kernel: Sync ACPICA with Intel's version 20140627.

[dragonfly.git] / sys / contrib / dev / acpica / changes.txt

----------------------------------------
27 June 2014. Summary of changes for version 20140627:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Formatted Output: Implemented local versions of standard formatted output 
utilities such as printf, etc. Over time, it has been discovered that 
there are in fact many portability issues with printf, and the addition 
of this feature will fix/prevent these issues once and for all. Some 
known issues are summarized below:

1) Output of 64-bit values is not portable. For example, UINT64 is %ull 
for the Linux kernel and is %uI64 for some MSVC versions.
2) Invoking printf consistently in a manner that is portable across both 
32-bit and 64-bit platforms is difficult at best in many situations.
3) The output format for pointers varies from system to system (leading 
zeros especially), and leads to inconsistent output from ACPICA across 
platforms.
4) Certain platform-specific printf formats may conflict with ACPICA use.
5) If there is no local C library available, ACPICA now has local support 
for printf.

-- To address these printf issues in a complete manner, ACPICA now 
directly implements a small subset of printf format specifiers, only 
those that it requires. Adds a new file, utilities/utprint.c. Lv Zheng.

Implemented support for ACPICA generation within the EFI environment. 
Initially, the AcpiDump utility is supported in the UEFI shell 
environment. Lv Zheng.

Added a new external interface, AcpiLogError, to improve ACPICA 
portability. This allows the host to redirect error messages from the 
ACPICA utilities. Lv Zheng.

Added and deployed new OSL file I/O interfaces to improve ACPICA 
portability:
  AcpiOsOpenFile
  AcpiOsCloseFile
  AcpiOsReadFile
  AcpiOsWriteFile
  AcpiOsGetFileOffset
  AcpiOsSetFileOffset
There are C library implementations of these functions in the new file 
service_layers/oslibcfs.c -- however, the functions can be implemented by 
the local host in any way necessary. Lv Zheng.

Implemented a mechanism to disable/enable ACPI table checksum validation 
at runtime. This can be useful when loading tables very early during OS 
initialization when it may not be possible to map the entire table in 
order to compute the checksum. Lv Zheng.

Fixed a buffer allocation issue for the Generic Serial Bus support. 
Originally, a fixed buffer length was used. This change allows for 
variable-length buffers based upon the protocol indicated by the field 
access attributes. Reported by Lan Tianyu. Lv Zheng.

Fixed a problem where an object detached from a namespace node was not 
properly terminated/cleared and could cause a circular list problem if 
reattached. ACPICA BZ 1063. David Box.

Fixed a possible recursive lock acquisition in hwregs.c. Rakib Mullick.

Fixed a possible memory leak in an error return path within the function 
AcpiUtCopyIobjectToIobject. ACPICA BZ 1087. Colin Ian King.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  98.7K Code, 27.2K Data, 125.9K Total
    Debug Version:     191.7K Code, 79.6K Data, 271.3K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.8K Code, 27.2K Data, 124.0K Total
    Debug Version:     189.5K Code, 79.7K Data, 269.2K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Add dump of ASCII equivalent text within a comment at the 
end of each line of the output for the Buffer() ASL operator.

AcpiDump: Miscellaneous changes:
  Fixed repetitive table dump in -n mode.
  For older EFI platforms, use the ACPI 1.0 GUID during RSDP search if 
the ACPI 2.0 GUID fails.

iASL: Fixed a problem where the compiler could fault if incorrectly given 
an acpidump output file as input. ACPICA BZ 1088. David Box.

AcpiExec/AcpiNames: Fixed a problem where these utilities could fault if 
they are invoked without any arguments.

Debugger: Fixed a possible memory leak in an error return path. ACPICA BZ 
1086. Colin Ian King.

Disassembler: Cleaned up a block of code that extracts a parent Op 
object. Added a comment that explains that the parent is guaranteed to be 
valid in this case. ACPICA BZ 1069.

----------------------------------------
24 April 2014. Summary of changes for version 20140424:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Implemented support to skip/ignore NULL address entries in the RSDT/XSDT. 
Some of these tables are known to contain a trailing NULL entry. Lv 
Zheng.

Removed an extraneous error message for the case where there are a large 
number of system GPEs (> 124). This was the "32-bit FADT register is too 
long to convert to GAS struct" message, which is irrelevant for GPEs 
since the GPEx_BLK_LEN fields of the FADT are always used instead of the 
(limited capacity) GAS bit length. Also, several changes to ensure proper 
support for GPE numbers > 255, where some "GPE number" fields were 8-bits 
internally.

Implemented and deployed additional configuration support for the public 
ACPICA external interfaces. Entire classes of interfaces can now be 
easily modified or configured out, replaced by stubbed inline functions 
by default. Lv Zheng.

Moved all public ACPICA runtime configuration globals to the public 
ACPICA external interface file for convenience. Also, removed some 
obsolete/unused globals. See the file acpixf.h. Lv Zheng.

Documentation: Added a new section to the ACPICA reference describing the 
maximum number of GPEs that can be supported by the FADT-defined GPEs in 
block zero and one. About 1200 total. See section 4.4.1 of the ACPICA 
reference.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.8K Code, 27.2K Data, 124.0K Total
    Debug Version:     189.5K Code, 79.7K Data, 269.2K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  97.0K Code, 27.2K Data, 124.2K Total
    Debug Version:     189.7K Code, 79.5K Data, 269.2K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL and disassembler: Add full support for the LPIT table (Low Power 
Idle Table). Includes support in the disassembler, data table compiler, 
and template generator.

AcpiDump utility:
1) Add option to force the use of the RSDT (over the XSDT).
2) Improve validation of the RSDP signature (use 8 chars instead of 4).

iASL: Add check for predefined packages that are too large.  For 
predefined names that contain subpackages, check if each subpackage is 
too large. (Check for too small already exists.)

Debugger: Updated the GPE command (which simulates a GPE by executing the 
GPE code paths in ACPICA). The GPE device is now optional, and defaults 
to the GPE 0/1 FADT-defined blocks.

Unix application OSL: Update line-editing support. Add additional error 
checking and take care not to reset terminal attributes on exit if they 
were never set. This should help guarantee that the terminal is always 
left in the previous state on program exit.

----------------------------------------
25 March 2014. Summary of changes for version 20140325:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Updated the auto-serialize feature for control methods. This feature 
automatically serializes all methods that create named objects in order 
to prevent runtime errors. The update adds support to ignore the 
currently executing AML SyncLevel when invoking such a method, in order 
to prevent disruption of any existing SyncLevel priorities that may exist 
in the AML code. Although the use of SyncLevels is relatively rare, this 
change fixes a regression where an AE_AML_MUTEX_ORDER exception can 
appear on some machines starting with the 20140214 release.

Added a new external interface to allow the host to install ACPI tables 
very early, before the namespace is even created. AcpiInstallTable gives 
the host additional flexibility for ACPI table management. Tables can be 
installed directly by the host as if they had originally appeared in the 
XSDT/RSDT. Installed tables can be SSDTs or other ACPI data tables 
(anything except the DSDT and FACS). Adds a new file, tbdata.c, along 
with additional internal restructuring and cleanup. See the ACPICA 
Reference for interface details. Lv Zheng.

Added validation of the checksum for all incoming dynamically loaded 
tables (via external interfaces or via AML Load/LoadTable operators). Lv 
Zheng.

Updated the use of the AcpiOsWaitEventsComplete interface during Notify 
and GPE handler removal. Restructured calls to eliminate possible race 
conditions. Lv Zheng.

Added a warning for the use/execution of the ASL/AML Unload (table) 
operator. This will help detect and identify machines that use this 
operator if and when it is ever used. This operator has never been seen 
in the field and the usage model and possible side-effects of the drastic 
runtime action of a full table removal are unknown.

Reverted the use of #pragma push/pop which was introduced in the 20140214 
release. It appears that push and pop are not implemented by enough 
compilers to make the use of this feature feasible for ACPICA at this 
time. However, these operators may be deployed in a future ACPICA 
release.

Added the missing EXPORT_SYMBOL macros for the install and remove SCI 
handler interfaces.

Source code generation:
1) Disabled the use of the "strchr" macro for the gcc-specific 
generation. For some versions of gcc, this macro can periodically expose 
a compiler bug which in turn causes compile-time error(s).
2) Added support for PPC64 compilation. Colin Ian King.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  97.0K Code, 27.2K Data, 124.2K Total
    Debug Version:     189.7K Code, 79.5K Data, 269.2K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.5K Code, 27.2K Data, 123.7K Total
    Debug Version:     188.6K Code, 79.0K Data, 267.6K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Added several new features to improve the readability of 
the resulting ASL code. Extra information is emitted within comment 
fields in the ASL code:
1) Known _HID/_CID values are decoded to descriptive text.
2) Standard values for the Notify() operator are decoded to descriptive 
text.
3) Target operands are expanded to full pathnames (in a comment) when 
possible.

Disassembler: Miscellaneous updates for extern() handling:
1) Abort compiler if file specified by -fe option does not exist.
2) Silence unnecessary warnings about argument count mismatches.
3) Update warning messages concerning unresolved method externals.
4) Emit "UnknownObj" keyword for externals whose type cannot be 
determined.

AcpiHelp utility:
1) Added the -a option to display both the ASL syntax and the AML 
encoding for an input ASL operator. This effectively displays all known 
information about an ASL operator with one AcpiHelp invocation.
2) Added substring match support (similar to a wildcard) for the -i 
(_HID/PNP IDs) option.

iASL/Disassembler: Since this tool does not yet support execution on big-
endian machines, added detection of endianness and an error message if 
execution is attempted on big-endian. Support for big-endian within iASL 
is a feature that is on the ACPICA to-be-done list.

AcpiBin utility:
1) Remove option to extract binary files from an acpidump; this function 
is made obsolete by the AcpiXtract utility.
2) General cleanup of open files and allocated buffers.

----------------------------------------
14 February 2014. Summary of changes for version 20140214:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Implemented a new mechanism to proactively prevent problems with ill-
behaved reentrant control methods that create named ACPI objects. This 
behavior is illegal as per the ACPI specification, but is nonetheless 
frequently seen in the field. Previously, this could lead to an 
AE_ALREADY_EXISTS exception if the method was actually entered by more 
than one thread. This new mechanism detects such methods at table load 
time and marks them "serialized" to prevent reentrancy. A new global 
option, AcpiGbl_AutoSerializeMethods, has been added to disable this 
feature if desired. This mechanism and global option obsoletes and 
supersedes the previous AcpiGbl_SerializeAllMethods option.

Added the "Windows 2013" string to the _OSI support. ACPICA will now 
respond TRUE to _OSI queries with this string. It is the stated policy of 
ACPICA to add new strings to the _OSI support as soon as possible after 
they are defined. See the full ACPICA _OSI policy which has been added to 
the utilities/utosi.c file.

Hardened/updated the _PRT return value auto-repair code:
1) Do not abort the repair on a single subpackage failure, continue to 
check all subpackages.
2) Add check for the minimum subpackage length (4).
3) Properly handle extraneous NULL package elements.

Added support to avoid the possibility of infinite loops when traversing 
object linked lists. Never allow an infinite loop, even in the face of 
corrupted object lists.

ACPICA headers: Deployed the use of #pragma pack(push) and #pragma 
pack(pop) directives to ensure that the ACPICA headers are independent of 
compiler settings or other host headers.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.5K Code, 27.2K Data, 123.7K Total
    Debug Version:     188.6K Code, 79.0K Data, 267.6K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.2K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.2K Total
    Debug Version:     187.5K Code, 78.3K Data, 265.8K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/Table-compiler: Fixed a problem with support for the SPMI table. The 
first reserved field was incorrectly forced to have a value of zero. This 
change correctly forces the field to have a value of one. ACPICA BZ 1081.

Debugger: Added missing support for the "Extra" and "Data" subobjects 
when displaying object data.

Debugger: Added support to display entire object linked lists when 
displaying object data.

iASL: Removed the obsolete -g option to obtain ACPI tables from the 
Windows registry. This feature has been superseded by the acpidump 
utility. 

----------------------------------------
14 January 2014. Summary of changes for version 20140114:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Updated all ACPICA copyrights and signons to 2014. Added the 2014 
copyright to all module headers and signons, including the standard Linux 
header. This affects virtually every file in the ACPICA core subsystem, 
iASL compiler, all ACPICA utilities, and the test suites.

Improved parameter validation for AcpiInstallGpeBlock. Added the 
following checks:
1) The incoming device handle refers to type ACPI_TYPE_DEVICE.
2) There is not already a GPE block attached to the device.
Likewise, with AcpiRemoveGpeBlock, ensure that the incoming object is a 
device.

Correctly support "references" in the ACPI_OBJECT. This change fixes the 
support to allow references (namespace nodes) to be passed as arguments 
to control methods via the evaluate object interface. This is probably 
most useful for testing purposes, however.

Improved support for 32/64 bit physical addresses in printf()-like 
output. This change improves the support for physical addresses in printf 
debug statements and other output on both 32-bit and 64-bit hosts. It 
consistently outputs the appropriate number of bytes for each host. The 
%p specifier is unsatisfactory since it does not emit uniform output on 
all hosts/clib implementations (on some, leading zeros are not supported, 
leading to difficult-to-read output).

