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From: Mason <slash.tmp@free.fr>
To: Linux PM <linux-pm@vger.kernel.org>
Cc: cpufreq <cpufreq@vger.kernel.org>,
	Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com>,
	Eduardo Valentin <edubezval@gmail.com>
Subject: Using a temperature sensor with 1-bit output for CPU throttling
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 13:27:01 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <553F6E85.5090402@free.fr> (raw)

Hello everyone,

The SoC I'm working on provides a temperature sensor (NXP) in the CPU block.
The sensor seems to be very primitive, so I wanted to ask experienced people
what would be the best way to use it from Linux.

General Description
"The sensor generates an output signal that indicates if the die temperature
exceeds a programmable threshold. This makes it particularly suitable for
detecting overheating."

So it seems that the original purpose of this sensor was to periodically
check that the temperature has not exceeded a given threshold.

- Is the CPU temp higher than 100°C ?
- No.
- OK. Business as usual.

(1 second later)
- Is the CPU temp higher than 100°C ?
- Yes.
- Uh-oh! I need to do something about it.


Basic Functions
"The temp sensor uses a bandgap type of circuit to compare a voltage which
has a negative temperature coefficient with a voltage that is proportional
to absolute temperature. A resistor bank allows 40 different temperature
thresholds to be selected and the logic output 'out_temperature' will then
indicate whether the actual die temperature lies above or below the selected
threshold."

The available thresholds seem to be chosen somewhat arbitrarily:

  -45.1, -39.7, -33.7, -29.4, -24.4, -20.4, -15.4, -10.1,
  -6.4, -1.4, 3.6, 7.6, 12.9, 16.6, 20.6, 25.6, 30.9,
  34.9, 38.6, 43.9, 48.9, 52.9, 57.9, 61.9, 66.9, 70.9,
  76.3, 81.3, 85.3, 90.3, 95.3, 98.9, 102.9, 108.3, 111.9,
  117.3, 122.3, 126.3, 131.3, 135.3, 139.3

The spacing between values seems arbitrary also.
(Is there an underlying physical explanation?)

I'm not sure that there is much point in testing for temperatures lower
than 50°C ? (I'm told that the SoC can reliably function up to 125°C.)

Do higher temperatures shorten the lifespan of a component?
In other words, would a CPU running 24/7 at 100°C "break" sooner
than one running 24/7 at 50°C ?


Characteristics

Symbol      Parameter             Min  Typ  Max  Unit

(Operating conditions)
Tjunc      Junction temperature   -40   25   125  °C
Vdd        Supply voltage         1.0  1.1  1.26   V

(Normal operating mode)
Idd         Supply current              50    60  μA
Vbandgapref Ref output voltage   0.72  0.8  0.88   V
∆outtemp    Absolute Temp               ±2   ±10  °C
            threshold error
T_res       Temp resolution        3    4.5    7  °C


Given the semantics of the temperature sensor hardware block, I was
tempted to implement something along these lines:

Create a kernel thread that runs periodically (e.g. every second)
to check if the temperature is above 100°C.
- If not, do nothing
- If yes, somehow prevent the CPU from using the highest frequencies
defined in cpufreq's freq table
(They are 1000, 500, 333, 200, 100 MHz)

Is that a sensible approach?
Is there a way to implement this using the thermal framework?

Or am I looking at this wrong, and things should be done a
different way? (I'm using 3.14 by the way.)

I suppose I could perform some kind of binary search to zoom in
on the current threshold (although it might change during the
measurements, so I'd rather not go there.)

Regards.

next             reply	other threads:[~2015-04-28 11:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-04-28 11:27 Mason [this message]
2015-04-29 13:47 ` Using a temperature sensor with 1-bit output for CPU throttling Mason
2015-04-29 16:36   ` Javi Merino
2015-07-21  9:10     ` Mason
2015-07-21 11:49       ` Mason
2015-07-23  9:19       ` Mason
2015-07-23 12:51         ` Mason
2015-05-13  8:02   ` Mason
2015-05-14  9:25     ` Punit Agrawal
2015-05-14  9:46       ` Mason

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