CrOS EC (Embedded Controller)

EC Implementation of USB-C Power Delivery and Alternate Modes

USB-C is intended to be a flexible connector supporting multiple data rates, protocols, and power in either direction. For one connector to support varying states of power delivery, the system and what it is connected to must decide who will act as the source (drives power) and sink (consumes power). Additionally, they need to decide the correct voltage and current for the source to drive by taking into account not only the source‘s and sink’s capabilities, but also what the cable can support. Resistance of pull-up and pull-down resistors on the configuration channel (CC) ports of the USB-C connector are used to negotiate who is source and who is sink when a new USB-C connection is established. This allows for setting power characteristics to default USB2 (500mA) default USB3 (900mA) 1.5A and 3.0A at 5V. Additional power requirements using USB-PD must then be negotiated by the source and sink over the CC pins of the USB-C connectors. Beyond power contract negotiations, USB PD messages can be used to enable alternate modes (Example: DisplayPort) and send a class of messages called Structured Vendor Defined Message (SVDMs), which are not related to power delivery. The additional flexiblity and functionality in USB-C requires support from the OS.

From the system, USB PD requires a complex state machine as USB PD can operate in many different modes. This includes but isn't limited to:

  • Negotiated power contracts. Either side of the cable can source or sink power up to 100W (if supported by device).
  • Reversed cable mode. This requires a mux to switch the signals before getting to the SoC (or AP).
  • Debug accessory mode, e.g. Case Closed Debugging (CCD)
  • Multiple uses for the 4 differential pair signals including
    • USB SuperSpeed mode (up to 4 lanes for USB data)
    • DisplayPort Alternate Mode (up to 4 lanes for DisplayPort data)
    • Dock Mode (2 lanes for USB data, and 2 lanes for DisplayPort)
    • Thunderbolt 3 (TBT3) Alternate Mode (4 lanes for TBT3 data)
    • Audio Accessory mode. (1 lane is used for L and R analog audio signal)
    • USB4 (4 lanes for USB data, but using different signaling than USB 3.2)

For a more complete list of USB-C Power Delivery features, see the USB-C PD spec.

This document covers various touch points to consider for USB-C PD and Alternate Modes in the EC codebase.

Glossary

  • PD

    • Power Delivery. Protocol over USB-C connector that allows up to 100W of power. Not supported on USB-A or USB-B connectors. A good overview of USB PD is found in the Introduction to USB Power Delivery application note.

  • TCPC

    • Type-C Port Controller. Typically a separate IC connected through I2C, sometimes embedded within the EC as a hardware sub module. The TCPC interprets physical layer signals on CC lines and Vbus, and sends that information to the TCPM to decide what action to take. In older designs, there was a separate EC (running this codebase) that acted as the TCPC that communicated with the main EC (also running this codebase), which acted as the TCPM. More info in the official TCPC spec.

  • TCPM

    • Type-C Port Manager. Manages the state of the USB-C connection. Makes decisions about what state to transition to. This is the code running on the EC itself.

  • PE

    • Policy Engine. According to the TypeC spec, the policy engine is the state machine that decides how the USB-C connection progresses through different states and which USB-C PD features are available, such as Try.SRC

  • TC

    • Type-C physical layer.

  • PPC

    • Power Path Controller. An optional, separate IC that isolates various USB-C signals from each other and the rest of the board. This IC should prevent shorts and over current/voltage scenarios for Vbus. Some PPCs will protect signals other than Vbus as well.

  • SSMUX

    • SuperSpeed Mux. This is typically the same IC as the TCPC; it enables the mirrored orientation of the USB-C cable to go to the correct pins on SoC. Also, allows the SuperSpeed signal to be used for different purposes, such as USB data or DisplayPort.

  • SVDM

    • Structured Vendor Defined Messages are a class of USB PD messages to enable non-power related communication between port partners. SVDMs are used to negotiate and set the display port mode on a USB-C connection.

  • DRP

    • Dual Role Power Port. A USB-C port that can act as either a power Source or power Sink.

  • UFP

    • Upstream Facing Port. The USB data role that is typical for a peripheral (e.g. HID keyboard).

  • DFP

    • Downstream Facing Port. The USB Data role that is typical for a host machine (e.g. device running ChromeOS).

  • E-Mark

    • Electronically marked cable. A USB-C cable that contains an embedded chip in the cable, used to identify the capabilities of the cable.

  • VCONN

    • Connector Voltage. A dedicated power supply rail for E-Mark cables and other accessory functions (such as display dongles, and docks). VCONN re-uses one of the CC1/CC2 signals to provide 5 volt, 1 watt, of power.

  • VDM

    • Vendor-Defined Message: A type of PD data message whose contents can be specific to a particular vendor or subordinate specification. The TCPM primarily uses VDMs to discover support for alternate modes and enter them.

Different PD stacks

Right now platform/ec has two different implementations of USB-C PD stack.

