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  • Vernon Mauery's avatar
    IBM Real-Time "SMI Free" mode driver -v7 · 35f0ce03
    Vernon Mauery authored
    
    
    After a period of RFC for this driver, I think it is ready
    for inclusion in the platform-driver-x86 tree, hopefully to
    be staged in the next merge window into Linus's tree.
    
    --Vernon
    
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    IBM Real-Time "SMI Free" mode driver
    
    This driver supports the Real-Time Linux (RTL) BIOS feature.
    The RTL feature allows non-fatal System Management Interrupts
    (SMIs) to be disabled on supported IBM platforms and is
    intended to be coupled with a user-space daemon to monitor
    the hardware in a way that can be prioritized and scheduled
    to better suit the requirements for the system.
    
    The Device is presented as a special "_RTL_" table to the OS
    in the Extended BIOS Data Area.  There is a simple protocol
    for entering and exiting the mode at runtime.  This driver
    creates a simple sysfs interface to allow a simple entry and
    exit from RTL mode in the UFI/BIOS.
    
    Since the driver is specific to IBM SystemX hardware (x86-
    based servers) it only builds on x86 builds.  To reduce the
    risk of loading on the wrong hardware, the module uses DMI
    information and checks a list of servers that are known to
    work.
    
    Signed-off-by: default avatarVernon Mauery <vernux@us.ibm.com>
    Signed-off-by: default avatarMatthew Garrett <mjg@redhat.com>
    35f0ce03