Re: [PATCH v7 1/4] dt-bindings: mfd: Add sony,cronos-smc

[Timothy Pearson <tpearson@raptorengineering.com>]

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Conor Dooley" <conor@kernel.org>
> To: "Lee Jones" <lee@kernel.org>
> Cc: "robh" <robh@kernel.org>, "Raptor Engineering Development Team" <support@raptorengineering.com>, "devicetree"
> <devicetree@vger.kernel.org>, "linux-kernel" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, "Conor Dooley" <conor+dt@kernel.org>,
> "Krzysztof Kozlowski" <krzysztof.kozlowski+dt@linaro.org>, "Georgy Yakovlev" <Georgy.Yakovlev@sony.com>, "Shawn
> Anastasio" <sanastasio@raptorengineering.com>, "Timothy Pearson" <tpearson@raptorengineering.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 6, 2026 10:49:56 AM
> Subject: Re: [PATCH v7 1/4] dt-bindings: mfd: Add sony,cronos-smc

> On Fri, Mar 06, 2026 at 08:31:01AM +0000, Lee Jones wrote:
>> On Mon, 09 Feb 2026, Rob Herring wrote:
>> 
>> > On Thu, Jan 29, 2026 at 01:20:44PM -0600, Raptor Engineering Development Team
>> > wrote:
>> > > From: Shawn Anastasio <sanastasio@raptorengineering.com>
>> > > 
>> > > The Sony Cronos Platform Controller is a multi-purpose platform controller
>> > > that provides both a watchdog timer and an LED controller for the Sony
>> > > Interactive Entertainment Cronos x86 server platform. As both functions
>> > > are provided by the same CPLD, a multi-function device is exposed as the
>> > > parent of both functions.
>> > 
>> > Why do we have DT bindings for a x86 server platform?
>> 
>> This looks like an ARM device that connects to an x86 platform.
> 
> I dunno. The text talks about "this" being a cpld, so at best it would
> have to be connected to an arm SoC that's on the x86 platform's board,
> acting as a BMC or something similar.
> Unless by "this" you don't mean the device in the binding, but rather
> the platform that the device in the binding is connected to.
> 
> I've kept this in my mailbox for the last month, because I was wondering
> the same thing as Rob, and there's been no engagement from the submitter
> at all. I don't think that that should be rewarded by trying to give the
> benefit of the doubt.

Apologies for the lack of response, I hadn't seen the initial Email.

As suspected, this patch set is required to enable the ARM-based BMC SoC on the custom x86 server platform.  The peripherals in question are attached directly to the BMC, hence the need to have DT bindings for their drivers.  The BMC runs the OpenBMC firmware stack, which does not accept downstream patches to the Linux kernel and thus the Linux kernel itself ends up as a gate for new BMC platform enablement.

Thank you!