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HPET(4) 		     Kernel Interfaces Manual			 HPET(4)

NAME
     hpet -- High Precision Event Timer driver

SYNOPSIS
     To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your
     kernel configuration file:

	   device acpi

     The following tunables are settable from the loader(8):

     hint.hpet.X.allowed_irqs
     is a 32bit mask.  Each set bit allows driver to use respective IRQ, if BIOS
     also set respective capability bit in comparator's configuration register.
     Default value is 0xffff0000, except some known broken hardware.

     hint.hpet.X.clock
     controls event timers functionality support.  Setting to 0, disables it.
     Default value is 1.

     hint.hpet.X.legacy_route
     controls "LegacyReplacement Route" mode.  If enabled, HPET will steal IRQ0
     of i8254 timer and IRQ8 of RTC.  Before using it, make sure that respective
     drivers are not using interrupts, by setting also:

     hint.attimer.0.clock=0
     hint.atrtc.0.clock=0
     Default value is 0.

     hint.hpet.X.per_cpu
     controls how much per-CPU event timers should driver attempt to register.
     This functionality requires every comparator in a group to have own
     unshared IRQ, so it depends on hardware capabilities and interrupts
     configuration.  Default value is 1.

DESCRIPTION
     This  driver uses High Precision Event Timer hardware (part of the chipset,
     usually enumerated via ACPI) to supply kernel with  one  time  counter  and
     several  (usually from 3 to 8) event timers.  This hardware includes single
     main counter with known increment frequency (10MHz or  more),  and  several
     programmable  comparators (optionally with automatic reload feature).  When
     value of the main counter matches current value of any  comparator,  inter-
     rupt  can	be generated.  Depending on hardware capabilities and configura-
     tion, interrupt can be delivered as regular I/O APIC interrupt (ISA or PCI)
     in range from 0 to 31, or as Front Side Bus interrupt, alike to PCI MSI in-
     terrupts, or in so called "LegacyReplacement Route" HPET can steal IRQ0  of
     i8254  and  IRQ8  of the RTC.  Interrupt can be either edge- or level-trig-
     gered.  In last case they could be safely shared  with  PCI  IRQs.   Driver
     prefers  to  use  FSB interrupts, if supported, to avoid sharing.	If it is
     not possible, it uses single sharable IRQ	from  PCI  range.   Other  modes
     (LegacyReplacement  and  ISA IRQs) require special care to setup, but could
     be configured manually via device hints.

     Event timers provided by the driver support both one-shot an periodic modes
     and irrelevant to CPU power states.

     Depending on hardware capabilities and  configuration,  driver  can  expose
     each  comparator  as separate event timer or group them into one or several
     per-CPU event timers.  In last case interrupt of every of those comparators
     within group is bound to specific CPU core.  This	is  possible  only  when
     each of these comparators has own unsharable IRQ.

SEE ALSO
     acpi(4), apic(4), atrtc(4), attimer(4), eventtimers(4), timecounters(4)

HISTORY
     The  hpet	driver	first appeared in FreeBSD 6.3.	Support for event timers
     was added in FreeBSD 9.0.

FreeBSD ports 15.1	       September 14, 2010			 HPET(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=hpet&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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