USB: update intro of documentation
It does no good to mention The 2.4 kernel series and neglect USB 3.x and XHCI. Also with type C and micro/mini USB we better not talk about the shape of connectors. Signed-off-by: Oliver Neukum <oneukum@suse.com> Acked-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
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@ -47,39 +47,24 @@
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root (the system's master), hubs as interior nodes, and
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peripherals as leaves (and slaves).
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Modern PCs support several such trees of USB devices, usually
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one USB 2.0 tree (480 Mbit/sec each) with
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a few USB 1.1 trees (12 Mbit/sec each) that are used when you
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connect a USB 1.1 device directly to the machine's "root hub".
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a few USB 3.0 (5 GBit/s) or USB 3.1 (10 GBit/s) and some legacy
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USB 2.0 (480 MBit/s) busses just in case.
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</para>
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<para>That master/slave asymmetry was designed-in for a number of
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reasons, one being ease of use. It is not physically possible to
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assemble (legal) USB cables incorrectly: all upstream "to the host"
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connectors are the rectangular type (matching the sockets on
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root hubs), and all downstream connectors are the squarish type
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mistake upstream and downstream or it does not matter with a type C
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plug
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(or they are built into the peripheral).
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Also, the host software doesn't need to deal with distributed
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auto-configuration since the pre-designated master node manages all that.
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And finally, at the electrical level, bus protocol overhead is reduced by
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eliminating arbitration and moving scheduling into the host software.
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</para>
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<para>USB 1.0 was announced in January 1996 and was revised
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as USB 1.1 (with improvements in hub specification and
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support for interrupt-out transfers) in September 1998.
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USB 2.0 was released in April 2000, adding high-speed
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transfers and transaction-translating hubs (used for USB 1.1
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and 1.0 backward compatibility).
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</para>
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<para>Kernel developers added USB support to Linux early in the 2.2 kernel
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series, shortly before 2.3 development forked. Updates from 2.3 were
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regularly folded back into 2.2 releases, which improved reliability and
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brought <filename>/sbin/hotplug</filename> support as well more drivers.
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Such improvements were continued in the 2.5 kernel series, where they added
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USB 2.0 support, improved performance, and made the host controller drivers
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(HCDs) more consistent. They also simplified the API (to make bugs less
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likely) and added internal "kerneldoc" documentation.
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series and have been developing it further since then. Besides support
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for each new generation of USB, various host controllers gained support,
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new drivers for peripherals have been added and advanced features for latency
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measurement and improved power management introduced.
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</para>
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<para>Linux can run inside USB devices as well as on
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@ -121,12 +106,17 @@
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<listitem><para>The device description model includes one or more
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"configurations" per device, only one of which is active at a time.
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Devices that are capable of high-speed operation must also support
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full-speed configurations, along with a way to ask about the
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"other speed" configurations which might be used.
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Devices are supposed to be capable of operating at lower than their top
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speeds and may provide a BOS descriptor showing the lowest speed they
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remain fully operational at.
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Configurations have one or more "interfaces", each
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<listitem><para>From USB 3.0 on configurations have one or more "functions", which
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provide a common functionality and are grouped together for purposes
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of power management.
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Configurations or functions have one or more "interfaces", each
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of which may have "alternate settings". Interfaces may be
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standardized by USB "Class" specifications, or may be specific to
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a vendor or device.</para>
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@ -135,7 +125,7 @@
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Think of them as "interface drivers", though you
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may not see many devices where the distinction is important.
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<emphasis>Most USB devices are simple, with only one configuration,
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one interface, and one alternate setting.</emphasis>
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one function, one interface, and one alternate setting.</emphasis>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Interfaces have one or more "endpoints", each of
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@ -161,26 +151,25 @@
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<para>Accordingly, the USB Core API exposed to device drivers
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covers quite a lot of territory. You'll probably need to consult
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the USB 2.0 specification, available online from www.usb.org at
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the USB 3.0 specification, available online from www.usb.org at
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no cost, as well as class or device specifications.
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</para>
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<para>The only host-side drivers that actually touch hardware
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(reading/writing registers, handling IRQs, and so on) are the HCDs.
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In theory, all HCDs provide the same functionality through the same
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API. In practice, that's becoming more true on the 2.5 kernels,
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API. In practice, that's becoming mostly true,
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but there are still differences that crop up especially with
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fault handling. Different controllers don't necessarily report
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fault handling on the less common controllers.
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Different controllers don't necessarily report
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the same aspects of failures, and recovery from faults (including
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software-induced ones like unlinking an URB) isn't yet fully
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consistent.
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Device driver authors should make a point of doing disconnect
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testing (while the device is active) with each different host
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controller driver, to make sure drivers don't have bugs of
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their own as well as to make sure they aren't relying on some
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thei1r own as well as to make sure they aren't relying on some
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HCD-specific behavior.
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(You will need external USB 1.1 and/or
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USB 2.0 hubs to perform all those tests.)
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</para>
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</chapter>
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<para>There are two basic I/O models in the USB API.
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The most elemental one is asynchronous: drivers submit requests
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in the form of an URB, and the URB's completion callback
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handle the next step.
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handles the next step.
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All USB transfer types support that model, although there
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are special cases for control URBs (which always have setup
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and status stages, but may not have a data stage) and
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@ -252,7 +241,7 @@
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<para>These APIs are only for use by host controller drivers,
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most of which implement standard register interfaces such as
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EHCI, OHCI, or UHCI.
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XHCI, EHCI, OHCI, or UHCI.
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UHCI was one of the first interfaces, designed by Intel and
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also used by VIA; it doesn't do much in hardware.
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OHCI was designed later, to have the hardware do more work
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@ -260,13 +249,16 @@
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EHCI was designed with USB 2.0; its design has features that
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resemble OHCI (hardware does much more work) as well as
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UHCI (some parts of ISO support, TD list processing).
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XHCI was designed with USB 3.0. It continues to shift support
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for functionality into hardware.
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</para>
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<para>There are host controllers other than the "big three",
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although most PCI based controllers (and a few non-PCI based
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ones) use one of those interfaces.
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Not all host controllers use DMA; some use PIO, and there
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is also a simulator.
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is also a simulator and a virtual host controller to pipe
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USB over the network.
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</para>
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<para>The same basic APIs are available to drivers for all
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@ -275,7 +267,7 @@
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<structname>struct usb_bus</structname> is a rather thin
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layer that became available in the 2.2 kernels, while
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<structname>struct usb_hcd</structname> is a more featureful
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layer (available in later 2.4 kernels and in 2.5) that
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layer that
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lets HCDs share common code, to shrink driver size
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and significantly reduce hcd-specific behaviors.
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</para>
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