| ACPI Device Tree - Representation of ACPI Namespace | 
 |  | 
 | Copyright (C) 2013, Intel Corporation | 
 | Author: Lv Zheng <lv.zheng@intel.com> | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | Abstract: | 
 |  | 
 | The Linux ACPI subsystem converts ACPI namespace objects into a Linux | 
 | device tree under the /sys/devices/LNXSYSTEM:00 and updates it upon | 
 | receiving ACPI hotplug notification events.  For each device object in this | 
 | hierarchy there is a corresponding symbolic link in the | 
 | /sys/bus/acpi/devices. | 
 | This document illustrates the structure of the ACPI device tree. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | Credit: | 
 |  | 
 | Thanks for the help from Zhang Rui <rui.zhang@intel.com> and Rafael J. | 
 | Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | 1. ACPI Definition Blocks | 
 |  | 
 |    The ACPI firmware sets up RSDP (Root System Description Pointer) in the | 
 |    system memory address space pointing to the XSDT (Extended System | 
 |    Description Table).  The XSDT always points to the FADT (Fixed ACPI | 
 |    Description Table) using its first entry, the data within the FADT | 
 |    includes various fixed-length entries that describe fixed ACPI features | 
 |    of the hardware.  The FADT contains a pointer to the DSDT | 
 |    (Differentiated System Descripition Table).  The XSDT also contains | 
 |    entries pointing to possibly multiple SSDTs (Secondary System | 
 |    Description Table). | 
 |  | 
 |    The DSDT and SSDT data is organized in data structures called definition | 
 |    blocks that contain definitions of various objects, including ACPI | 
 |    control methods, encoded in AML (ACPI Machine Language).  The data block | 
 |    of the DSDT along with the contents of SSDTs represents a hierarchical | 
 |    data structure called the ACPI namespace whose topology reflects the | 
 |    structure of the underlying hardware platform. | 
 |  | 
 |    The relationships between ACPI System Definition Tables described above | 
 |    are illustrated in the following diagram. | 
 |  | 
 |      +---------+    +-------+    +--------+    +------------------------+ | 
 |      |  RSDP   | +->| XSDT  | +->|  FADT  |    |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |      +---------+ |  +-------+ |  +--------+  +-|->|       DSDT        | | | 
 |      | Pointer | |  | Entry |-+  | ...... |  | |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |      +---------+ |  +-------+    | X_DSDT |--+ |  | Definition Blocks | | | 
 |      | Pointer |-+  | ..... |    | ...... |    |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |      +---------+    +-------+    +--------+    |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |                     | Entry |------------------|->|       SSDT        | | | 
 |                     +- - - -+                  |  +-------------------| | | 
 |                     | Entry | - - - - - - - -+ |  | Definition Blocks | | | 
 |                     +- - - -+                | |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |                                              | |  +- - - - - - - - - -+ | | 
 |                                              +-|->|       SSDT        | | | 
 |                                                |  +-------------------+ | | 
 |                                                |  | Definition Blocks | | | 
 |                                                |  +- - - - - - - - - -+ | | 
 |                                                +------------------------+ | 
 |                                                            | | 
 |                                               OSPM Loading | | 
 |                                                           \|/ | 
 |                                                     +----------------+ | 
 |                                                     | ACPI Namespace | | 
 |                                                     +----------------+ | 
 |  | 
 |                      Figure 1. ACPI Definition Blocks | 
 |  | 
 |    NOTE: RSDP can also contain a pointer to the RSDT (Root System | 
 |          Description Table).  Platforms provide RSDT to enable | 
 |          compatibility with ACPI 1.0 operating systems.  The OS is expected | 
 |          to use XSDT, if present. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | 2. Example ACPI Namespace | 
 |  | 
 |    All definition blocks are loaded into a single namespace.  The namespace | 
 |    is a hierarchy of objects identified by names and paths. | 
 |    The following naming conventions apply to object names in the ACPI | 
 |    namespace: | 
 |    1. All names are 32 bits long. | 
 |    2. The first byte of a name must be one of 'A' - 'Z', '_'. | 
 |    3. Each of the remaining bytes of a name must be one of 'A' - 'Z', '0' | 
 |       - '9', '_'. | 
 |    4. Names starting with '_' are reserved by the ACPI specification. | 
