers available for these IPs could be reused.
> +
> +Or if the Root Complex hardware is designed in-house by the SoC vendor, then
> +check if there is an existing driver from the vendor for their previous
> +generation Root Complex hardware. Often, the existing driver could be reused
> +with minimal modifications.
> +
> +Only if the Root Complex doesn't satisfy above prerequisites, a new Host
> +Controller driver should be written.
> +
> +Probe
> +-----
> +
> +During the Host Controller driver probe(), it initializes the Root Complex
> +hardware and registers the Host Bridge with the PCI core. The typical steps
> +are described below.
> +
> +Initialize Resources
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +At the start of the probe(), initialize all the Host Bridge specific
> +resources such as clocks, PHY, regulators, resets. These resources are
> +described in the Host Bridge Devicetree node and should be brought up before
> +accessing the controller hardware.
> +
> +NOTE: Use the devm_*() managed APIs wherever possible, so that the resources
> +are released automatically on probe failure and on driver detach.
> +
> +Configuration Space Access
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +The PCI core accesses the Configuration Space of the enumerated devices
> +through the callbacks provided by the driver in struct pci_ops. These
> +callbacks abstract how the Root Complex generates a Configuration Request for
> +a given Bus, Device and Function number.
> +
> +If the Root Complex supports ECAM, the generic accessors can be reused by
> +using pci_ecam_map_bus() along with pci_generic_config_read() and
> +pci_generic_config_write(). Such drivers can often be built on top of
> +pci_host_common_probe() without providing any custom accessors.
> +
> +Setup Address Translation
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +The Host Bridge translates accesses between the CPU address domain and the
> +PCI address domain in both directions:
> +
> +- Outbound: CPU addresses are translated to PCI bus addresses for the Memory
> +  and I/O accesses initiated by the CPU towards the downstream devices. These
> +  windows are derived from the ``ranges`` property of the Host Bridge Devicetree
> +  node.
> +
> +- Inbound: PCI bus addresses are translated to system memory addresses for the
> +  accesses (such as DMA) initiated by the downstream devices. These windows
> +  are derived from the ``dma-ranges`` property.
> +
> +The PCI core parses ``ranges`` and ``dma-ranges`` into the Host Bridge resource
> +lists, and the driver programs one translation window per entry. Note that the
> +CPU address and the PCI bus address of a window may differ, so the offset
> +between them has to be accounted for while programming the windows.
> +
> +NOTE: If the hardware supports ECAM, it is strongly recommended to use ECAM
> +for the Configuration Space, so that a translation window need not be
> +reprogrammed for every Configuration access.
> +
> +Interrupt Handling
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +Downstream devices can signal interrupts either through INTx or through
> +Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI/MSI-X). The driver has to enable the
> +mechanisms supported by the Root Complex.
> +
> +INTx interrupts are conveyed to the Root Complex through the Assert_INTx and
> +Deassert_INTx messages and are then reported as system interrupts. The driver
> +typically creates an IRQ domain for the four interrupts (INTA to INTD) and
> +demultiplexes an incoming interrupt to the corresponding virtual IRQ.
> +
> +An MSI/MSI-X is signaled by the downstream device as a Memory Write to a Root
> +Complex specific address. There are two ways to handle them:
> +
> +- If the Root Complex integrates its own MSI controller, the driver has to
> +  create an MSI IRQ domain, program the MSI target address and demultiplex the
> +  incoming MSIs to the corresponding virtual IRQs. MSI-X is handled through the
> +  same domain.
> +
> +- If the MSIs are handled by an external interrupt controller (such as the GIC
> +  ITS), the Root Complex Devicetree node needs to have ``msi-parent`` property
> +  and the driver need not implement an MSI controller.
> +
> +
> +Powering up the Slot/Endpoint
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +Power ON any slots or Endpoints connected to the bus with the help of the
> +PWRCTRL subsystem APIs such as pci_pwrctrl_create_devices() and
> +pci_pwrctrl_power_on_devices(). Note that this requires defining the supplies
> +in the Root Port or Endpoint Devicetree node.