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.2K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.2K Total
    Debug Version:     187.5K Code, 78.3K Data, 265.8K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.1K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.1K Total
    Debug Version:     185.6K Code, 77.3K Data, 262.9K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fix a possible fault when using the Connection() operator. Fixes a 
problem if the parent Field definition for the Connection operator refers 
to an operation region that does not exist. ACPICA BZ 1064.

AcpiExec: Load of local test tables is now optional. The utility has the 
capability to load some various tables to test features of ACPICA. 
However, there are enough of them that the output of the utility became 
confusing. With this change, only the required local tables are displayed 
(RSDP, XSDT, etc.) along with the actual tables loaded via the command 
line specification. This makes the default output simler and easier to 
understand. The -el command line option restores the original behavior 
for testing purposes.

AcpiExec: Added support for overlapping operation regions. This change 
expands the simulation of operation regions by supporting regions that 
overlap within the given address space. Supports SystemMemory and 
SystemIO. ASLTS test suite updated also. David Box. ACPICA BZ 1031.

AcpiExec: Added region handler support for PCI_Config and EC spaces. This 
allows AcpiExec to simulate these address spaces, similar to the current 
support for SystemMemory and SystemIO.

Debugger: Added new command to read/write/compare all namespace objects. 
The command "test objects" will exercise the entire namespace by writing 
new values to each data object, and ensuring that the write was 
successful. The original value is then restored and verified.

Debugger: Added the "test predefined" command. This change makes this 
test public and puts it under the new "test" command. The test executes 
each and every predefined name within the current namespace.

----------------------------------------
18 December 2013. Summary of changes for version 20131218:

Global note: The ACPI 5.0A specification was released this month. There 
are no changes needed for ACPICA since this release of ACPI is an 
errata/clarification release. The specification is available at 
acpi.info. 


1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Added validation of the XSDT root table if it is present. Some older 
platforms contain an XSDT that is ill-formed or otherwise invalid (such 
as containing some or all entries that are NULL pointers). This change 
adds a new function to validate the XSDT before actually using it. If the 
XSDT is found to be invalid, ACPICA will now automatically fall back to 
using the RSDT instead. Original implementation by Zhao Yakui. Ported to 
ACPICA and enhanced by Lv Zheng and Bob Moore.

Added a runtime option to ignore the XSDT and force the use of the RSDT. 
This change adds a runtime option that will force ACPICA to use the RSDT 
instead of the XSDT (AcpiGbl_DoNotUseXsdt). Although the ACPI spec 
requires that an XSDT be used instead of the RSDT, the XSDT has been 
found to be corrupt or ill-formed on some machines. Lv Zheng.

Added a runtime option to favor 32-bit FADT register addresses over the 
64-bit addresses. This change adds an option to favor 32-bit FADT 
addresses when there is a conflict between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions 
of the same register. The default behavior is to use the 64-bit version 
in accordance with the ACPI specification. This can now be overridden via 
the AcpiGbl_Use32BitFadtAddresses flag. ACPICA BZ 885. Lv Zheng.

During the change above, the internal "Convert FADT" and "Verify FADT" 
functions have been merged to simplify the code, making it easier to 
understand and maintain. ACPICA BZ 933.

Improve exception reporting and handling for GPE block installation. 
Return an actual status from AcpiEvGetGpeXruptBlock and don't clobber the 
status when exiting AcpiEvInstallGpeBlock. ACPICA BZ 1019.

Added helper macros to extract bus/segment numbers from the HEST table. 
This change adds two macros to extract the encoded bus and segment 
numbers from the HEST Bus field - ACPI_HEST_BUS and ACPI_HEST_SEGMENT. 
Betty Dall <betty.dall@hp.com>

Removed the unused ACPI_FREE_BUFFER macro. This macro is no longer used 
by ACPICA. It is not a public macro, so it should have no effect on 
existing OSV code. Lv Zheng.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.1K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.1K Total
    Debug Version:     185.6K Code, 77.3K Data, 262.9K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.9K Code, 27.0K Data, 122.9K Total
    Debug Version:     185.1K Code, 77.2K Data, 262.3K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Improved pathname support for emitted External() 
statements. This change adds full pathname support for external names 
that have been resolved internally by the inclusion of additional ACPI 
tables (via the iASL -e option). Without this change, the disassembler 
can emit multiple externals for the same object, or it become confused 
when the Scope() operator is used on an external object. Overall, greatly 
improves the ability to actually recompile the emitted ASL code when 
objects a referenced across multiple ACPI tables. Reported by Michael 
Tsirkin (mst@redhat.com).

Tests/ASLTS: Updated functional control suite to execute with no errors. 
David Box. Fixed several errors related to the testing of the interpreter 
slack mode. Lv Zheng.

iASL: Added support to detect names that are declared within a control 
method, but are unused (these are temporary names that are only valid 
during the time the method is executing). A remark is issued for these 
cases. ACPICA BZ 1022.

iASL: Added full support for the DBG2 table. Adds full disassembler, 
table compiler, and template generator support for the DBG2 table (Debug 
Port 2 table).

iASL: Added full support for the PCCT table, update the table definition. 
Updates the PCCT table definition in the actbl3.h header and adds table 
compiler and template generator support.

iASL: Added an option to emit only error messages (no warnings/remarks). 
The -ve option will enable only error messages, warnings and remarks are 
suppressed. This can simplify debugging when only the errors are 
important, such as when an ACPI table is disassembled and there are many 
warnings and remarks -- but only the actual errors are of real interest.

Example ACPICA code (source/tools/examples): Updated the example code so 
that it builds to an actual working program, not just example code. Added 
ACPI tables and execution of an example control method in the DSDT. Added 
makefile support for Unix generation.

----------------------------------------
15 November 2013. Summary of changes for version 20131115:

This release is available at https://acpica.org/downloads


1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Resource Manager: Fixed loop termination for the "get AML length" 
function. The loop previously had an error termination on a NULL resource 
pointer, which can never happen since the loop simply increments a valid 
resource pointer. This fix changes the loop to terminate with an error on 
an invalid end-of-buffer condition. The problem can be seen as an 
infinite loop by callers to AcpiSetCurrentResources with an invalid or 
corrupted resource descriptor, or a resource descriptor that is missing 
an END_TAG descriptor. Reported by Dan Carpenter 
<dan.carpenter@oracle.com>. Lv Zheng, Bob Moore.

Table unload and ACPICA termination: Delete all attached data objects 
during namespace node deletion. This fix updates namespace node deletion 
to delete the entire list of attached objects (attached via 
AcpiAttachObject) instead of just one of the attached items. ACPICA BZ 
1024. Tomasz Nowicki (tomasz.nowicki@linaro.org).

ACPICA termination: Added support to delete all objects attached to the 
root namespace node. This fix deletes any and all objects that have been 
attached to the root node via AcpiAttachData. Previously, none of these 
objects were deleted. Reported by Tomasz Nowicki. ACPICA BZ 1026.

Debug output: Do not emit the function nesting level for the in-kernel 
build. The nesting level is really only useful during a single-thread 
execution. Therefore, only enable this output for the AcpiExec utility. 
Also, only emit the thread ID when executing under AcpiExec (Context 
switches are still always detected and a message is emitted). ACPICA BZ 
972.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.9K Code, 27.0K Data, 122.9K Total
    Debug Version:     185.1K Code, 77.2K Data, 262.3K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.8K Code, 27.0K Data, 122.8K Total
    Debug Version:     185.2K Code, 77.2K Data, 262.4K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

AcpiExec/Unix-OSL: Use <termios.h> instead of <termio.h>. This is the 
correct portable POSIX header for terminal control functions.

Disassembler: Fixed control method invocation issues related to the use 
of the CondRefOf() operator. The problem is seen in the disassembly where 
control method invocations may not be disassembled properly if the 
control method name has been used previously as an argument to CondRefOf. 
The solution is to not attempt to emit an external declaration for the 
CondRefOf target (it is not necessary in the first place). This prevents 
disassembler object type confusion. ACPICA BZ 988.

Unix Makefiles: Added an option to disable compiler optimizations and the 
_FORTIFY_SOURCE flag. Some older compilers have problems compiling ACPICA 
with optimizations (reportedly, gcc 4.4 for example). This change adds a 
command line option for make (NOOPT) that disables all compiler 
optimizations and the _FORTIFY_SOURCE compiler flag. The default 
optimization is -O2 with the _FORTIFY_SOURCE flag specified. ACPICA BZ 
1034. Lv Zheng, Bob Moore.

Tests/ASLTS: Added options to specify individual test cases and modes. 
This allows testers running aslts.sh to optionally specify individual 
test modes and test cases. Also added an option to disable the forced 
generation of the ACPICA tools from source if desired. Lv Zheng.

----------------------------------------
27 September 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130927:

This release is available at https://acpica.org/downloads


1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed a problem with store operations to reference objects. This change 
fixes a problem where a Store operation to an ArgX object that contained 
a 
reference to a field object did not complete the automatic dereference 
and 
then write to the actual field object. Instead, the object type of the 
field object was inadvertently changed to match the type of the source 
operand. The new behavior will actually write to the field object (buffer 
field or field unit), thus matching the correct ACPI-defined behavior.

Implemented support to allow the host to redefine individual OSL 
prototypes. This change enables the host to redefine OSL prototypes found 
in the acpiosxf.h file. This allows the host to implement OSL interfaces 
with a macro or inlined function. Further, it allows the host to add any 
additional required modifiers such as __iomem, __init, __exit, etc., as 
necessary on a per-interface basis. Enables maximum flexibility for the 
OSL interfaces. Lv Zheng.

Hardcoded the access width for the FADT-defined reset register. The ACPI 
specification requires the reset register width to be 8 bits. ACPICA now 
hardcodes the width to 8 and ignores the FADT width value. This provides 
compatibility with other ACPI implementations that have allowed BIOS code 
with bad register width values to go unnoticed. Matthew Garett, Bob 
Moore, 
Lv Zheng.

Changed the position/use of the ACPI_PRINTF_LIKE macro. This macro is 
used 
in the OSL header (acpiosxf). The change modifies the position of this 
macro in each instance where it is used (AcpiDebugPrint, etc.) to avoid 
build issues if the OSL defines the implementation of the interface to be 
an inline stub function. Lv Zheng.

Deployed a new macro ACPI_EXPORT_SYMBOL_INIT for the main ACPICA 
initialization interfaces. This change adds a new macro for the main init 
and terminate external interfaces in order to support hosts that require 
additional or different processing for these functions. Changed from 
ACPI_EXPORT_SYMBOL to ACPI_EXPORT_SYMBOL_INIT for these functions. Lv 
Zheng, Bob Moore.

Cleaned up the memory allocation macros for configurability. In the 
common 
case, the ACPI_ALLOCATE and related macros now resolve directly to their 
respective AcpiOs* OSL interfaces. Two options:
1) The ACPI_ALLOCATE_ZEROED macro uses a simple local implementation by 
default, unless overridden by the USE_NATIVE_ALLOCATE_ZEROED define.
2) For AcpiExec (and for debugging), the macros can optionally be 
resolved 
to the local ACPICA interfaces that track each allocation (local tracking 
is used to immediately detect memory leaks).
Lv Zheng.

Simplified the configuration for ACPI_REDUCED_HARDWARE. Allows the kernel 
to predefine this macro to either TRUE or FALSE during the system build.

Replaced __FUNCTION_ with __func__ in the gcc-specific header.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.8K Code, 27.0K Data, 122.8K Total
    Debug Version:     185.2K Code, 77.2K Data, 262.4K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.7K Code, 27.1K Data, 123.9K Total
    Debug Version:     184.4K Code, 76.8K Data, 261.2K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented wildcard support for the -e option. This simplifies use 
when there are many SSDTs that must be included to resolve external 
method 
declarations. ACPICA BZ 1041. Example:
    iasl -e ssdt*.dat -d dsdt.dat

AcpiExec: Add history/line-editing for Unix/Linux systems. This change 
adds a portable module that implements full history and limited line 
editing for Unix and Linux systems. It does not use readline() due to 
portability issues. Instead it uses the POSIX termio interface to put the 
terminal in raw input mode so that the various special keys can be 
trapped 
(such as up/down-arrow for history support and left/right-arrow for line 
editing). Uses the existing debugger history mechanism. ACPICA BZ 1036.

AcpiXtract: Add support to handle (ignore) "empty" lines containing only 
one or more spaces. This provides compatible with early or different 
versions of the AcpiDump utility. ACPICA BZ 1044.

AcpiDump: Do not ignore tables that contain only an ACPI table header. 
Apparently, some BIOSs create SSDTs that contain an ACPI table header but 
no other data. This change adds support to dump these tables. Any tables 
shorter than the length of an ACPI table header remain in error (an error 
message is emitted). Reported by Yi Li.

Debugger: Echo actual command along with the "unknown command" message.

----------------------------------------
23 August 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130823:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Implemented support for host-installed System Control Interrupt (SCI) 
handlers. Certain ACPI functionality requires the host to handle raw 
SCIs. For example, the "SCI Doorbell" that is defined for memory power 
state support requires the host device driver to handle SCIs to examine 
if the doorbell has been activated. Multiple SCI handlers can be 
installed to allow for future expansion. New external interfaces are 
AcpiInstallSciHandler, AcpiRemoveSciHandler; see the ACPICA reference for 
details. Lv Zheng, Bob Moore. ACPICA BZ 1032.

