xref: /openbmc/linux/Documentation/usb/ohci.rst (revision 3cf3cdea)
1====
2OHCI
3====
4
523-Aug-2002
6
7The "ohci-hcd" driver is a USB Host Controller Driver (HCD) that is derived
8from the "usb-ohci" driver from the 2.4 kernel series.  The "usb-ohci" code
9was written primarily by Roman Weissgaerber <weissg@vienna.at> but with
10contributions from many others (read its copyright/licencing header).
11
12It supports the "Open Host Controller Interface" (OHCI), which standardizes
13hardware register protocols used to talk to USB 1.1 host controllers.  As
14compared to the earlier "Universal Host Controller Interface" (UHCI) from
15Intel, it pushes more intelligence into the hardware.  USB 1.1 controllers
16from vendors other than Intel and VIA generally use OHCI.
17
18Changes since the 2.4 kernel include
19
20	- improved robustness; bugfixes; and less overhead
21	- supports the updated and simplified usbcore APIs
22	- interrupt transfers can be larger, and can be queued
23	- less code, by using the upper level "hcd" framework
24	- supports some non-PCI implementations of OHCI
25	- ... more
26
27The "ohci-hcd" driver handles all USB 1.1 transfer types.  Transfers of all
28types can be queued.  That was also true in "usb-ohci", except for interrupt
29transfers.  Previously, using periods of one frame would risk data loss due
30to overhead in IRQ processing.  When interrupt transfers are queued, those
31risks can be minimized by making sure the hardware always has transfers to
32work on while the OS is getting around to the relevant IRQ processing.
33
34- David Brownell
35  <dbrownell@users.sourceforge.net>
36