  1. The older implementation is mainly contained within usb_pd_protocol.c and usb_pd_policy.c
  2. The newer implementation is found under common/usbc and is broken up into multiple different files and state machines
    • Device policy manager files, usb_pd_dpm.c, usb_mode.c, *_alt_mode.c.
    • Policy engine state machine files, usb_pe_*_sm.c.
    • Protocol engine state machine file, usb_prl_*_sm.c.
    • State machine framework file, usb_sm.c.
    • Type-C physical layer state machine files, usb_tc_*_sm.c.
    • USB-C PD Task file, usbc_task.c.

The older implementation supports firmware for device types other than Chromebooks. For example, the older stack supports the Zinger, which is the USB-C charging device that shipped with Samus, the Google Chromebook Pixel 2. The Zinger implements the charger only side of the USB PD protocol.

To use the newer USB-C PD stack implementation, see TCPMv2 Overview.

Implementation Considerations

In both older and newer implementations, the following details apply:

  • For each USB-C port, there must be two tasks: PD_C# and PD_INT_C#, where # is the port number starting from 0.
    • The PD_C# task runs the state machine (old or new) for the port and communicates with the TCPC, MUX, and PPC. This task needs a large task stack.
    • The PD_INT_C# tasks run at a higher priority than the state machine task, and its sole job is to receive interrupts from the TCPC as quickly as possible then send appropriate messages to other tasks (including PD_C#). This task shouldn't need much stack space, but the i2c recovery code requires a decent amount of stack space so it ends up needing a fair amount too.
  • Saving PD state between EC jumps
    • PD communication is disabled in locked RO images (normal state for customer devices). When the jump from RO to RW happens relatively quickly (e.g. there is not a long memory training step), then there aren't many problems when RW takes over and negotiates higher PD contracts.
    • To support factory use cases that don't have a battery (and are therefore unlocked), PD communication is enabled in unlocked RO. This allows systems without software sync enabled to get a higher power contract than 15W in RO.
    • We save and restore PD state between RO -> RW and RW -> RO jump to allow us to maintain a higher negotiated power through the full jump and re-initialization process. For example, for each port we save the power role, data role, and Vconn sourcing state in battery-backed or non-volatile RAM. This allows the firmware image that is initializing to restore an existing SNK contract (Chromebook as SNK) without cutting power. We don't cut the power from the external supplier because we issue a SoftReset (leaves Vbus intact) instead of a HardReset (drops Vbus) in this contract resume case.
    • Both use cases where we actually are able to restore the PD contract require an unlocked RO (e.g. factory) otherwise RO cannot communicate via PD and will drop the higher PD contract (by applying Rp/Rp on the CC lines temporarily)
      • The RO->RW use case is for an unlocked (e.g. factory) device that negotiated power and we want to keep that contract after we jump to RW in the normal software sync boot process. This is especially useful when there is no battery and Vbus is our only power source.
      • The RW->RO use case happens when we are performing auxiliary FW upgrades during software sync and BIOS instructs the EC to jump back to RO. We'll also try to maintain contracts over an EC reset when unlocked.

Configuration

There are many CONFIG_* options and driver structs that are needed in the board.h and board.c implementation.

TCPC Config

The tcpc_config array of tcpc_config_t structs defined in board.c (or baseboard equivalent) should be defined for every board. The index in the tcpc_config array corresponds to the USB-C port number. This struct should point to the specific TCPC driver that corresponds to the TCPC that is being used on that port. The i2c port and address for the TCPC are also specified here.

SSMUX Config

The usb_muxes array of usb_mux structs defined in board.c (or baseboard equivalent) should be defined for every board. Normally the standard tcpci_tcpm_usb_mux_driver driver works, especially if TCPC and MUX are the same IC.

If the signal strength for the high-speed data lines needs to be tuned for a specific hardware layout, the board_init field on the usb_mux is called every time the mux is woken up from a low power state and should be used for setting custom board tuning parameters.

PPC Config

Some boards have an additional IC that sits between the physical USB-C connector and the rest of the board. The PPC IC gates whether the Vbus line is an input or output signal, based on i2c settings or gpio pins. A PPC also typically provides over voltage and over current protection on multiple USB-C pins.

The ppc_chips array of ppc_config_t structs defined in board.c (or baseboard equivalent) sets the appropriate driver and i2c port/address for the PPC IC.

Useful Config Options

Many USB-C policies and features are gated by various CONFIG_* options that should be defined in board.h (or baseboard equivalent).

Most USB-C options will start with CONFIG_USB_PD_ or CONFIG_USBC_. For their full descriptions see config.h

Interactions with other tasks

TODO(https://crbug.com/974302): mention USB_CHG_P# and CHARGER

Upgrading FW for TCPCs

TODO(https://crbug.com/974302): Mention how this works even though it is in depthcharge. Probing now. Need new driver in depthcharge