 |    5. The '\' symbol represents the root of the namespace (i.e. names | 
 |       prepended with '\' are relative to the namespace root). | 
 |    6. The '^' symbol represents the parent of the current namespace node | 
 |       (i.e. names prepended with '^' are relative to the parent of the | 
 |       current namespace node). | 
 |  | 
 |    The figure below shows an example ACPI namespace. | 
 |  | 
 |    +------+ | 
 |    | \    |                     Root | 
 |    +------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      +-| _PR  |                 Scope(_PR): the processor namespace | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| CPU0 |             Processor(CPU0): the first processor | 
 |      |     +------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      +-| _SB  |                 Scope(_SB): the system bus namespace | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| LID0 |             Device(LID0); the lid device | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   | | 
 |      |   |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   +-| _HID |         Name(_HID, "PNP0C0D"): the hardware ID | 
 |      |   |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   | | 
 |      |   |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   +-| _STA |         Method(_STA): the status control method | 
 |      |   |     +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| PCI0 |             Device(PCI0); the PCI root bridge | 
 |      |     +------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       +-| _HID |         Name(_HID, "PNP0A08"): the hardware ID | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       +-| _CID |         Name(_CID, "PNP0A03"): the compatible ID | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       +-| RP03 |         Scope(RP03): the PCI0 power scope | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       |   | | 
 |      |       |   | +------+ | 
 |      |       |   +-| PXP3 |     PowerResource(PXP3): the PCI0 power resource | 
 |      |       |     +------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +------+ | 
 |      |       +-| GFX0 |         Device(GFX0): the graphics adapter | 
 |      |         +------+ | 
 |      |           | | 
 |      |           | +------+ | 
 |      |           +-| _ADR |     Name(_ADR, 0x00020000): the PCI bus address | 
 |      |           | +------+ | 
 |      |           | | 
 |      |           | +------+ | 
 |      |           +-| DD01 |     Device(DD01): the LCD output device | 
 |      |             +------+ | 
 |      |               | | 
 |      |               | +------+ | 
 |      |               +-| _BCL | Method(_BCL): the backlight control method | 
 |      |                 +------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      +-| _TZ  |                 Scope(_TZ): the thermal zone namespace | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| FN00 |             PowerResource(FN00): the FAN0 power resource | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| FAN0 |             Device(FAN0): the FAN0 cooling device | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   | | 
 |      |   |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   |   +-| _HID |         Name(_HID, "PNP0A0B"): the hardware ID | 
 |      |   |     +------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------+ | 
 |      |   +-| TZ00 |             ThermalZone(TZ00); the FAN thermal zone | 
 |      |     +------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +------+ | 
 |      +-| _GPE |                 Scope(_GPE): the GPE namespace | 
 |        +------+ | 
 |  | 
 |                      Figure 2. Example ACPI Namespace | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | 3. Linux ACPI Device Objects | 
 |  | 
 |    The Linux kernel's core ACPI subsystem creates struct acpi_device | 
 |    objects for ACPI namespace objects representing devices, power resources | 
 |    processors, thermal zones.  Those objects are exported to user space via | 
 |    sysfs as directories in the subtree under /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00.  The | 
 |    format of their names is <bus_id:instance>, where 'bus_id' refers to the | 
 |    ACPI namespace representation of the given object and 'instance' is used | 
 |    for distinguishing different object of the same 'bus_id' (it is | 
 |    two-digit decimal representation of an unsigned integer). | 
 |  | 
 |    The value of 'bus_id' depends on the type of the object whose name it is | 
 |    part of as listed in the table below. | 
