This branch will be used to develop the Configuration Manager, which is the platform specific component of the Dynamic Tables Framework. Dynamic Tables Framework ------------------------ To reduce the amount of effort required in porting firmware to new platforms, we propose this "Dynamic Tables" framework. The aim is to provide an example implementation capable of generating the firmware tables from an external source. This is potentially a management node, either local or remote, or, where suitable, a file that might be generated from the system construction. This initial "proof of concept" release does not fully implement that - the configuration is held in local UEFI modules. Branch Owners ------------- Evan Lloyd \ Sami Mujawar Feature Summary --------------- The dynamic tables framework is designed to generate standardised firmware tables that describe the hardware information at run-time. A goal of standardised firmware is to have a common firmware for a platform capable of booting both Windows and Linux operating systems. Traditionally the firmware tables are handcrafted using ACPI Source Language (ASL), Table Definition Language (TDL) and C-code. This approach can be error prone and involves time consuming debugging. In addition, it may be desirable to configure platform hardware at runtime such as: configuring the number of cores available for use by the OS, or turning SoC features ON or OFF. The dynamic tables framework simplifies this by providing a set of standard table generators, that are implemented as libraries. These generators query a platform specific component, the 'Configuration Manager', to collate the information required for generating the tables at run-time. The framework also provides the ability to implement custom/OEM generators; thereby facilitating support for custom tables. The custom generators can also utilize the existing standard generators and override any functionality if needed. The framework currently implements a set of standard ACPI table generators for ARM architecture, that can generate Server Base Boot Requirement (SBBR) compliant tables. Although, the set of standard generators implement the functionality required for ARM architecture; the framework is extensible, and support for other architectures can be added easily. The framework currently supports the following table generators for ARM: * DBG2 - Debug Port Table 2 * DSDT - Differentiated system description table. This is essentially a RAW table generator. * FADT - Fixed ACPI Description Table * GTDT - Generic Timer Description Table * IORT - IO Remapping Table * MADT - Multiple APIC Description Table * MCFG - PCI Express memory mapped configuration space base address Description Table * SPCR - Serial Port Console Redirection Table * SSDT - Secondary System Description Table. This is essentially a RAW table generator. Roadmap ------- The current implementation of the Configuration Manager populates the platform information statically as a C structure. Further enhancements to introduce runtime loading of platform information from a platform information file is planned. Also support for generating SMBIOS tables is planned and will be added subsequently. Related Modules --------------- ### edk2-staging The *dynamictables* branch in the **edk2-staging** repository contains the Dynamic Tables Framework. ### ACPICA iASL compiler The RAW table generator, used to process the DSDT/SSDT files depends on the iASL compiler to convert the DSDT/SSDT ASL files to a C array containing the hex AML code. The current implementation of the iASL compiler does not support generation of a C header file suitable for including from a C source file. Related Links -------------- Supported Platforms ------------------- 1. Juno 2. FVP Models Build Instructions ------------------ 1. Set path for the iASL compiler with support for generating a C header file as output. 2. Set PACKAGES_PATH to point to the locations of the following repositories: Example: > set PACKAGES_PATH=%CD%\edk2;%CD%\edk2-platforms;%CD%\edk2-non-osi or > export PACKAGES_PATH=$PWD/edk2:$PWD/edk2-platforms:$PWD/edk2-non-osi 3. To enable Dynamic tables framework the *'DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK'* option must be defined. This can be passed as a command line parameter to the edk2 build system. Example: >build -a AARCH64 -p Platform\ARM\JunoPkg\ArmJuno.dsc -t GCC5 **-D DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK** or >build -a AARCH64 -p Platform\ARM\VExpressPkg\ArmVExpress-FVP-AArch64.dsc -t GCC5 **-D DYNAMIC_TABLES_FRAMEWORK** Prerequisites ------------- ACPICA iASL compiler with support for generating a C header file. A patch ***'Modify hex AML C header file generation'***, to enable this support has been submitted to the ACPICA source repository. Documentation ------------- A description document is in preparation, and should be available in the near future. Miscellaneous -------------