Operation region support: Never locally free the handler "context" 
pointer. This change removes some dangerous code that attempts to free 
the handler context pointer in some (rare) circumstances. The owner of 
the handler owns this pointer and the ACPICA code should never touch it. 
Although not seen to be an issue in any kernel, it did show up as a 
problem (fault) under AcpiExec. Also, set the internal storage field for 
the context pointer to zero when the region is deactivated, simply for 
sanity. David Box. ACPICA BZ 1039.

AcpiRead: On error, do not modify the return value target location. If an 
error happens in the middle of a split 32/32 64-bit I/O operation, do not 
modify the target of the return value pointer. Makes the code consistent 
with the rest of ACPICA. Bjorn Helgaas.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.7K Code, 27.1K Data, 123.9K Total
    Debug Version:     184.4K Code, 76.8K Data, 261.2K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.2K Code, 27.1K Data, 123.3K Total
    Debug Version:     185.4K Code, 77.1K Data, 262.5K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

AcpiDump: Implemented several new features and fixed some problems:
1) Added support to dump the RSDP, RSDT, and XSDT tables.
2) Added support for multiple table instances (SSDT, UEFI).
3) Added option to dump "customized" (overridden) tables (-c).
4) Fixed a problem where some table filenames were improperly 
constructed.
5) Improved some error messages, removed some unnecessary messages.

iASL: Implemented additional support for disassembly of ACPI tables that 
contain invocations of external control methods. The -fe<file> option 
allows the import of a file that specifies the external methods along 
with the required number of arguments for each -- allowing for the 
correct disassembly of the table. This is a workaround for a limitation 
of AML code where the disassembler often cannot determine the number of 
arguments required for an external control method and generates incorrect 
ASL code. See the iASL reference for details. ACPICA BZ 1030.

Debugger: Implemented a new command (paths) that displays the full 
pathnames (namepaths) and object types of all objects in the namespace. 
This is an alternative to the namespace command.

Debugger: Implemented a new command (sci) that invokes the SCI dispatch 
mechanism and any installed handlers.

iASL: Fixed a possible segfault for "too many parent prefixes" condition. 
This can occur if there are too many parent prefixes in a namepath (for 
example, ^^^^^^PCI0.ECRD). ACPICA BZ 1035.

Application OSLs: Set the return value for the PCI read functions. These 
functions simply return AE_OK, but should set the return value to zero 
also. This change implements this. ACPICA BZ 1038.

Debugger: Prevent possible command line buffer overflow. Increase the 
size of a couple of the debugger line buffers, and ensure that overflow 
cannot happen. ACPICA BZ 1037.

iASL: Changed to abort immediately on serious errors during the parsing 
phase. Due to the nature of ASL, there is no point in attempting to 
compile these types of errors, and they typically end up causing a 
cascade of hundreds of errors which obscure the original problem.

----------------------------------------
25 July 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130725:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed a problem with the DerefOf operator where references to FieldUnits 
and BufferFields incorrectly returned the parent object, not the actual 
value of the object. After this change, a dereference of a FieldUnit 
reference results in a read operation on the field to get the value, and 
likewise, the appropriate BufferField value is extracted from the target 
buffer.

Fixed a problem where the _WAK method could cause a fault under these 
circumstances: 1) Interpreter slack mode was not enabled, and 2) the _WAK 
method returned no value. The problem is rarely seen because most kernels 
run ACPICA in slack mode.

For the DerefOf operator, a fatal error now results if an attempt is made 
to dereference a reference (created by the Index operator) to a NULL 
package element. Provides compatibility with other ACPI implementations, 
and this behavior will be added to a future version of the ACPI 
specification.

The ACPI Power Management Timer (defined in the FADT) is now optional. 
This provides compatibility with other ACPI implementations and will 
appear in the next version of the ACPI specification. If there is no PM 
Timer on the platform, AcpiGetTimer returns AE_SUPPORT. An address of 
zero in the FADT indicates no PM timer.

Implemented a new interface for _OSI support, AcpiUpdateInterfaces. This 
allows the host to globally enable/disable all vendor strings, all 
feature strings, or both. Intended to be primarily used for debugging 
purposes only. Lv Zheng.

Expose the collected _OSI data to the host via a global variable. This 
data tracks the highest level vendor ID that has been invoked by the BIOS 
so that the host (and potentially ACPICA itself) can change behaviors 
based upon the age of the BIOS.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.2K Code, 27.1K Data, 123.3K Total
    Debug Version:     184.4K Code, 76.8K Data, 261.2K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.9K Code, 26.9K Data, 122.8K Total
    Debug Version:     184.1K Code, 76.7K Data, 260.8K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Created the following enhancements for the -so option (create 
offset table):
1)Add offsets for the last nameseg in each namepath for every supported 
object type
2)Add support for Processor, Device, Thermal Zone, and Scope objects
3)Add the actual AML opcode for the parent object of every supported 
object type
4)Add support for the ZERO/ONE/ONES AML opcodes for integer objects

Disassembler: Emit all unresolved external symbols in a single block. 
These are external references to control methods that could not be 
resolved, and thus, the disassembler had to make a guess at the number of 
arguments to parse.

iASL: The argument to the -T option (create table template) is now 
optional. If not specified, the default table is a DSDT, typically the 
most common case.

----------------------------------------
26 June 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130626:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed an issue with runtime repair of the _CST object. Null or invalid 
elements were not always removed properly. Lv Zheng. 

Removed an arbitrary restriction of 256 GPEs per GPE block (such as the 
FADT-defined GPE0 and GPE1). For GPE0, GPE1, and each GPE Block Device, 
the maximum number of GPEs is 1016. Use of multiple GPE block devices 
makes the system-wide number of GPEs essentially unlimited.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.9K Code, 26.9K Data, 122.8K Total
    Debug Version:     184.1K Code, 76.7K Data, 260.8K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.0K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.0K Total
    Debug Version:     184.1K Code, 76.8K Data, 260.9K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Portable AcpiDump: Implemented full support for the Linux and FreeBSD 
hosts. Now supports Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows.

Disassembler: Added some missing types for the HEST and EINJ tables: "Set 
Error Type With Address", "CMCI", "MCE", and "Flush Cacheline".

iASL/Preprocessor: Implemented full support for nested 
#if/#else/#elif/#endif blocks. Allows arbitrary depth of nested blocks.

Disassembler: Expanded maximum output string length to 64K. Was 256 bytes 
max. The original purpose of this constraint was to limit the amount of 
debug output. However, the string function in question (UtPrintString) is 
now used for the disassembler also, where 256 bytes is insufficient. 
Reported by RehabMan@GitHub.

iASL/DataTables: Fixed some problems and issues with compilation of DMAR 
tables. ACPICA BZ 999. Lv Zheng.

iASL: Fixed a couple of error exit issues that could result in a "Could 
not delete <file>" message during ASL compilation.

AcpiDump: Allow "FADT" and "MADT" as valid table signatures, even though 
the actual signatures for these tables are "FACP" and "APIC", 
respectively.

AcpiDump: Added support for multiple UEFI tables. Only SSDT and UEFI 
tables are allowed to have multiple instances.

----------------------------------------
17 May 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130517:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed a regression introduced in version 20130328 for _INI methods. This 
change fixes a problem introduced in 20130328 where _INI methods are no 
longer executed properly because of a memory block that was not 
initialized correctly. ACPICA BZ 1016. Tomasz Nowicki 
<tomasz.nowicki@linaro.org>.

Fixed a possible problem with the new extended sleep registers in the 
ACPI 
5.0 FADT. Do not use these registers (even if populated) unless the HW-
reduced bit is set in the FADT (as per the ACPI specification). ACPICA BZ 
1020. Lv Zheng.

Implemented return value repair code for _CST predefined objects: Sort 
the 
list and detect/remove invalid entries. ACPICA BZ 890. Lv Zheng.

Implemented a debug-only option to disable loading of SSDTs from the 
RSDT/XSDT during ACPICA initialization. This can be useful for debugging 
ACPI problems on some machines. Set AcpiGbl_DisableSsdtTableLoad in 
acglobal.h - ACPICA BZ 1005. Lv Zheng.

Fixed some issues in the ACPICA initialization and termination code: 
Tomasz Nowicki <tomasz.nowicki@linaro.org>
1) Clear events initialized flag upon event component termination. ACPICA 
BZ 1013.
2) Fixed a possible memory leak in GPE init error path. ACPICA BZ 1018. 
3) Delete global lock pending lock during termination. ACPICA BZ 1012.
4) Clear debug buffer global on termination to prevent possible multiple 
delete. ACPICA BZ 1010.

Standardized all switch() blocks across the entire source base. After 
many 
years, different formatting for switch() had crept in. This change makes 
the formatting of every switch block identical. ACPICA BZ 997. Chao Guan.

Split some files to enhance ACPICA modularity and configurability:
1) Split buffer dump routines into utilities/utbuffer.c
2) Split internal error message routines into utilities/uterror.c
3) Split table print utilities into tables/tbprint.c
4) Split iASL command-line option processing into asloptions.c

Makefile enhancements:
1) Support for all new files above.
2) Abort make on errors from any subcomponent. Chao Guan.
3) Add build support for Apple Mac OS X. Liang Qi.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  96.0K Code, 27.0K Data, 123.0K Total
    Debug Version:     184.1K Code, 76.8K Data, 260.9K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.6K Code, 26.8K Data, 122.4K Total
    Debug Version:     183.5K Code, 76.6K Data, 260.1K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

New utility: Implemented an easily portable version of the acpidump 
utility to extract ACPI tables from the system (or a file) in an ASCII 
hex 
dump format. The top-level code implements the various command line 
options, file I/O, and table dump routines. To port to a new host, only 
three functions need to be implemented to get tables -- since this 
functionality is OS-dependent. See the tools/acpidump/apmain.c module and 
the ACPICA reference for porting instructions. ACPICA BZ 859. Notes:
1) The Windows version obtains the ACPI tables from the Registry.
2) The Linux version is under development.
3) Other hosts - If an OS-dependent module is submitted, it will be 
distributed with ACPICA.

iASL: Fixed a regression for -D preprocessor option (define symbol). A 
restructuring/change to the initialization sequence caused this option to 
no longer work properly.

iASL: Implemented a mechanism to disable specific warnings and remarks. 
Adds a new command line option, "-vw <messageid> as well as "#pragma 
disable <messageid>". ACPICA BZ 989. Chao Guan, Bob Moore.

iASL: Fix for too-strict package object validation. The package object 
validation for return values from the predefined names is a bit too 
strict, it does not allow names references within the package (which will 
be resolved at runtime.) These types of references cannot be validated at 
compile time. This change ignores named references within package objects 
for names that return or define static packages.

Debugger: Fixed the 80-character command line limitation for the History 
command. Now allows lines of arbitrary length. ACPICA BZ 1000. Chao Guan.

iASL: Added control method and package support for the -so option 
(generates AML offset table for BIOS support.)

iASL: issue a remark if a non-serialized method creates named objects. If 
a thread blocks within the method for any reason, and another thread 
enters the method, the method will fail because an attempt will be made 
to 
create the same (named) object twice. In this case, issue a remark that 
the method should be marked serialized. NOTE: may become a warning later. 
ACPICA BZ 909.

----------------------------------------
18 April 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130418:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed a possible buffer overrun during some rare but specific field unit 
read operations. This overrun can only happen if the DSDT version is 1 -- 
meaning that all AML integers are 32 bits -- and the field length is 
between 33 and 55 bits long. During the read, an internal buffer object 
is 
created for the field unit because the field is larger than an integer 
(32 
bits). However, in this case, the buffer will be incorrectly written 
beyond the end because the buffer length is less than the internal 
minimum 
of 64 bits (8 bytes) long. The buffer will be either 5, 6, or 7 bytes 
long, but a full 8 bytes will be written.

Updated the Embedded Controller "orphan" _REG method support. This refers 
to _REG methods under the EC device that have no corresponding operation 
region. This is allowed by the ACPI specification. This update removes a 
dependency on the existence an ECDT table. It will execute an orphan _REG 
method as long as the operation region handler for the EC is installed at 
the EC device node and not the namespace root. Rui Zhang (original 
update), Bob Moore (update/integrate).

Implemented run-time argument typechecking for all predefined ACPI names 
(_STA, _BIF, etc.) This change performs object typechecking on all 
incoming arguments for all predefined names executed via 
AcpiEvaluateObject. This ensures that ACPI-related device drivers are 
passing correct object types as well as the correct number of arguments 
(therefore identifying any issues immediately). Also, the ASL/namespace 
definition of the predefined name is checked against the ACPI 
specification for the proper argument count. Adds one new file, 
nsarguments.c

Changed an exception code for the ASL UnLoad() operator. Changed the 
exception code for the case where the input DdbHandle is invalid, from 
AE_BAD_PARAMETER to the more appropriate AE_AML_OPERAND_TYPE.

Unix/Linux makefiles: Removed the use of the -O2 optimization flag in the 
global makefile. The use of this flag causes compiler errors on earlier 
versions of GCC, so it has been removed for compatibility.

