| 1 | Dynamic Tables Framework
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| 2 | ------------------------
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| 3 |
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| 4 | Dynamic Tables Framework provides mechanisms to reduce the amount
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| 5 | of effort required in porting firmware to new platforms. The aim is
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| 6 | to provide an implementation capable of generating the firmware
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| 7 | tables from an external source. This is potentially a management
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| 8 | node, either local or remote, or, where suitable, a file that might
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| 9 | be generated from the system construction. This initial release
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| 10 | does not fully implement that - the configuration is held in local
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| 11 | UEFI modules.
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| 12 |
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| 13 | Feature Summary
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| 14 | ---------------
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| 15 | The dynamic tables framework is designed to generate standardised
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| 16 | firmware tables that describe the hardware information at
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| 17 | run-time. A goal of standardised firmware is to have a common
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| 18 | firmware for a platform capable of booting both Windows and Linux
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| 19 | operating systems.
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| 20 |
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| 21 | Traditionally the firmware tables are handcrafted using ACPI
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| 22 | Source Language (ASL), Table Definition Language (TDL) and
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| 23 | C-code. This approach can be error prone and involves time
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| 24 | consuming debugging. In addition, it may be desirable to configure
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| 25 | platform hardware at runtime such as: configuring the number of
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| 26 | cores available for use by the OS, or turning SoC features ON or
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| 27 | OFF.
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| 28 |
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| 29 | The dynamic tables framework simplifies this by providing a set
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| 30 | of standard table generators, that are implemented as libraries.
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| 31 | These generators query a platform specific component, the
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| 32 | 'Configuration Manager', to collate the information required
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| 33 | for generating the tables at run-time.
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| 34 |
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| 35 | The framework also provides the ability to implement custom/OEM
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| 36 | generators; thereby facilitating support for custom tables. The
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| 37 | custom generators can also utilize the existing standard generators
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| 38 | and override any functionality if needed.
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| 39 |
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| 40 | The framework currently implements a set of standard ACPI table
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| 41 | generators for ARM architecture, that can generate Server Base Boot
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| 42 | Requirement (SBBR) compliant tables. Although, the set of standard
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| 43 | generators implement the functionality required for ARM architecture;
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| 44 | the framework is extensible, and support for other architectures can
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| 45 | be added easily.
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| 46 |
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| 47 | The framework currently supports the following table generators for ARM:
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| 48 | * DBG2 - Debug Port Table 2
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| 49 | * DSDT - Differentiated system description table. This is essentially
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| 50 | a RAW table generator.
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| 51 | * FADT - Fixed ACPI Description Table
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| 52 | * GTDT - Generic Timer Description Table
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| 53 | * IORT - IO Remapping Table
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| 54 | * MADT - Multiple APIC Description Table
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| 55 | * MCFG - PCI Express memory mapped configuration space base address
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| 56 | Description Table
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| 57 | * SPCR - Serial Port Console Redirection Table
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| 58 | * SSDT - Secondary System Description Table. This is essentially
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| 59 | a RAW table generator.
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| 60 |
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| 61 | Roadmap
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| 62 | -------
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| 63 | The current implementation of the Configuration Manager populates the
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| 64 | platform information statically as a C structure. Further enhancements
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| 65 | to introduce runtime loading of platform information from a platform
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| 66 | information file is planned.
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| 67 |
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| 68 | Also support for generating SMBIOS tables is planned and will be added
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| 69 | subsequently.
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| 70 |
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| 71 | Related Modules
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| 72 | ---------------
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| 73 |
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| 74 | ### ACPICA iASL compiler
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| 75 | The RAW table generator, used to process the DSDT/SSDT files depends on
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| 76 | the iASL compiler to convert the DSDT/SSDT ASL files to a C array containing
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| 77 | the hex AML code. The "-tc" option of the iASL compiler has been enhanced to
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| 78 | support generation of an AML hex file (C header) with a unique symbol name
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| 79 | so that it is suitable for inclusion from a C source file.
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| 80 |
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| 81 | Related Links
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| 82 | --------------
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| 83 |
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| 84 | <https://github.com/acpica/acpica.git>
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| 85 |
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| 86 |
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| 87 | Supported Platforms
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| 88 | -------------------
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| 89 | 1. Juno
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| 90 | 2. FVP Models
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| 91 |
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| 92 | Build Instructions
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| 93 | ------------------
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| 94 | 1. Set path for the iASL compiler with support for generating a C header
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| 95 | file as output.
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| 96 |
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| 97 | 2. Set PACKAGES_PATH to point to the locations of the following repositories:
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| 98 |
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| 99 | Example:
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| 100 |
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| 101 | > set PACKAGES_PATH=%CD%\edk2;%CD%\edk2-platforms;
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| 102 |
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| 103 | or
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| 104 |
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| 105 | > export PACKAGES_PATH=$PWD/edk2:$PWD/edk2-platforms
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| 106 |
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| 107 | 3. To enable Dynamic tables framework the *'DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK'*
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| 108 | option must be defined. This can be passed as a command line
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| 109 | parameter to the edk2 build system.
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| 110 |
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| 111 | Example:
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| 112 |
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| 113 | >build -a AARCH64 -p Platform\ARM\JunoPkg\ArmJuno.dsc
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| 114 | -t GCC5 **-D DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK**
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| 115 |
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| 116 | or
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| 117 |
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| 118 | >build -a AARCH64 -p Platform\ARM\VExpressPkg\ArmVExpress-FVP-AArch64.dsc
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| 119 | -t GCC5 **-D DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK**
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| 120 |
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| 121 | Prerequisites
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| 122 | -------------
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| 123 | ACPICA iASL compiler with the enhanced "-tc" option to support generation of
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| 124 | AML hex (C header) files with unique symbol names.
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| 125 |
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| 126 | A patch *'[iASL: Enhance the -tc option (create AML hex file in C)](https://github.com/acpica/acpica/commit/f9a88a4c1cd020b6a5475d63b29626852a0b5f37)'*, dated 16 March 2018 (2018-03-16),
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| 127 | to enable this support has been integrated to the ACPICA source repository.
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| 128 |
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| 129 | Ensure that the iASL compiler used for building *Dynamic Tables Framework* has this feature enabled.
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| 130 |
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| 131 | This feature was made available in the *ACPICA Compiler update
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| 132 | [Version 20180508](https://www.acpica.org/node/156)*, dated 8 May 2018 (2018-05-08).
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| 133 |
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| 134 | Documentation
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| 135 | -------------
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| 136 |
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| 137 | Refer to the following presentation from *UEFI Plugfest Seattle 2018*:
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| 138 |
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| 139 | [Dynamic Tables Framework: A Step Towards Automatic Generation of Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) & System Management BIOS (SMBIOS) Tables – Sami Mujawar (Arm).](http://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/Arm_Dynamic%20Tables%20Framework%20A%20Step%20Towards%20Automatic%20Generation%20of%20Advanced%20Configuration%20and%20Power%20Interface%20%28ACPI%29%20%26%20System%20Management%20BIOS%20%28SMBIOS%29%20Tables%20_0.pdf)
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