 |  | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 |   | Object/Feature  | Table | bus_id   | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | Root            | xSDT  | LNXSYSTM | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | Device          | xSDT  | _HID     | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | Processor       | xSDT  | LNXCPU   | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | ThermalZone     | xSDT  | LNXTHERM | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | PowerResource   | xSDT  | LNXPOWER | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | N | Other Devices   | xSDT  | device   | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | F | PWR_BUTTON      | FADT  | LNXPWRBN | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | F | SLP_BUTTON      | FADT  | LNXSLPBN | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | M | Video Extension | xSDT  | LNXVIDEO | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | M | ATA Controller  | xSDT  | LNXIOBAY | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |                 | M | Docking Station | xSDT  | LNXDOCK  | | 
 |                 +---+-----------------+-------+----------+ | 
 |  | 
 |                  Table 1. ACPI Namespace Objects Mapping | 
 |  | 
 |    The following rules apply when creating struct acpi_device objects on | 
 |    the basis of the contents of ACPI System Description Tables (as | 
 |    indicated by the letter in the first column and the notation in the | 
 |    second column of the table above): | 
 |    N: | 
 |       The object's source is an ACPI namespace node (as indicated by the | 
 |       named object's type in the second column).  In that case the object's | 
 |       directory in sysfs will contain the 'path' attribute whose value is | 
 |       the full path to the node from the namespace root. | 
 |    F: | 
 |       The struct acpi_device object is created for a fixed hardware | 
 |       feature (as indicated by the fixed feature flag's name in the second | 
 |       column), so its sysfs directory will not contain the 'path' | 
 |       attribute. | 
 |    M: | 
 |       The struct acpi_device object is created for an ACPI namespace node | 
 |       with specific control methods (as indicated by the ACPI defined | 
 |       device's type in the second column).  The 'path' attribute containing | 
 |       its namespace path will be present in its sysfs directory.  For | 
 |       example, if the _BCL method is present for an ACPI namespace node, a | 
 |       struct acpi_device object with LNXVIDEO 'bus_id' will be created for | 
 |       it. | 
 |  | 
 |    The third column of the above table indicates which ACPI System | 
 |    Description Tables contain information used for the creation of the | 
 |    struct acpi_device objects represented by the given row (xSDT means DSDT | 
 |    or SSDT). | 
 |  | 
 |    The forth column of the above table indicates the 'bus_id' generation | 
 |    rule of the struct acpi_device object: | 
 |    _HID: | 
 |       _HID in the last column of the table means that the object's bus_id | 
 |       is derived from the _HID/_CID identification objects present under | 
 |       the corresponding ACPI namespace node. The object's sysfs directory | 
 |       will then contain the 'hid' and 'modalias' attributes that can be | 
 |       used to retrieve the _HID and _CIDs of that object. | 
 |    LNXxxxxx: | 
 |       The 'modalias' attribute is also present for struct acpi_device | 
 |       objects having bus_id of the "LNXxxxxx" form (pseudo devices), in | 
 |       which cases it contains the bus_id string itself. | 
 |    device: | 
 |       'device' in the last column of the table indicates that the object's | 
 |       bus_id cannot be determined from _HID/_CID of the corresponding | 
 |       ACPI namespace node, although that object represents a device (for | 
 |       example, it may be a PCI device with _ADR defined and without _HID | 
 |       or _CID).  In that case the string 'device' will be used as the | 
 |       object's bus_id. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | 4. Linux ACPI Physical Device Glue | 
 |  | 
 |    ACPI device (i.e. struct acpi_device) objects may be linked to other | 
 |    objects in the Linux' device hierarchy that represent "physical" devices | 
 |    (for example, devices on the PCI bus).  If that happens, it means that | 
 |    the ACPI device object is a "companion" of a device otherwise | 
 |    represented in a different way and is used (1) to provide configuration | 
 |    information on that device which cannot be obtained by other means and | 
 |    (2) to do specific things to the device with the help of its ACPI | 
 |    control methods.  One ACPI device object may be linked this way to | 
 |    multiple "physical" devices. | 
 |  | 
 |    If an ACPI device object is linked to a "physical" device, its sysfs | 
 |    directory contains the "physical_node" symbolic link to the sysfs | 
 |    directory of the target device object.  In turn, the target device's | 
 |    sysfs directory will then contain the "firmware_node" symbolic link to | 
 |    the sysfs directory of the companion ACPI device object. | 
 |    The linking mechanism relies on device identification provided by the | 
 |    ACPI namespace.  For example, if there's an ACPI namespace object | 