Miscellaneous cleanup:
1) Removed some unused/obsolete macros
2) Fixed a possible memory leak in the _OSI support
3) Removed an unused variable in the predefined name support
4) Windows OSL: remove obsolete reference to a memory list field

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.2K Code, 26.4K Data, 121.6K Total
    Debug Version:     183.0K Code, 76.0K Data, 259.0K Total
  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.6K Code, 26.8K Data, 122.4K Total
    Debug Version:     183.5K Code, 76.6K Data, 260.1K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

AcpiExec: Added installation of a handler for the SystemCMOS address 
space. This prevents control method abort if a method accesses this 
space.

AcpiExec: Added support for multiple EC devices, and now install EC 
operation region handler(s) at the actual EC device instead of the 
namespace root. This reflects the typical behavior of host operating 
systems.

AcpiExec: Updated to ensure that all operation region handlers are 
installed before the _REG methods are executed. This prevents a _REG 
method from aborting if it accesses an address space has no handler. 
AcpiExec installs a handler for every possible address space.

Debugger: Enhanced the "handlers" command to display non-root handlers. 
This change enhances the handlers command to display handlers associated 
with individual devices throughout the namespace, in addition to the 
currently supported display of handlers associated with the root 
namespace 
node.

ASL Test Suite: Several test suite errors have been identified and 
resolved, reducing the total error count during execution. Chao Guan.

----------------------------------------
28 March 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130328:

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed several possible race conditions with the internal object reference 
counting mechanism. Some of the external ACPICA interfaces update object 
reference counts without holding the interpreter or namespace lock. This 
change adds a spinlock to protect reference count updates on the internal 
ACPICA objects. Reported by and with assistance from Andriy Gapon 
(avg@FreeBSD.org).

FADT support: Removed an extraneous warning for very large GPE register 
sets. This change removes a size mismatch warning if the legacy length 
field for a GPE register set is larger than the 64-bit GAS structure can 
accommodate. GPE register sets can be larger than the 255-bit width 
limitation of the GAS structure. Linn Crosetto (linn@hp.com).

_OSI Support: handle any errors from AcpiOsAcquireMutex. Check for error 
return from this interface. Handles a possible timeout case if 
ACPI_WAIT_FOREVER is modified by the host to be a value less than 
"forever". Jung-uk Kim.

Predefined name support: Add allowed/required argument type information 
to 
the master predefined info table. This change adds the infrastructure to 
enable typechecking on incoming arguments for all predefined 
methods/objects. It does not actually contain the code that will fully 
utilize this information, this is still under development. Also condenses 
some duplicate code for the predefined names into a new module, 
utilities/utpredef.c

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.0K Code, 25.9K Data, 120.9K Total
    Debug Version:     182.9K Code, 75.6K Data, 258.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.2K Code, 26.4K Data, 121.6K Total
    Debug Version:     183.0K Code, 76.0K Data, 259.0K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented a new option to simplify the development of ACPI-
related 
BIOS code. Adds support for a new "offset table" output file. The -so 
option will create a C table containing the AML table offsets of various 
named objects in the namespace so that BIOS code can modify them easily 
at 
boot time. This can simplify BIOS runtime code by eliminating expensive 
searches for "magic values", enhancing boot times and adding greater 
reliability. With assistance from Lee Hamel.

iASL: Allow additional predefined names to return zero-length packages. 
Now, all predefined names that are defined by the ACPI specification to 
return a "variable-length package of packages" are allowed to return a 
zero length top-level package. This allows the BIOS to tell the host that 
the requested feature is not supported, and supports existing BIOS/ASL 
code and practices.

iASL: Changed the "result not used" warning to an error. This is the case 
where an ASL operator is effectively a NOOP because the result of the 
operation is not stored anywhere. For example:
    Add (4, Local0)
There is no target (missing 3rd argument), nor is the function return 
value used. This is potentially a very serious problem -- since the code 
was probably intended to do something, but for whatever reason, the value 
was not stored. Therefore, this issue has been upgraded from a warning to 
an error.

AcpiHelp: Added allowable/required argument types to the predefined names 
info display. This feature utilizes the recent update to the predefined 
names table (above).

----------------------------------------
14 February 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130214:

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Fixed a possible regression on some hosts: Reinstated the safe return 
macros (return_ACPI_STATUS, etc.) that ensure that the argument is 
evaluated only once. Although these macros are not needed for the ACPICA 
code itself, they are often used by ACPI-related host device drivers 
where 
the safe feature may be necessary.

Fixed several issues related to the ACPI 5.0 reduced hardware support 
(SOC): Now ensure that if the platform declares itself as hardware-
reduced 
via the FADT, the following functions become NOOPs (and always return 
AE_OK) because ACPI is always enabled by definition on these machines:
  AcpiEnable
  AcpiDisable
  AcpiHwGetMode
  AcpiHwSetMode

Dynamic Object Repair: Implemented additional runtime repairs for 
predefined name return values. Both of these repairs can simplify code in 
the related device drivers that invoke these methods:
1) For the _STR and _MLS names, automatically repair/convert an ASCII 
string to a Unicode buffer. 
2) For the _CRS, _PRS, and _DMA names, return a resource descriptor with 
a 
lone end tag descriptor in the following cases: A Return(0) was executed, 
a null buffer was returned, or no object at all was returned (non-slack 
mode only). Adds a new file, nsconvert.c
ACPICA BZ 998. Bob Moore, Lv Zheng.

Resource Manager: Added additional code to prevent possible infinite 
loops 
while traversing corrupted or ill-formed resource template buffers. Check 
for zero-length resource descriptors in all code that loops through 
resource templates (the length field is used to index through the 
template). This change also hardens the external AcpiWalkResources and 
AcpiWalkResourceBuffer interfaces.

Local Cache Manager: Enhanced the main data structure to eliminate an 
unnecessary mechanism to access the next object in the list. Actually 
provides a small performance enhancement for hosts that use the local 
ACPICA cache manager. Jung-uk Kim.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.5K Code, 25.4K Data, 119.9K Total
    Debug Version:     182.3K Code, 75.0K Data, 257.3K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  95.0K Code, 25.9K Data, 120.9K Total
    Debug Version:     182.9K Code, 75.6K Data, 258.5K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/Disassembler: Fixed several issues with the definition of the ACPI 
5.0 RASF table (RAS Feature Table). This change incorporates late changes 
that were made to the ACPI 5.0 specification.

iASL/Disassembler: Added full support for the following new ACPI tables:
  1) The MTMR table (MID Timer Table)
  2) The VRTC table (Virtual Real Time Clock Table).
Includes header file, disassembler, table compiler, and template support 
for both tables.

iASL: Implemented compile-time validation of package objects returned by 
predefined names. This new feature validates static package objects 
returned by the various predefined names defined to return packages. Both 
object types and package lengths are validated, for both parent packages 
and sub-packages, if any. The code is similar in structure and behavior 
to 
the runtime repair mechanism within the AML interpreter and uses the 
existing predefined name information table. Adds a new file, aslprepkg.c. 
ACPICA BZ 938.

iASL: Implemented auto-detection of binary ACPI tables for disassembly. 
This feature detects a binary file with a valid ACPI table header and 
invokes the disassembler automatically. Eliminates the need to 
specifically invoke the disassembler with the -d option. ACPICA BZ 862.

iASL/Disassembler: Added several warnings for the case where there are 
unresolved control methods during the disassembly. This can potentially 
cause errors when the output file is compiled, because the disassembler 
assumes zero method arguments in these cases (it cannot determine the 
actual number of arguments without resolution/definition of the method).

Debugger: Added support to display all resources with a single command. 
Invocation of the resources command with no arguments will now display 
all 
resources within the current namespace.

AcpiHelp: Added descriptive text for each ACPICA exception code displayed 
via the -e option.

----------------------------------------
17 January 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130117:

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Updated the AcpiGetSleepTypeData interface: Allow the \_Sx methods to 
return either 1 or 2 integers. Although the ACPI spec defines the \_Sx 
objects to return a package containing one integer, most BIOS code 
returns 
two integers and the previous code reflects that. However, we also need 
to 
support BIOS code that actually implements to the ACPI spec, and this 
change reflects this.

Fixed two issues with the ACPI_DEBUG_PRINT macros:
1) Added the ACPI_DO_WHILE macro to the main DEBUG_PRINT helper macro for 
C compilers that require this support.
2) Renamed the internal ACPI_DEBUG macro to ACPI_DO_DEBUG_PRINT since 
ACPI_DEBUG is already used by many of the various hosts.

Updated all ACPICA copyrights and signons to 2013. Added the 2013 
copyright to all module headers and signons, including the standard Linux 
header. This affects virtually every file in the ACPICA core subsystem, 
iASL compiler, all ACPICA utilities, and the test suites.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.5K Code, 25.5K Data, 120.0K Total
    Debug Version:     182.2K Code, 74.9K Data, 257.1K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.5K Code, 25.4K Data, 119.9K Total
    Debug Version:     182.3K Code, 75.0K Data, 257.3K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Generic Unix OSL: Use a buffer to eliminate multiple vfprintf()s and 
prevent a possible fault on some hosts. Some C libraries modify the arg 
pointer parameter to vfprintf making it difficult to call it twice in the 
AcpiOsVprintf function. Use a local buffer to workaround this issue. This 
does not affect the Windows OSL since the Win C library does not modify 
the arg pointer. Chao Guan, Bob Moore.

iASL: Fixed a possible infinite loop when the maximum error count is 
reached. If an output file other than the .AML file is specified (such as 
a listing file), and the maximum number of errors is reached, do not 
attempt to flush data to the output file(s) as the compiler is aborting. 
This can cause an infinite loop as the max error count code essentially 
keeps calling itself.

iASL/Disassembler: Added an option (-in) to ignore NOOP 
opcodes/operators. 
Implemented for both the compiler and the disassembler. Often, the NOOP 
opcode is used as padding for packages that are changed dynamically by 
the 
BIOS. When disassembled and recompiled, these NOOPs will cause syntax 
errors. This option causes the disassembler to ignore all NOOP opcodes 
(0xA3), and it also causes the compiler to ignore all ASL source code 
NOOP 
statements as well.

Debugger: Enhanced the Sleep command to execute all sleep states. This 
change allows Sleep to be invoked with no arguments and causes the 
debugger to execute all of the sleep states, 0-5, automatically.

----------------------------------------
20 December 2012. Summary of changes for version 20121220:

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Implemented a new interface, AcpiWalkResourceBuffer. This interface is an 
alternate entry point for AcpiWalkResources and improves the usability of 
the resource manager by accepting as input a buffer containing the output 
of either a _CRS, _PRS, or _AEI method. The key functionality is that the 
input buffer is not deleted by this interface so that it can be used by 
the host later. See the ACPICA reference for details.

Interpreter: Add a warning if a 64-bit constant appears in a 32-bit table 
(DSDT version < 2). The constant will be truncated and this warning 
reflects that behavior.

Resource Manager: Add support for the new ACPI 5.0 wake bit in the IRQ, 
ExtendedInterrupt, and GpioInt descriptors. This change adds support to 
both get and set the new wake bit in these descriptors, separately from 
the existing share bit. Reported by Aaron Lu.

Interpreter: Fix Store() when an implicit conversion is not possible. For 
example, in the cases such as a store of a string to an existing package 
object, implement the store as a CopyObject(). This is a small departure 
from the ACPI specification which states that the control method should 
be 
aborted in this case. However, the ASLTS suite depends on this behavior.

Performance improvement for the various FUNCTION_TRACE and DEBUG_PRINT 
macros: check if debug output is currently enabled as soon as possible to 
minimize performance impact if debug is in fact not enabled.

Source code restructuring: Cleanup to improve modularity. The following 
new files have been added: dbconvert.c, evhandler.c, nsprepkg.c, 
psopinfo.c, psobject.c, rsdumpinfo.c, utstring.c, and utownerid.c. 
Associated makefiles and project files have been updated.

Changed an exception code for LoadTable operator. For the case where one 
of the input strings is too long, change the returned exception code from 
AE_BAD_PARAMETER to AE_AML_STRING_LIMIT.

Fixed a possible memory leak in dispatcher error path. On error, delete 
the mutex object created during method mutex creation. Reported by 
tim.gardner@canonical.com.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.3K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.6K Total
    Debug Version:     175.5K Code, 74.5K Data, 250.0K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.5K Code, 25.5K Data, 120.0K Total
    Debug Version:     182.2K Code, 74.9K Data, 257.1K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Disallow a method call as argument to the ObjectType ASL operator. 
This change tracks an errata to the ACPI 5.0 document. The AML grammar 
will not allow the interpreter to differentiate between a method and a 
method invocation when these are used as an argument to the ObjectType 
operator. The ACPI specification change is to disallow a method 
invocation 
(UserTerm) for the ObjectType operator.

Finish support for the TPM2 and CSRT tables in the headers, table 
compiler, and disassembler.

Unix user-space OSL: Fix a problem with WaitSemaphore where the timeout 
always expires immediately if the semaphore is not available. The 
original 
code was using a relative-time timeout, but sem_timedwait requires the 
use 
of an absolute time.

iASL: Added a remark if the Timer() operator is used within a 32-bit 
table. This operator returns a 64-bit time value that will be truncated 
within a 32-bit table.

iASL Source code restructuring: Cleanup to improve modularity. The 
following new files have been added: aslhex.c, aslxref.c, aslnamesp.c, 
aslmethod.c, and aslfileio.c. Associated makefiles and project files have 
been updated.


