Back in August 2017, Bootlin contributed to the Linux kernel a patch series adding support for the new MIPI I3C bus, a bus that aims at replacing busses like I2C and SPI, by offering better performance, lower power consumption, and new features like discovery, in-band interrupts and hot join.
At the time of our submission, the I3C specification was closed, but a few days ago, the MIPI Alliance announced that the I3C specification was now publicly available. This is of course very good news as it will allow a much easier and wider adoption of I3C, and it was a somewhat unexpected move since the MIPI Alliance had traditionally kept its specifications only for its members. Hopefully the I3C experience will encourage the MIPI Alliance to follow the same direction for existing or future protocols.
With this announcement from the MIPI Alliance, it was time for us to submit an updated version of our I3C support for the Linux kernel, which Bootlin engineer Boris Brezillon did on Thursday: [PATCH v2 0/7] Add the I3C subsystem. Compared to the previous version submitted in August, this new version has interesting improvements:
- A generic infrastructure to support IBIs (in-band interrupts) was added
- Helpers to support hot-join were added to the core I3C subsystem
- The Cadence I3C controller driver was improved to support IBIs and hot-join
- And of course, many of the comments received on the first iteration have been addressed
With the specification now public, we hope to receive useful comments and feedback from the Linux kernel community to improve, and hopefully in the near future, merge the support for the MIPI I3C bus.
