xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/attimer.4 (revision f5f47d5068fb97df18eb114a66ae8ef51a0b3c8c)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2010 Alexander Motin <mav@FreeBSD.org>
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd September 14, 2010
28.Dt ATTIMER 4
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm attimer
32.Nd i8254 Programmable Interval Timer (AT Timer) driver
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34This driver is a mandatory part of x86 kernels.
35.Pp
36The following tunables are settable from the
37.Xr loader 8 :
38.Bl -ohang
39.It Va hint.attimer. Ns Ar X Ns Va .clock
40controls event timers functionality support. Setting to 0, disables it.
41Default value is 1.
42.It Va hint.attimer. Ns Ar X Ns Va .timecounter
43controls time counter functionality support. Setting to 0, disables it.
44Default value is 1.
45.It Va hw.i8254.freq
46allows to override default counter frequency.
47The same value is also available in run-time via
48.Va machdep.i8254_freq
49sysctl.
50.El
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52This driver uses i8254 Programmable Interval Timer (AT Timer) hardware
53to supply kernel with one time counter and one event timer, and generate
54sound tones for system speaker.
55This hardware includes three channels.
56Each channel includes 16bit counter, counting down with known,
57platform-dependent frequency.
58Counters can operate in several different modes, including periodic and
59one-shot.
60Output of each channel has platform-defined wiring: one channel is wired
61to the interrupt controller and may be used as event timer, one channel is
62wired to speaker and used to generate sound tones, and one timer is reserved
63for platform purposes.
64.Pp
65Driver uses single hardware channel to provide both time counter and event
66timer functionality.
67To make it possible, respective counter must be running in periodic more.
68As result, one-shot event timer mode supported only when time counter
69functionality is disabled.
70.Pp
71Event timer provided by the driver is irrelevant to CPU power states.
72.Sh SEE ALSO
73.Xr apic 4 ,
74.Xr atrtc 4 ,
75.Xr eventtimers 4 ,
76.Xr hpet 4 ,
77.Xr timecounters 4
78