----------------------------------------
14 November 2012. Summary of changes for version 20121114:

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Implemented a performance enhancement for ACPI/AML Package objects. This 
change greatly increases the performance of Package objects within the 
interpreter. It changes the processing of reference counts for packages 
by 
optimizing for the most common case where the package sub-objects are 
either Integers, Strings, or Buffers. Increases the overall performance 
of 
the ASLTS test suite by 1.5X (Increases the Slack Mode performance by 
2X.) 
Chao Guan. ACPICA BZ 943.

Implemented and deployed common macros to extract flag bits from resource 
descriptors. Improves readability and maintainability of the code. Fixes 
a 
problem with the UART serial bus descriptor for the number of data bits 
flags (was incorrectly 2 bits, should be 3).

Enhanced the ACPI_GETx and ACPI_SETx macros. Improved the implementation 
of the macros and changed the SETx macros to the style of (destination, 
source). Also added ACPI_CASTx companion macros. Lv Zheng.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.9K Code, 25.2K Data, 119.1K Total
    Debug Version:     175.5K Code, 74.5K Data, 250.0K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  94.3K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.6K Total
    Debug Version:     175.5K Code, 74.5K Data, 250.0K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Added the new ACPI 5.0 interrupt sharing flags. This change 
adds the ShareAndWake and ExclusiveAndWake flags which were added to the 
Irq, Interrupt, and Gpio resource descriptors in ACPI 5.0. ACPICA BZ 986.

Disassembler: Fixed a problem with external declaration generation. Fixes 
a problem where an incorrect pathname could be generated for an external 
declaration if the original reference to the object includes leading 
carats (^). ACPICA BZ 984.

Debugger: Completed a major update for the Disassemble<method> command. 
This command was out-of-date and did not properly disassemble control 
methods that had any reasonable complexity. This fix brings the command 
up 
to the same level as the rest of the disassembler. Adds one new file, 
dmdeferred.c, which is existing code that is now common with the main 
disassembler and the debugger disassemble command. ACPICA MZ 978.

iASL: Moved the parser entry prototype to avoid a duplicate declaration. 
Newer versions of Bison emit this prototype, so moved the prototype out 
of 
the iASL header to where it is actually used in order to avoid a 
duplicate 
declaration.

iASL/Tools: Standardized use of the stream I/O functions:
  1) Ensure check for I/O error after every fopen/fread/fwrite
  2) Ensure proper order of size/count arguments for fread/fwrite
  3) Use test of (Actual != Requested) after all fwrite, and most fread
  4) Standardize I/O error messages
Improves reliability and maintainability of the code. Bob Moore, Lv 
Zheng. 
ACPICA BZ 981.

Disassembler: Prevent duplicate External() statements. During generation 
of external statements, detect similar pathnames that are actually 
duplicates such as these:
  External (\ABCD)
  External (ABCD)
Remove all leading '\' characters from pathnames during the external 
statement generation so that duplicates will be detected and tossed. 
ACPICA BZ 985.

Tools: Replace low-level I/O with stream I/O functions. Replace 
open/read/write/close with the stream I/O equivalents 
fopen/fread/fwrite/fclose for portability and performance. Lv Zheng, Bob 
Moore.

AcpiBin: Fix for the dump-to-hex function. Now correctly output the table 
name header so that AcpiXtract recognizes the output file/table.

iASL: Remove obsolete -2 option flag. Originally intended to force the 
compiler/disassembler into an ACPI 2.0 mode, this was never implemented 
and the entire concept is now obsolete.

----------------------------------------
18 October 2012. Summary of changes for version 20121018:


1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Updated support for the ACPI 5.0 MPST table. Fixes some problems 
introduced by late changes to the table as it was added to the ACPI 5.0 
specification. Includes header, disassembler, and data table compiler 
support as well as a new version of the MPST template.

AcpiGetObjectInfo: Enhanced the device object support to include the ACPI 
5.0 _SUB method. Now calls _SUB in addition to the other PNP-related ID 
methods: _HID, _CID, and _UID.

Changed ACPI_DEVICE_ID to ACPI_PNP_DEVICE_ID. Also changed 
ACPI_DEVICE_ID_LIST to ACPI_PNP_DEVICE_ID_LIST. These changes prevent 
name collisions on hosts that reserve the *_DEVICE_ID (or *DeviceId) 
names for their various drivers. Affects the AcpiGetObjectInfo external 
interface, and other internal interfaces as well.

Added and deployed a new macro for ACPI_NAME management: ACPI_MOVE_NAME. 
This macro resolves to a simple 32-bit move of the 4-character ACPI_NAME 
on machines that support non-aligned transfers. Optimizes for this case 
rather than using a strncpy. With assistance from Zheng Lv.

Resource Manager: Small fix for buffer size calculation. Fixed a one byte 
error in the output buffer calculation. Feng Tang. ACPICA BZ 849.

Added a new debug print message for AML mutex objects that are force-
released. At control method termination, any currently acquired mutex 
objects are force-released. Adds a new debug-only message for each one 
that is released.

Audited/updated all ACPICA return macros and the function debug depth 
counter: 1) Ensure that all functions that use the various TRACE macros 
also use the appropriate ACPICA return macros. 2) Ensure that all normal 
return statements surround the return expression (value) with parens to 
ensure consistency across the ACPICA code base. Guan Chao, Tang Feng, 
Zheng Lv, Bob Moore. ACPICA Bugzilla 972.

Global source code changes/maintenance: All extra lines at the start and 
end of each source file have been removed for consistency. Also, within 
comments, all new sentences start with a single space instead of a double 
space, again for consistency across the code base.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.7K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.0K Total
    Debug Version:     175.0K Code, 74.4K Data, 249.4K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.9K Code, 25.2K Data, 119.1K Total
    Debug Version:     175.5K Code, 74.5K Data, 250.0K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

AcpiExec: Improved the algorithm used for memory leak/corruption 
detection. Added some intelligence to the code that maintains the global 
list of allocated memory. The list is now ordered by allocated memory 
address, significantly improving performance. When running AcpiExec on 
the ASLTS test suite, speed improvements of 3X to 5X are seen, depending 
on the platform and/or the environment. Note, this performance 
enhancement affects the AcpiExec utility only, not the kernel-resident 
ACPICA code.

Enhanced error reporting for invalid AML opcodes and bad ACPI_NAMEs. For 
the disassembler, dump the 48 bytes surrounding the invalid opcode. Fix 
incorrect table offset reported for invalid opcodes. Report the original 
32-bit value for bad ACPI_NAMEs (as well as the repaired name.)

Disassembler: Enhanced the -vt option to emit the binary table data in 
hex format to assist with debugging.

Fixed a potential filename buffer overflow in osunixdir.c. Increased the 
size of file structure. Colin Ian King.

----------------------------------------
13 September 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120913:


1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

ACPI 5.0: Added two new notify types for the Hardware Error Notification 
Structure within the Hardware Error Source Table (HEST) table -- CMCI(5) 
and 
MCE(6).
 
Table Manager: Merged/removed duplicate code in the root table resize 
functions. One function is external, the other is internal. Lv Zheng, 
ACPICA 
BZ 846.

Makefiles: Completely removed the obsolete "Linux" makefiles under 
acpica/generate/linux. These makefiles are obsolete and have been 
replaced 
by 
the generic unix makefiles under acpica/generate/unix.

Makefiles: Ensure that binary files always copied properly. Minor rule 
change 
to ensure that the final binary output files are always copied up to the 
appropriate binary directory (bin32 or bin64.)

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.8K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.1K Total
    Debug Version:     175.7K Code, 74.8K Data, 250.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.7K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.0K Total
    Debug Version:     175.0K Code, 74.4K Data, 249.4K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Fixed a possible fault during the disassembly of resource 
descriptors when a second parse is required because of the invocation of 
external control methods within the table. With assistance from 
adq@lidskialf.net. ACPICA BZ 976.

iASL: Fixed a namepath optimization problem. An error can occur if the 
parse 
node that contains the namepath to be optimized does not have a parent 
node 
that is a named object. This change fixes the problem.

iASL: Fixed a regression where the AML file is not deleted on errors. The 
AML 
output file should be deleted if there are any errors during the 
compiler. 
The 
only exception is if the -f (force output) option is used. ACPICA BZ 974.

iASL: Added a feature to automatically increase internal line buffer 
sizes. 
Via realloc(), automatically increase the internal line buffer sizes as 
necessary to support very long source code lines. The current version of 
the 
preprocessor requires a buffer long enough to contain full source code 
lines. 
This change increases the line buffer(s) if the input lines go beyond the 
current buffer size. This eliminates errors that occurred when a source 
code 
line was longer than the buffer.

iASL: Fixed a problem with constant folding in method declarations. The 
SyncLevel term is a ByteConstExpr, and incorrect code would be generated 
if a 
Type3 opcode was used.

Debugger: Improved command help support. For incorrect argument count, 
display 
full help for the command. For help command itself, allow an argument to 
specify a command.

Test Suites: Several bug fixes for the ASLTS suite reduces the number of 
errors during execution of the suite. Guan Chao.

----------------------------------------
16 August 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120816:


1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Removed all use of the deprecated _GTS and _BFS predefined methods. The 
_GTS 
(Going To Sleep) and _BFS (Back From Sleep) methods are essentially 
deprecated and will probably be removed from the ACPI specification. 
Windows 
does not invoke them, and reportedly never will. The final nail in the 
coffin 
is that the ACPI specification states that these methods must be run with 
interrupts off, which is not going to happen in a kernel interpreter. 
Note: 
Linux has removed all use of the methods also. It was discovered that 
invoking these functions caused failures on some machines, probably 
because 
they were never tested since Windows does not call them. Affects two 
external 
interfaces, AcpiEnterSleepState and AcpiLeaveSleepStatePrep. Tang Feng. 
ACPICA BZ 969.

Implemented support for complex bit-packed buffers returned from the _PLD 
(Physical Location of Device) predefined method. Adds a new external 
interface, AcpiDecodePldBuffer that parses the buffer into a more usable 
C 
structure. Note: C Bitfields cannot be used for this type of predefined 
structure since the memory layout of individual bitfields is not defined 
by 
the C language. In addition, there are endian concerns where a compiler 
will 
change the bitfield ordering based on the machine type. The new ACPICA 
interface eliminates these issues, and should be called after _PLD is 
executed. ACPICA BZ 954.

Implemented a change to allow a scope change to root (via "Scope (\)") 
during 
execution of module-level ASL code (code that is executed at table load 
time.) Lin Ming.

Added the Windows8/Server2012 string for the _OSI method. This change 
adds 
a 
new _OSI string, "Windows 2012" for both Windows 8 and Windows Server 
2012.

Added header support for the new ACPI tables DBG2 (Debug Port Table Type 
2) 
and CSRT (Core System Resource Table).

Added struct header support for the _FDE, _GRT, _GTM, and _SRT predefined 
names. This simplifies access to the buffers returned by these predefined 
names. Adds a new file, include/acbuffer.h. ACPICA BZ 956.

GPE support: Removed an extraneous parameter from the various low-level 
internal GPE functions. Tang Feng.

Removed the linux makefiles from the unix packages. The generate/linux 
makefiles are obsolete and have been removed from the unix tarball 
release 
packages. The replacement makefiles are under generate/unix, and there is 
a 
top-level makefile under the main acpica directory. ACPICA BZ 967, 912.

Updates for Unix makefiles:
1) Add -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 for gcc generation. Arjan van de Ven.
2) Update linker flags (move to end of command line) for AcpiExec 
utility. 
Guan Chao.

Split ACPICA initialization functions to new file, utxfinit.c. Split from 
utxface.c to improve modularity and reduce file size.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.5K Code, 25.3K Data, 118.8K Total
    Debug Version:     173.7K Code, 74.0K Data, 247.7K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.8K Code, 25.3K Data, 119.1K Total
    Debug Version:     175.7K Code, 74.8K Data, 250.5K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fixed a problem with constant folding for fixed-length constant 
expressions. The constant-folding code was not being invoked for constant 
expressions that allow the use of type 3/4/5 opcodes to generate 
constants 
for expressions such as ByteConstExpr, WordConstExpr, etc. This could 
result 
in the generation of invalid AML bytecode. ACPICA BZ 970.

iASL: Fixed a generation issue on newer versions of Bison. Newer versions 
apparently automatically emit some of the necessary externals. This 
change 
handles these versions in order to eliminate generation warnings.

Disassembler: Added support to decode the DBG2 and CSRT ACPI tables.

Disassembler: Add support to decode _PLD buffers. The decoded buffer 
appears 
within comments in the output file.

Debugger: Fixed a regression with the "Threads" command where 
AE_BAD_PARAMETER was always returned.

----------------------------------------
11 July 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120711:

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Fixed a possible fault in the return package object repair code. Fixes a 
problem that can occur when a lone package object is wrapped with an 
outer 
package object in order to force conformance to the ACPI specification. 
Can 
affect these predefined names: _ALR, _MLS, _PSS, _TRT, _TSS, _PRT, _HPX, 
_DLM, 
_CSD, _PSD, _TSD.

Removed code to disable/enable bus master arbitration (ARB_DIS bit in the 
PM2_CNT register) in the ACPICA sleep/wake interfaces. Management of the 
ARB_DIS bit must be implemented in the host-dependent C3 processor power 
state 
support. Note, ARB_DIS is obsolete and only applies to older chipsets, 
both 
Intel and other vendors. (for Intel: ICH4-M and earlier)

This change removes the code to disable/enable bus master arbitration 
during 
suspend/resume. Use of the ARB_DIS bit in the optional PM2_CNT register 
causes 
resume problems on some machines. The change has been in use for over 
seven 
years within Linux.