 |    representing a PCI device (i.e. a device object under an ACPI namespace | 
 |    object representing a PCI bridge) whose _ADR returns 0x00020000 and the | 
 |    bus number of the parent PCI bridge is 0, the sysfs directory | 
 |    representing the struct acpi_device object created for that ACPI | 
 |    namespace object will contain the 'physical_node' symbolic link to the | 
 |    /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02:0/ sysfs directory of the | 
 |    corresponding PCI device. | 
 |  | 
 |    The linking mechanism is generally bus-specific.  The core of its | 
 |    implementation is located in the drivers/acpi/glue.c file, but there are | 
 |    complementary parts depending on the bus types in question located | 
 |    elsewhere.  For example, the PCI-specific part of it is located in | 
 |    drivers/pci/pci-acpi.c. | 
 |  | 
 |  | 
 | 5. Example Linux ACPI Device Tree | 
 |  | 
 |    The sysfs hierarchy of struct acpi_device objects corresponding to the | 
 |    example ACPI namespace illustrated in Figure 2 with the addition of | 
 |    fixed PWR_BUTTON/SLP_BUTTON devices is shown below. | 
 |  | 
 |    +--------------+---+-----------------+ | 
 |    | LNXSYSTEM:00 | \ | acpi:LNXSYSTEM: | | 
 |    +--------------+---+-----------------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +-------------+-----+----------------+ | 
 |      +-| LNXPWRBN:00 | N/A | acpi:LNXPWRBN: | | 
 |      | +-------------+-----+----------------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +-------------+-----+----------------+ | 
 |      +-| LNXSLPBN:00 | N/A | acpi:LNXSLPBN: | | 
 |      | +-------------+-----+----------------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +-----------+------------+--------------+ | 
 |      +-| LNXCPU:00 | \_PR_.CPU0 | acpi:LNXCPU: | | 
 |      | +-----------+------------+--------------+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +-------------+-------+----------------+ | 
 |      +-| LNXSYBUS:00 | \_SB_ | acpi:LNXSYBUS: | | 
 |      | +-------------+-------+----------------+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +- - - - - - - +- - - - - - +- - - - - - - -+ | 
 |      |   +-| PNP0C0D:00 | \_SB_.LID0 | acpi:PNP0C0D: | | 
 |      |   | +- - - - - - - +- - - - - - +- - - - - - - -+ | 
 |      |   | | 
 |      |   | +------------+------------+-----------------------+ | 
 |      |   +-| PNP0A08:00 | \_SB_.PCI0 | acpi:PNP0A08:PNP0A03: | | 
 |      |     +------------+------------+-----------------------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +-----------+-----------------+-----+ | 
 |      |       +-| device:00 | \_SB_.PCI0.RP03 | N/A | | 
 |      |       | +-----------+-----------------+-----+ | 
 |      |       |   | | 
 |      |       |   | +-------------+----------------------+----------------+ | 
 |      |       |   +-| LNXPOWER:00 | \_SB_.PCI0.RP03.PXP3 | acpi:LNXPOWER: | | 
 |      |       |     +-------------+----------------------+----------------+ | 
 |      |       | | 
 |      |       | +-------------+-----------------+----------------+ | 
 |      |       +-| LNXVIDEO:00 | \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0 | acpi:LNXVIDEO: | | 
 |      |         +-------------+-----------------+----------------+ | 
 |      |           | | 
 |      |           | +-----------+-----------------+-----+ | 
 |      |           +-| device:01 | \_SB_.PCI0.DD01 | N/A | | 
 |      |             +-----------+-----------------+-----+ | 
 |      | | 
 |      | +-------------+-------+----------------+ | 
 |      +-| LNXSYBUS:01 | \_TZ_ | acpi:LNXSYBUS: | | 
 |        +-------------+-------+----------------+ | 
 |          | | 
 |          | +-------------+------------+----------------+ | 
 |          +-| LNXPOWER:0a | \_TZ_.FN00 | acpi:LNXPOWER: | | 
 |          | +-------------+------------+----------------+ | 
 |          | | 
 |          | +------------+------------+---------------+ | 
 |          +-| PNP0C0B:00 | \_TZ_.FAN0 | acpi:PNP0C0B: | | 
 |          | +------------+------------+---------------+ | 
 |          | | 
 |          | +-------------+------------+----------------+ | 
 |          +-| LNXTHERM:00 | \_TZ_.TZ00 | acpi:LNXTHERM: | | 
 |            +-------------+------------+----------------+ | 
 |  | 
 |                   Figure 3. Example Linux ACPI Device Tree | 
 |  | 
 |    NOTE: Each node is represented as "object/path/modalias", where: | 
 |          1. 'object' is the name of the object's directory in sysfs. | 
 |          2. 'path' is the ACPI namespace path of the corresponding | 
 |             ACPI namespace object, as returned by the object's 'path' | 
 |             sysfs attribute. | 
 |          3. 'modalias' is the value of the object's 'modalias' sysfs | 
 |             attribute (as described earlier in this document). | 
 |    NOTE: N/A indicates the device object does not have the 'path' or the | 
 |          'modalias' attribute. |