1Multi-Function Devices (MFD)
2
3These devices comprise a nexus for heterogeneous hardware blocks containing
4more than one non-unique yet varying hardware functionality.
5
6A typical MFD can be:
7
8- A mixed signal ASIC on an external bus, sometimes a PMIC (Power Management
9  Integrated Circuit) that is manufactured in a lower technology node (rough
10  silicon) that handles analog drivers for things like audio amplifiers, LED
11  drivers, level shifters, PHY (physical interfaces to things like USB or
12  ethernet), regulators etc.
13
14- A range of memory registers containing "miscellaneous system registers" also
15  known as a system controller "syscon" or any other memory range containing a
16  mix of unrelated hardware devices.
17
18Optional properties:
19
20- compatible : "simple-mfd" - this signifies that the operating system should
21  consider all subnodes of the MFD device as separate devices akin to how
22  "simple-bus" inidicates when to see subnodes as children for a simple
23  memory-mapped bus. For more complex devices, when the nexus driver has to
24  probe registers to figure out what child devices exist etc, this should not
25  be used. In the latter case the child devices will be determined by the
26  operating system.
27
28Example:
29
30foo@1000 {
31	compatible = "syscon", "simple-mfd";
32	reg = <0x01000 0x1000>;
33
34	led@08.0 {
35		compatible = "register-bit-led";
36		offset = <0x08>;
37		mask = <0x01>;
38		label = "myled";
39		default-state = "on";
40	};
41};
42