Implemented two new external interfaces to support host-directed dynamic 
ACPI 
table load and unload. They are intended to simplify the host 
implementation 
of hot-plug support:
  AcpiLoadTable: Load an SSDT from a buffer into the namespace.
  AcpiUnloadParentTable: Unload an SSDT via a named object owned by the 
table.
See the ACPICA reference for additional details. Adds one new file, 
components/tables/tbxfload.c

Implemented and deployed two new interfaces for errors and warnings that 
are 
known to be caused by BIOS/firmware issues:
  AcpiBiosError: Prints "ACPI Firmware Error" message.
  AcpiBiosWarning: Prints "ACPI Firmware Warning" message.
Deployed these new interfaces in the ACPICA Table Manager code for ACPI 
table 
and FADT errors. Additional deployment to be completed as appropriate in 
the 
future. The associated conditional macros are ACPI_BIOS_ERROR and 
ACPI_BIOS_WARNING. See the ACPICA reference for additional details. 
ACPICA 
BZ 
843.

Implicit notify support: ensure that no memory allocation occurs within a 
critical region. This fix moves a memory allocation outside of the time 
that a 
spinlock is held. Fixes issues on systems that do not allow this 
behavior. 
Jung-uk Kim.

Split exception code utilities and tables into a new file, 
utilities/utexcep.c

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.1K Code, 25.1K Data, 118.2K Total
    Debug Version:     172.9K Code, 73.6K Data, 246.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.5K Code, 25.3K Data, 118.8K Total
    Debug Version:     173.7K Code, 74.0K Data, 247.7K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fixed a parser problem for hosts where EOF is defined as -1 instead 
of 
0. Jung-uk Kim.

Debugger: Enhanced the "tables" command to emit additional information 
about 
the current set of ACPI tables, including the owner ID and flags decode.

Debugger: Reimplemented the "unload" command to use the new 
AcpiUnloadParentTable external interface. This command was disable 
previously 
due to need for an unload interface.

AcpiHelp: Added a new option to decode ACPICA exception codes. The -e 
option 
will decode 16-bit hex status codes (ACPI_STATUS) to name strings.

----------------------------------------
20 June 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120620:


1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Implemented support to expand the "implicit notify" feature to allow 
multiple 
devices to be notified by a single GPE. This feature automatically 
generates a 
runtime device notification in the absence of a BIOS-provided GPE control 
method (_Lxx/_Exx) or a host-installed handler for the GPE. Implicit 
notify is 
provided by ACPICA for Windows compatibility, and is a workaround for 
BIOS 
AML 
code errors. See the description of the AcpiSetupGpeForWake interface in 
the 
APCICA reference. Bob Moore, Rafael Wysocki. ACPICA BZ 918.

Changed some comments and internal function names to simplify and ensure 
correctness of the Linux code translation. No functional changes.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.0K Code, 25.1K Data, 118.1K Total
    Debug Version:     172.7K Code, 73.6K Data, 246.3K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.1K Code, 25.1K Data, 118.2K Total
    Debug Version:     172.9K Code, 73.6K Data, 246.5K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Added support to emit short, commented descriptions for the 
ACPI 
predefined names in order to improve the readability of the disassembled 
output. ACPICA BZ 959. Changes include:
  1) Emit descriptions for all standard predefined names (_INI, _STA, 
_PRW, 
etc.)
  2) Emit generic descriptions for the special names (_Exx, _Qxx, etc.)
  3) Emit descriptions for the resource descriptor names (_MIN, _LEN, 
etc.)

AcpiSrc: Fixed several long-standing Linux code translation issues. 
Argument 
descriptions in function headers are now translated properly to lower 
case 
and 
underscores. ACPICA BZ 961. Also fixes translation problems such as 
these: 
(old -> new)
  i_aSL -> iASL
  00-7_f -> 00-7F
  16_k -> 16K
  local_fADT -> local_FADT
  execute_oSI -> execute_OSI

iASL: Fixed a problem where null bytes were inadvertently emitted into 
some 
listing files.

iASL: Added the existing debug options to the standard help screen. There 
are 
no longer two different help screens. ACPICA BZ 957.

AcpiHelp: Fixed some typos in the various predefined name descriptions. 
Also 
expand some of the descriptions where appropriate.

iASL: Fixed the -ot option (display compile times/statistics). Was not 
working 
properly for standard output; only worked for the debug file case.

----------------------------------------
18 May 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120518:


1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Added a new OSL interface, AcpiOsWaitEventsComplete. This interface is 
defined 
to block until asynchronous events such as notifies and GPEs have 
completed. 
Within ACPICA, it is only called before a notify or GPE handler is 
removed/uninstalled. It also may be useful for the host OS within related 
drivers such as the Embedded Controller driver. See the ACPICA reference 
for 
additional information. ACPICA BZ 868.

ACPI Tables: Added a new error message for a possible overflow failure 
during 
the conversion of FADT 32-bit legacy register addresses to internal 
common 
64-
bit GAS structure representation. The GAS has a one-byte "bit length" 
field, 
thus limiting the register length to 255 bits. ACPICA BZ 953.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.9K Code, 25.0K Data, 117.9K Total
    Debug Version:     172.6K Code, 73.4K Data, 246.0K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.0K Code, 25.1K Data, 118.1K Total
    Debug Version:     172.7K Code, 73.6K Data, 246.3K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Added the ACPI 5.0 "PCC" keyword for use in the Register() ASL 
macro. 
This keyword was added late in the ACPI 5.0 release cycle and was not 
implemented until now.

Disassembler: Added support for Operation Region externals. Adds missing 
support for operation regions that are defined in another table, and 
referenced locally via a Field or BankField ASL operator. Now generates 
the 
correct External statement.

Disassembler: Several additional fixes for the External() statement 
generation 
related to some ASL operators. Also, order the External() statements 
alphabetically in the disassembler output. Fixes the External() 
generation 
for 
the Create* field, Alias, and Scope operators:
 1) Create* buffer field operators - fix type mismatch warning on 
disassembly
 2) Alias - implement missing External support
 3) Scope - fix to make sure all necessary externals are emitted.

iASL: Improved pathname support. For include files, merge the prefix 
pathname 
with the file pathname and eliminate unnecessary components. Convert 
backslashes in all pathnames to forward slashes, for readability. Include 
file 
pathname changes affect both #include and Include() type operators.

iASL/DTC/Preprocessor: Gracefully handle early EOF. Handle an EOF at the 
end 
of a valid line by inserting a newline and then returning the EOF during 
the 
next call to GetNextLine. Prevents the line from being ignored due to EOF 
condition.

iASL: Implemented some changes to enhance the IDE support (-vi option.) 
Error 
and Warning messages are now correctly recognized for both the source 
code 
browser and the global error and warning counts.

----------------------------------------
20 April 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120420:


1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Implemented support for multiple notify handlers. This change adds 
support 
to 
allow multiple system and device notify handlers on Device, Thermal Zone, 
and 
Processor objects. This can simplify the host OS notification 
implementation. 
Also re-worked and restructured the entire notify support code to 
simplify 
handler installation, handler removal, notify event queuing, and notify 
dispatch to handler(s). Note: there can still only be two global notify 
handlers - one for system notifies and one for device notifies. There are 
no 
changes to the existing handler install/remove interfaces. Lin Ming, Bob 
Moore, Rafael Wysocki.

Fixed a regression in the package repair code where the object reference 
count was calculated incorrectly. Regression was introduced in the commit 
"Support to add Package wrappers".

Fixed a couple possible memory leaks in the AML parser, in the error 
recovery 
path. Jesper Juhl, Lin Ming.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.9K Code, 25.0K Data, 117.9K Total
    Debug Version:     172.5K Code, 73.2K Data, 245.7K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.9K Code, 25.0K Data, 117.9K Total
    Debug Version:     172.6K Code, 73.4K Data, 246.0K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fixed a problem with the resource descriptor support where the 
length 
of the StartDependentFn and StartDependentFnNoPrio descriptors were not 
included in cumulative descriptor offset, resulting in incorrect values 
for 
resource tags within resource descriptors appearing after a 
StartDependent* 
descriptor. Reported by Petr Vandrovec. ACPICA BZ 949.

iASL and Preprocessor: Implemented full support for the #line directive 
to 
correctly track original source file line numbers through the .i 
preprocessor 
output file - for error and warning messages.

iASL: Expand the allowable byte constants for address space IDs. 
Previously, 
the allowable range was 0x80-0xFF (user-defined spaces), now the range is 
0x0A-0xFF to allow for custom and new IDs without changing the compiler.

iASL: Add option to treat all warnings as errors (-we). ACPICA BZ 948.

iASL: Add option to completely disable the preprocessor (-Pn).

iASL: Now emit all error/warning messages to standard error (stderr) by 
default (instead of the previous stdout).

ASL Test Suite (ASLTS): Reduce iASL warnings due to use of Switch(). 
Update 
for resource descriptor offset fix above. Update/cleanup error output 
routines. Enable and send iASL errors/warnings to an error logfile 
(error.txt). Send all other iASL output to a logfile (compiler.txt). 
Fixed 
several extraneous "unrecognized operator" messages.

----------------------------------------
20 March 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120320:


1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Enhanced the sleep/wake interfaces to optionally execute the _GTS method 
(Going To Sleep) and the _BFS method (Back From Sleep). Windows 
apparently 
does not execute these methods, and therefore these methods are often 
untested. It has been seen on some systems where the execution of these 
methods causes errors and also prevents the machine from entering S5. It 
is 
therefore suggested that host operating systems do not execute these 
methods 
by default. In the future, perhaps these methods can be optionally 
executed 
based on the age of the system and/or what is the newest version of 
Windows 
that the BIOS asks for via _OSI. Changed interfaces: AcpiEnterSleepState 
and 
AcpileaveSleepStatePrep. See the ACPICA reference and Linux BZ 13041. Lin 
Ming.

Fixed a problem where the length of the local/common FADT was set too 
early. 
The local FADT table length cannot be set to the common length until the 
original length has been examined. There is code that checks the table 
length 
and sets various fields appropriately. This can affect older machines 
with 
early FADT versions. For example, this can cause inadvertent writes to 
the 
CST_CNT register. Julian Anastasov.

Fixed a mapping issue related to a physical table override. Use the 
deferred 
mapping mechanism for tables loaded via the physical override OSL 
interface. 
This allows for early mapping before the virtual memory manager is 
available. 
Thomas Renninger, Bob Moore.

Enhanced the automatic return-object repair code: Repair a common problem 
with 
predefined methods that are defined to return a variable-length Package 
of 
sub-objects. If there is only one sub-object, some BIOS ASL code 
mistakenly 
simply returns the single object instead of a Package with one sub-
object. 
This new support will repair this error by wrapping a Package object 
around 
the original object, creating the correct and expected Package with one 
sub-
object. Names that can be repaired in this manner include: _ALR, _CSD, 
_HPX, 
_MLS, _PLD, _PRT, _PSS, _TRT, _TSS, _BCL, _DOD, _FIX, and _Sx. ACPICA BZ 
939.

Changed the exception code returned for invalid ACPI paths passed as 
parameters to external interfaces such as AcpiEvaluateObject. Was 
AE_BAD_PARAMETER, now is the more sensible AE_BAD_PATHNAME.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.0K Code, 25.0K Data, 118.0K Total
    Debug Version:     172.5K Code, 73.2K Data, 245.7K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.9K Code, 25.0K Data, 117.9K Total
    Debug Version:     172.5K Code, 73.2K Data, 245.7K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Added the infrastructure and initial implementation of a integrated 
C-
like preprocessor. This will simplify BIOS development process by 
eliminating 
the need for a separate preprocessing step during builds. On Windows, it 
also 
eliminates the need to install a separate C compiler. ACPICA BZ 761. Some 
features including full #define() macro support are still under 
development. 
These preprocessor directives are supported:
    #define
    #elif
    #else
    #endif
    #error
    #if
    #ifdef
    #ifndef
    #include
    #pragma message
    #undef
    #warning
In addition, these new command line options are supported:
    -D <symbol> Define symbol for preprocessor use
    -li         Create preprocessed output file (*.i)
    -P          Preprocess only and create preprocessor output file (*.i)

Table Compiler: Fixed a problem where the equals operator within an 
expression 
did not work properly.