> +
> +Link Training
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +Once the resources are initialized, the driver has to initiate Link training
> +by enabling the LTSSM (Link Training and Status State Machine) of the Root
> +Port. If a PERST# signal is present, it should be deasserted to bring the
> +downstream device out of fundamental reset before enabling the LTSSM.
> +
> +Before PERST# is deasserted, the driver must satisfy the power sequencing
> +delays defined by the PCI Express Card Electromechanical (CEM) Specification.
> +The power supplies must be stable for at least T_PVPERL
> +(``PCIE_T_PVPERL_MS``, 100 ms) and the reference clock must be stable for at
> +least T_PERST-CLK (``PCIE_T_PERST_CLK_US``, 100 us) before PERST# is
> +deasserted.
> +
> +After the LTSSM is enabled, the driver should wait (with a timeout) for the
> +LTSSM to reach the L0 state, indicating that the Link is up.
> +
> +Once the Link is up, the PCI Express Base Specification (Conventional Reset)
> +requires software to wait for at least ``PCIE_RESET_CONFIG_WAIT_MS`` (100 ms)
> +before sending the first Configuration Request to the downstream device. For a
> +Link operating up to 5.0 GT/s, this delay is counted from the exit of the
> +Conventional Reset (PERST# deassertion), while for a Link operating above
> +5.0 GT/s it is counted from the completion of Link training. The driver should
> +honor this delay before the bus is scanned.
> +
> +NOTE: A failure to establish the Link should NOT be treated as a probe
> +failure, unless the Root Port is not Hotplug capable. If the Root Port is
> +Hotplug capable, then the driver should still register the Host Bridge and scan
> +the bus, so that the downstream device can be discovered later when the Link
> +comes up.
> +
> +Register the Host Bridge
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +Finally, allocate the Host Bridge device with devm_pci_alloc_host_bridge(),
> +assign the Configuration Space accessors (struct pci_ops) to it, and start the
> +bus scan by calling pci_host_probe(). This is the last step of the probe().
> +pci_host_probe() creates the Root bus for the Host Bridge and scans/enumerates
> +all the Root Port, RCiEP and Endpoint devices connected to the bus.
> +
> +If the Root Complex IP is from a known IP vendor, the IP specific helpers
> +should be reused for the above operations wherever applicable.
> +
> +Power Management
> +----------------
> +
> +A Host Controller driver participates in both runtime and system-wide power
> +management. In both cases, the driver is responsible for the power state of the
> +Root Complex hardware, while the PCI core manages the power state of the
> +enumerated devices.
> +
> +Runtime PM
> +~~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +Runtime PM allows the Root Complex hardware to be powered down when it is idle.
> +The driver typically enables runtime PM with pm_runtime_enable() and takes a
> +reference with pm_runtime_get_sync() during probe(), so that the controller
> +stays powered while it is in use. The reference is dropped in remove().
> +
> +If the Root Complex can be powered down when idle, the driver implements the
> +runtime_suspend and runtime_resume callbacks to disable and enable the
> +controller resources such as the clocks, PHY and power domain. These callbacks
> +should manage only the controller resources and must not touch the state of the
> +enumerated devices, which is handled by the PCI core.
> +
> +System PM
> +~~~~~~~~~
> +
> +During system suspend and resume, the driver has to save and restore the state
> +of the Root Complex and put the Link into a low power state.
> +
> +These operations are performed in the _noirq() PM callbacks (for example, using
> +NOIRQ_SYSTEM_SLEEP_PM_OPS()), because the controller resources such as the
> +clocks and PHY are shared by all the child devices. Suspending them earlier
> +would break the child devices whose own suspend callbacks may still access
> +their Configuration Space.
> +
> +In the suspend callback, the driver should:
> +
> +- Broadcast a PME_Turn_Off message and wait for the PME_TO_Ack, so that the
> +  Link can transition to the L2/L3 state.