Updated iASL to use the current versions of Bison/Flex. Updated the 
Windows 
project file to invoke these tools from the standard location. ACPICA BZ 
904. 
Versions supported:
    Flex for Windows:  V2.5.4
    Bison for Windows: V2.4.1

----------------------------------------
15 February 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120215:


1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

There have been some major changes to the sleep/wake support code, as 
described below (a - e).

a) The AcpiLeaveSleepState has been split into two interfaces, similar to 
AcpiEnterSleepStatePrep and AcpiEnterSleepState. The new interface is 
AcpiLeaveSleepStatePrep. This allows the host to perform actions between 
the 
time the _BFS method is called and the _WAK method is called. NOTE: all 
hosts 
must update their wake/resume code or else sleep/wake will not work 
properly. 
Rafael Wysocki.

b) In AcpiLeaveSleepState, now enable all runtime GPEs before calling the 
_WAK 
method. Some machines require that the GPEs are enabled before the _WAK 
method 
is executed. Thomas Renninger.

c) In AcpiLeaveSleepState, now always clear the WAK_STS (wake status) 
bit. 
Some BIOS code assumes that WAK_STS will be cleared on resume and use it 
to 
determine whether the system is rebooting or resuming. Matthew Garrett.

d) Move the invocations of _GTS (Going To Sleep) and _BFS (Back From 
Sleep) to 
match the ACPI specification requirement. Rafael Wysocki.

e) Implemented full support for the ACPI 5.0 SleepStatus and SleepControl 
registers within the V5 FADT. This support adds two new files: 
hardware/hwesleep.c implements the support for the new registers. Moved 
all 
sleep/wake external interfaces to hardware/hwxfsleep.c.


Added a new OSL interface for ACPI table overrides, 
AcpiOsPhysicalTableOverride. This interface allows the host to override a 
table via a physical address, instead of the logical address required by 
AcpiOsTableOverride. This simplifies the host implementation. Initial 
implementation by Thomas Renninger. The ACPICA implementation creates a 
single 
shared function for table overrides that attempts both a logical and a 
physical override.

Expanded the OSL memory read/write interfaces to 64-bit data 
(AcpiOsReadMemory, AcpiOsWriteMemory.) This enables full 64-bit memory 
transfer support for GAS register structures passed to AcpiRead and 
AcpiWrite.

Implemented the ACPI_REDUCED_HARDWARE option to allow the creation of a 
custom 
build of ACPICA that supports only the ACPI 5.0 reduced hardware (SoC) 
model. 
See the ACPICA reference for details. ACPICA BZ 942. This option removes 
about 
10% of the code and 5% of the static data, and the following hardware 
ACPI 
features become unavailable:
    PM Event and Control registers
    SCI interrupt (and handler)
    Fixed Events
    General Purpose Events (GPEs)
    Global Lock
    ACPI PM timer
    FACS table (Waking vectors and Global Lock)

Updated the unix tarball directory structure to match the ACPICA git 
source 
tree. This ensures that the generic unix makefiles work properly (in 
generate/unix).  Also updated the Linux makefiles to match. ACPICA BZ 
867.

Updated the return value of the _REV predefined method to integer value 5 
to 
reflect ACPI 5.0 support.

Moved the external ACPI PM timer interface prototypes to the public 
acpixf.h 
file where they belong.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.8K Code, 24.9K Data, 117.7K Total
    Debug Version:     171.7K Code, 72.9K Data, 244.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  93.0K Code, 25.0K Data, 118.0K Total
    Debug Version:     172.5K Code, 73.2K Data, 245.7K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: Fixed a problem with the new ACPI 5.0 serial resource 
descriptors (I2C, SPI, UART) where the resource produce/consumer bit was 
incorrectly displayed.

AcpiHelp: Add display of ACPI/PNP device IDs that are defined in the ACPI 
specification.

----------------------------------------
11 January 2012. Summary of changes for version 20120111:


1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Implemented a new mechanism to allow host device drivers to check for 
address 
range conflicts with ACPI Operation Regions. Both SystemMemory and 
SystemIO 
address spaces are supported. A new external interface, 
AcpiCheckAddressRange, 
allows drivers to check an address range against the ACPI namespace. See 
the 
ACPICA reference for additional details. Adds one new file, 
utilities/utaddress.c. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed several issues with the ACPI 5.0 FADT support: Add the sleep 
Control 
and 
Status registers, update the ACPI 5.0 flags, and update internal data 
structures to handle an FADT larger than 256 bytes. The size of the ACPI 
5.0 
FADT is 268 bytes.

Updated all ACPICA copyrights and signons to 2012. Added the 2012 
copyright to 
all module headers and signons, including the standard Linux header. This 
affects virtually every file in the ACPICA core subsystem, iASL compiler, 
and 
all ACPICA utilities.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.3K Code, 24.9K Data, 117.2K Total
    Debug Version:     170.8K Code, 72.6K Data, 243.4K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.8K Code, 24.9K Data, 117.7K Total
    Debug Version:     171.7K Code, 72.9K Data, 244.5K Total


2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Disassembler: fixed a problem with the automatic resource tag generation 
support. Fixes a problem where the resource tags are inadvertently not 
constructed if the table being disassembled contains external references 
to 
control methods. Moved the actual construction of the tags to after the 
final 
namespace is constructed (after 2nd parse is invoked due to external 
control 
method references.) ACPICA BZ 941.

Table Compiler: Make all "generic" operators caseless. These are the 
operators 
like UINT8, String, etc. Making these caseless improves ease-of-use. 
ACPICA BZ 
934.

----------------------------------------
23 November 2011. Summary of changes for version 20111123:

0) ACPI 5.0 Support:

This release contains full support for the ACPI 5.0 specification, as 
summarized below.

Reduced Hardware Support:
-------------------------

This support allows for ACPI systems without the usual ACPI hardware. 
This 
support is enabled by a flag in the revision 5 FADT. If it is set, ACPICA 
will 
not attempt to initialize or use any of the usual ACPI hardware. Note, 
when 
this flag is set, all of the following ACPI hardware is assumed to be not 
present and is not initialized or accessed:

    General Purpose Events (GPEs)
    Fixed Events (PM1a/PM1b and PM Control)
    Power Management Timer and Console Buttons (power/sleep)
    Real-time Clock Alarm
    Global Lock
    System Control Interrupt (SCI)
    The FACS is assumed to be non-existent

ACPI Tables:
------------

All new tables and updates to existing tables are fully supported in the 
ACPICA headers (for use by device drivers), the disassembler, and the 
iASL 
Data Table Compiler. ACPI 5.0 defines these new tables:

    BGRT        /* Boot Graphics Resource Table */
    DRTM        /* Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement table */
    FPDT        /* Firmware Performance Data Table */
    GTDT        /* Generic Timer Description Table */
    MPST        /* Memory Power State Table */
    PCCT        /* Platform Communications Channel Table */
    PMTT        /* Platform Memory Topology Table */
    RASF        /* RAS Feature table */

Operation Regions/SpaceIDs:
---------------------------

All new operation regions are fully supported by the iASL compiler, the 
disassembler, and the ACPICA runtime code (for dispatch to region 
handlers.) 
The new operation region Space IDs are:

    GeneralPurposeIo
    GenericSerialBus

Resource Descriptors:
---------------------

All new ASL resource descriptors are fully supported by the iASL 
compiler, 
the 
ASL/AML disassembler, and the ACPICA runtime Resource Manager code 
(including 
all new predefined resource tags). New descriptors are:

    FixedDma
    GpioIo
    GpioInt
    I2cSerialBus
    SpiSerialBus
    UartSerialBus

ASL/AML Operators, New and Modified:
------------------------------------

One new operator is added, the Connection operator, which is used to 
associate 
a GeneralPurposeIo or GenericSerialBus resource descriptor with 
individual 
field objects within an operation region. Several new protocols are 
associated 
with the AccessAs operator. All are fully supported by the iASL compiler, 
disassembler, and runtime ACPICA AML interpreter:

    Connection                      // Declare Field Connection 
attributes
    AccessAs: AttribBytes (n)           // Read/Write N-Bytes Protocol
    AccessAs: AttribRawBytes (n)        // Raw Read/Write N-Bytes 
Protocol
    AccessAs: AttribRawProcessBytes (n) // Raw Process Call Protocol
    RawDataBuffer                       // Data type for Vendor Data 
fields

Predefined ASL/AML Objects:
---------------------------

All new predefined objects/control-methods are supported by the iASL 
compiler 
and the ACPICA runtime validation/repair (arguments and return values.) 
New 
predefined names include the following:

Standard Predefined Names (Objects or Control Methods):
    _AEI, _CLS, _CPC, _CWS, _DEP,
    _DLM, _EVT, _GCP, _CRT, _GWS,
    _HRV, _PRE, _PSE, _SRT, _SUB.

Resource Tags (Names used to access individual fields within resource 
descriptors):
    _DBT, _DPL, _DRS, _END, _FLC,
    _IOR, _LIN, _MOD, _PAR, _PHA,
    _PIN, _PPI, _POL, _RXL, _SLV,
    _SPE, _STB, _TXL, _VEN.

ACPICA External Interfaces:
---------------------------

Several new interfaces have been defined for use by ACPI-related device 
drivers and other host OS services:

AcpiAcquireMutex and AcpiReleaseMutex: These interfaces allow the host OS 
to 
acquire and release AML mutexes that are defined in the DSDT/SSDT tables 
provided by the BIOS. They are intended to be used in conjunction with 
the 
ACPI 5.0 _DLM (Device Lock Method) in order to provide transaction-level 
mutual exclusion with the AML code/interpreter.

AcpiGetEventResources: Returns the (formatted) resource descriptors as 
defined 
by the ACPI 5.0 _AEI object (ACPI Event Information).  This object 
provides 
resource descriptors associated with hardware-reduced platform events, 
similar 
to the AcpiGetCurrentResources interface.

Operation Region Handlers: For General Purpose IO and Generic Serial Bus 
operation regions, information about the Connection() object and any 
optional 
length information is passed to the region handler within the Context 
parameter.

AcpiBufferToResource: This interface converts a raw AML buffer containing 
a 
resource template or resource descriptor to the ACPI_RESOURCE internal 
format 
suitable for use by device drivers. Can be used by an operation region 
handler 
to convert the Connection() buffer object into a ACPI_RESOURCE.

Miscellaneous/Tools/TestSuites: 
-------------------------------

Support for extended _HID names (Four alpha characters instead of three).
Support for ACPI 5.0 features in the AcpiExec and AcpiHelp utilities.
Support for ACPI 5.0 features in the ASLTS test suite.
Fully updated documentation (ACPICA and iASL reference documents.)

ACPI Table Definition Language:
-------------------------------

Support for this language was implemented and released as a subsystem of 
the 
iASL compiler in 2010. (See the iASL compiler User Guide.)


Non-ACPI 5.0 changes for this release:
--------------------------------------

1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Fix a problem with operation region declarations where a failure can 
occur 
if 
the region name and an argument that evaluates to an object (such as the 
region address) are in different namespace scopes. Lin Ming, ACPICA BZ 
937.

Do not abort an ACPI table load if an invalid space ID is found within. 
This 
will be caught later if the offending method is executed. ACPICA BZ 925.

Fixed an issue with the FFixedHW space ID where the ID was not always 
recognized properly (Both ACPICA and iASL). ACPICA BZ 926.

Fixed a problem with the 32-bit generation of the unix-specific OSL 
(osunixxf.c). Lin Ming, ACPICA BZ 936.

Several changes made to enable generation with the GCC 4.6 compiler. 
ACPICA BZ 
935.

New error messages: Unsupported I/O requests (not 8/16/32 bit), and 
Index/Bank 
field registers out-of-range.

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented the __PATH__ operator, which returns the full pathname 
of 
the current source file.

AcpiHelp: Automatically display expanded keyword information for all ASL 
operators.

Debugger: Add "Template" command to disassemble/dump resource template 
buffers.

Added a new master script to generate and execute the ASLTS test suite. 
Automatically handles 32- and 64-bit generation. See tests/aslts.sh

iASL: Fix problem with listing generation during processing of the 
Switch() 
operator where AML listing was disabled until the entire Switch block was 
completed.

iASL: Improve support for semicolon statement terminators. Fix "invalid 
character" message for some cases when the semicolon is used. Semicolons 
are 
now allowed after every <Term> grammar element. ACPICA BZ 927.

iASL: Fixed some possible aliasing warnings during generation. ACPICA BZ 
923.

Disassembler: Fix problem with disassembly of the DataTableRegion 
operator 
where an inadvertent "Unhandled deferred opcode" message could be 
generated.

3) Example Code and Data Size

These are the sizes for the OS-independent acpica.lib produced by the 
Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The debug version of the code 
includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger code and 
data 
size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  90.2K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  92.3K Code, 24.9K Data, 117.2K Total
    Debug Version:     170.8K Code, 72.6K Data, 243.4K Total

----------------------------------------
22 September 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110922:

0) ACPI 5.0 News:

Support for ACPI 5.0 in ACPICA has been underway for several months and 
will 
be released at the same time that ACPI 5.0 is officially released.

The ACPI 5.0 specification is on track for release in the next few 
months.
 
1) ACPICA Core Subsystem:

Fixed a problem where the maximum sleep time for the Sleep() operator was 
intended to be limited to two seconds, but was inadvertently limited to 
20 
seconds instead.

Linux and Unix makefiles: Added header file dependencies to ensure 
correct 
generation of ACPICA core code and utilities. Also simplified the 
makefiles 
considerably through the use of the vpath variable to specify search 
paths. 
ACPICA BZ 924.

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented support to check the access length for all fields 
created to 
access named Resource Descriptor fields. For example, if a resource field 
is 
defined to be two bits, a warning is issued if a CreateXxxxField() is 
used 
with an incorrect bit length. This is implemented for all current 
resource 
descriptor names. ACPICA BZ 930.
  