> +- Stop the LTSSM and disable the controller resources such as the clocks, PHY
> +  and power domain.
> +- Save any controller state that is not retained across the low power state.
> +- Power off the downstream devices using pci_pwrctrl_power_off_devices().
> +
> +In the resume callback, the driver should reverse the above by enabling the
> +controller resources, restoring the saved state, re-initializing the Root
> +Complex and re-establishing the Link as done during probe().
> +
> +NOTE: If the Link is in the ASPM L1 (or L1 substates) state, some drivers keep
> +the Link in L1 across suspend for a faster resume, instead of transitioning it
> +to L2/L3. This is a driver policy decision based on the platform and the
> +devices connected.
> +
> +Shutdown
> +--------
> +
> +The shutdown() callback is invoked during system reboot or when transitioning
> +to a new kernel through kexec. Its purpose is to quiesce the Root Complex so
> +that the downstream devices cannot corrupt the memory or interrupt the new
> +kernel.
> +
> +The driver should:
> +
> +- Disable the interrupts (INTx and MSI) reported by the Root Complex, so that
> +  no spurious interrupt is delivered to the new kernel.
> +- Broadcast a PME_Turn_Off message and stop the LTSSM to bring the Link down,
> +  so that any in-flight DMA from the downstream devices is stopped before the
> +  reset.
> +- Power down the controller resources.
> +
> +Unlike remove(), shutdown() does not need to tear down the software state such
> +as the Root bus, since the system is going down anyway.
> +
> +NOTE: shutdown() is optional. It is mainly required on platforms where the
> +downstream devices could perform DMA or raise interrupts during the transition
> +to reboot or kexec.
> +
> +Remove
> +------
> +
> +remove() is called when the driver is detached and it should undo everything
> +done in probe(), in the reverse order.
> +
> +The first step is to remove the enumerated devices and the Root bus, by calling
> +pci_stop_root_bus() followed by pci_remove_root_bus(), under the
> +pci_lock_rescan_remove() lock. This detaches all the child devices before the
> +controller resources are released.
> +
> +After the bus is removed, the driver should:
> +
> +- Disable the interrupts reported by the Root Complex.
> +- Stop the LTSSM to bring the Link down.
> +- Power down the PHY and disable the clocks, regulators and resets.
> +- Drop the runtime PM reference with pm_runtime_put_sync() and disable runtime
> +  PM with pm_runtime_disable().
> +
> +Resources allocated through the devm_*() APIs are released automatically after
> +remove() returns and need not be freed explicitly.
> +
> +NOTE: A Host Controller driver is encouraged to be built as a loadable module,
> +but it should not be removed at runtime if it implements its own IRQ domains
> +such as MSI or INTx controllers. The IRQ mappings created for such domains can
> +persist even after the interrupts are released and cannot be disposed of
> +safely, so tearing down the IRQ domains on removal is fragile. Such drivers
> +should therefore prevent their removal. See the following thread for more
> +details:
> +https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/[email protected]/
> diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
> index 55af015174a5..6c915dff6c0a 100644
> --- a/MAINTAINERS
> +++ b/MAINTAINERS
> @@ -20395,6 +20395,7 @@ B:	https://bugzilla.kernel.org
>  C:	irc://irc.oftc.net/linux-pci
>  T:	git git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/pci/pci.git
>  F:	Documentation/ABI/testing/debugfs-pcie-ptm
> +F:	Documentation/PCI/controller/
>  F:	Documentation/devicetree/bindings/pci/
>  F:	drivers/pci/controller/
>  F:	drivers/pci/pci-bridge-emul.c
> 
> ---
> base-commit: 6de23f81a5e08be8fbf5e8d7e9febc72a5b5f27f
> change-id: 20260803-pci-doc-acd5f2e9f640
> 
> Best regards,
> --  
> மணிவண்ணன் சதாசிவம்
> 
>