Disassembler: Fixed a byte ordering problem with the output of 24-bit and 
56-
bit integers.

iASL: Fixed a couple of issues associated with variable-length package 
objects. 1) properly handle constants like One, Ones, Zero -- do not make 
a 
VAR_PACKAGE when these are used as a package length. 2) Allow the 
VAR_PACKAGE 
opcode (in addition to PACKAGE) when validating object types for 
predefined 
names.

iASL: Emit statistics for all output files (instead of just the ASL input 
and 
AML output). Includes listings, hex files, etc.

iASL: Added -G option to the table compiler to allow the compilation of 
custom 
ACPI tables. The only part of a table that is required is the standard 
36-
byte 
ACPI header.

AcpiXtract: Ported to the standard ACPICA environment (with ACPICA 
headers), 
which also adds correct 64-bit support. Also, now all output filenames 
are 
completely lower case.

AcpiExec: Ignore any non-AML tables (tables other than DSDT or SSDT) when 
loading table files. A warning is issued for any such tables. The only 
exception is an FADT. This also fixes a possible fault when attempting to 
load 
non-AML tables. ACPICA BZ 932.

AcpiHelp: Added the AccessAs and Offset operators. Fixed a problem where 
a 
missing table terminator could cause a fault when using the -p option.

AcpiSrc: Fixed a possible divide-by-zero fault when generating file 
statistics.

3) Example Code and Data Size

These are the sizes for the OS-independent acpica.lib produced by the 
Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The debug version of the code 
includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger code and 
data 
size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.2K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.2K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total


----------------------------------------
23 June 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110623:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Updated the predefined name repair mechanism to not attempt repair of a 
_TSS 
return object if a _PSS object is present. We can only sort the _TSS 
return 
package if there is no _PSS within the same scope. This is because if 
_PSS 
is 
present, the ACPI specification dictates that the _TSS Power Dissipation 
field 
is to be ignored, and therefore some BIOSs leave garbage values in the 
_TSS 
Power field(s). In this case, it is best to just return the _TSS package 
as-
is. Reported by, and fixed with assistance from Fenghua Yu.

Added an option to globally disable the control method return value 
validation 
and repair. This runtime option can be used to disable return value 
repair 
if 
this is causing a problem on a particular machine. Also added an option 
to 
AcpiExec (-dr) to set this disable flag.

All makefiles and project files: Major changes to improve generation of 
ACPICA 
tools. ACPICA BZ 912:
    Reduce default optimization levels to improve compatibility
    For Linux, add strict-aliasing=0 for gcc 4
    Cleanup and simplify use of command line defines
    Cleanup multithread library support
    Improve usage messages

Linux-specific header: update handling of THREAD_ID and pthread. For the 
32-
bit case, improve casting to eliminate possible warnings, especially with 
the 
acpica tools.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.1K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.0K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.2K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

With this release, a new utility named "acpihelp" has been added to the 
ACPICA 
package. This utility summarizes the ACPI specification chapters for the 
ASL 
and AML languages. It generates under Linux/Unix as well as Windows, and 
provides the following functionality:
    Find/display ASL operator(s) -- with description and syntax.
    Find/display ASL keyword(s) -- with exact spelling and descriptions.
    Find/display ACPI predefined name(s) -- with description, number
        of arguments, and the return value data type.
    Find/display AML opcode name(s) -- with opcode, arguments, and 
grammar.
    Decode/display AML opcode -- with opcode name, arguments, and 
grammar.

Service Layers: Make multi-thread support configurable. Conditionally 
compile 
the multi-thread support so that threading libraries will not be linked 
if 
not 
necessary. The only tool that requires multi-thread support is AcpiExec.

iASL: Update yyerrror/AslCompilerError for "const" errors. Newer versions 
of 
Bison appear to want the interface to yyerror to be a const char * (or at 
least this is a problem when generating iASL on some systems.) ACPICA BZ 
923 
Pierre Lejeune.

Tools: Fix for systems where O_BINARY is not defined. Only used for 
Windows 
versions of the tools.

----------------------------------------
27 May 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110527:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

ASL Load() operator: Reinstate most restrictions on the incoming ACPI 
table 
signature. Now, only allow SSDT, OEMx, and a null signature. History:
    1) Originally, we checked the table signature for "SSDT" or "PSDT".
       (PSDT is now obsolete.)
    2) We added support for OEMx tables, signature "OEM" plus a fourth
       "don't care" character.
    3) Valid tables were encountered with a null signature, so we just
       gave up on validating the signature, (05/2008).
    4) We encountered non-AML tables such as the MADT, which caused
       interpreter errors and kernel faults. So now, we once again allow
       only SSDT, OEMx, and now, also a null signature. (05/2011).

Added the missing _TDL predefined name to the global name list in order 
to 
enable validation. Affects both the core ACPICA code and the iASL 
compiler.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug 
version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a 
much 
larger code and data size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.0K Code, 23.8K Data, 113.8K Total
    Debug Version:     164.5K Code, 68.0K Data, 232.5K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.1K Code, 23.9K Data, 114.0K Total
    Debug Version:     165.6K Code, 68.4K Data, 234.0K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Debugger/AcpiExec: Implemented support for "complex" method arguments on 
the 
debugger command line. This adds support beyond simple integers -- 
including 
Strings, Buffers, and Packages. Includes support for nested packages. 
Increased the default command line buffer size to accommodate these 
arguments. 
See the ACPICA reference for details and syntax. ACPICA BZ 917.
 
Debugger/AcpiExec: Implemented support for "default" method arguments for 
the 
Execute/Debug command. Now, the debugger will always invoke a control 
method 
with the required number of arguments -- even if the command line 
specifies 
none or insufficient arguments. It uses default integer values for any 
missing 
arguments. Also fixes a bug where only six method arguments maximum were 
supported instead of the required seven.

Debugger/AcpiExec: Add a maximum buffer length parameter to AcpiOsGetLine 
and 
also return status in order to prevent buffer overruns. See the ACPICA 
reference for details and syntax. ACPICA BZ 921

iASL: Cleaned up support for Berkeley yacc. A general cleanup of code and 
makefiles to simplify support for the two different but similar parser 
generators, bison and yacc.

Updated the generic unix makefile for gcc 4. The default gcc version is 
now 
expected to be 4 or greater, since options specific to gcc 4 are used.

----------------------------------------
13 April 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110413:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Implemented support to execute a so-called "orphan" _REG method under the 
EC 
device. This change will force the execution of a _REG method underneath 
the 
EC 
device even if there is no corresponding operation region of type 
EmbeddedControl. Fixes a problem seen on some machines and apparently is 
compatible with Windows behavior. ACPICA BZ 875.

Added more predefined methods that are eligible for automatic NULL 
package 
element removal. This change adds another group of predefined names to 
the 
list 
of names that can be repaired by having NULL package elements dynamically 
removed. This group are those methods that return a single variable-
length 
package containing simple data types such as integers, buffers, strings. 
This 
includes: _ALx, _BCL, _CID,_ DOD, _EDL, _FIX, _PCL, _PLD, _PMD, _PRx, 
_PSL, 
_Sx, 
and _TZD. ACPICA BZ 914.

Split and segregated all internal global lock functions to a new file, 
evglock.c.

Updated internal address SpaceID for DataTable regions. Moved this 
internal 
space 
id in preparation for ACPI 5.0 changes that will include some new space 
IDs. 
This 
change should not affect user/host code.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib 
produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The debug 
version of 
the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger 
code 
and 
data size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.8K Code, 23.8K Data, 113.6K Total
    Debug Version:     164.2K Code, 67.9K Data, 232.1K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  90.0K Code, 23.8K Data, 113.8K Total
    Debug Version:     164.5K Code, 68.0K Data, 232.5K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/DTC: Major update for new grammar features. Allow generic data types 
in 
custom ACPI tables. Field names are now optional. Any line can be split 
to 
multiple lines using the continuation char (\). Large buffers now use 
line-
continuation character(s) and no colon on the continuation lines. See the 
grammar 
update in the iASL compiler reference. ACPI BZ 910,911. Lin Ming, Bob 
Moore.

iASL: Mark ASL "Return()" and the simple "Return" as "Null" return 
statements. 
Since the parser stuffs a "zero" as the return value for these statements 
(due 
to 
the underlying AML grammar), they were seen as "return with value" by the 
iASL 
semantic checking. They are now seen correctly as "null" return 
statements.

iASL: Check if a_REG declaration has a corresponding Operation Region. 
Adds a 
check for each _REG to ensure that there is in fact a corresponding 
operation 
region declaration in the same scope. If not, the _REG method is not very 
useful 
since it probably won't be executed. ACPICA BZ 915.

iASL/DTC: Finish support for expression evaluation. Added a new 
expression 
parser 
that implements c-style operator precedence and parenthesization. ACPICA 
bugzilla 
908.

Disassembler/DTC: Remove support for () and <> style comments in data 
tables. 
Now 
that DTC has full expression support, we don't want to have comment 
strings 
that 
start with a parentheses or a less-than symbol. Now, only the standard /* 
and 
// 
comments are supported, as well as the bracket [] comments.

AcpiXtract: Fix for RSDP and dynamic SSDT extraction. These tables have 
"unusual" 
headers in the acpidump file. Update the header validation to support 
these 
tables. Problem introduced in previous AcpiXtract version in the change 
to 
support "wrong checksum" error messages emitted by acpidump utility.

iASL: Add a * option to generate all template files (as a synonym for 
ALL) 
as 
in 
"iasl -T *" or "iasl -T ALL".

iASL/DTC: Do not abort compiler on fatal errors. We do not want to 
completely 
abort the compiler on "fatal" errors, simply should abort the current 
compile. 
This allows multiple compiles with a single (possibly wildcard) compiler 
invocation.

----------------------------------------
16 March 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110316:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Fixed a problem caused by a _PRW method appearing at the namespace root 
scope 
during the setup of wake GPEs. A fault could occur if a _PRW directly 
under 
the 
root object was passed to the AcpiSetupGpeForWake interface. Lin Ming.

Implemented support for "spurious" Global Lock interrupts. On some 
systems, a 
global lock interrupt can occur without the pending flag being set. Upon 
a 
GL 
interrupt, we now ensure that a thread is actually waiting for the lock 
before 
signaling GL availability. Rafael Wysocki, Bob Moore.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib 
produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The debug 
version of 
the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger 
code 
and 
data size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.7K Code, 23.7K Data, 113.4K Total
    Debug Version:     163.9K Code, 67.5K Data, 231.4K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.8K Code, 23.8K Data, 113.6K Total
    Debug Version:     164.2K Code, 67.9K Data, 232.1K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

Implemented full support for the "SLIC" ACPI table. Includes support in 
the 
header files, disassembler, table compiler, and template generator. Bob 
Moore, 
Lin Ming.

AcpiXtract: Correctly handle embedded comments and messages from 
AcpiDump. 
Apparently some or all versions of acpidump will occasionally emit a 
comment 
like 
"Wrong checksum", etc., into the dump file. This was causing problems for 
AcpiXtract. ACPICA BZ 905.

iASL: Fix the Linux makefile by removing an inadvertent double file 
inclusion. 
ACPICA BZ 913.

AcpiExec: Update installation of operation region handlers. Install one 
handler 
for a user-defined address space. This is used by the ASL test suite 
(ASLTS).

----------------------------------------
11 February 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110211:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Added a mechanism to defer _REG methods for some early-installed 
handlers. 
Most user handlers should be installed before call to 
AcpiEnableSubsystem. 
However, Event handlers and region handlers should be installed after 
AcpiInitializeObjects. Override handlers for the "default" regions should 
be 
installed early, however. This change executes all _REG methods for the 
default regions (Memory/IO/PCI/DataTable) simultaneously to prevent any 
chicken/egg issues between them. ACPICA BZ 848.

Implemented an optimization for GPE detection. This optimization will 
simply 
ignore GPE registers that contain no enabled GPEs -- there is no need to 
read the register since this information is available internally. This 
becomes more important on machines with a large GPE space. ACPICA 
bugzilla 
884. Lin Ming. Suggestion from Joe Liu.

Removed all use of the highly unreliable FADT revision field. The 
revision 
number in the FADT has been found to be completely unreliable and cannot 
be 
trusted. Only the actual table length can be used to infer the version. 
This 
change updates the ACPICA core and the disassembler so that both no 
longer 
even look at the FADT version and instead depend solely upon the FADT 
length.

Fix an unresolved name issue for the no-debug and no-error-message source 
generation cases. The _AcpiModuleName was left undefined in these cases, 
but 
it is actually needed as a parameter to some interfaces. Define 
_AcpiModuleName as a null string in these cases. ACPICA Bugzilla 888.

Split several large files (makefiles and project files updated)
  utglobal.c   -> utdecode.c
  dbcomds.c    -> dbmethod.c dbnames.c
  dsopcode.c   -> dsargs.c dscontrol.c
  dsload.c     -> dsload2.c
  aslanalyze.c -> aslbtypes.c aslwalks.c

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has 
a much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.7K Code, 23.7K Data, 113.4K Total
    Debug Version:     163.9K Code, 67.5K Data, 231.4K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.7K Code, 23.7K Data, 113.4K Total
    Debug Version:     163.9K Code, 67.5K Data, 231.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented the predefined macros __LINE__, __FILE__, and __DATE__. 
These are useful C-style macros with the standard definitions. ACPICA 
bugzilla 898.

iASL/DTC: Added support for integer expressions and labels. Support for 
full 
expressions for all integer fields in all ACPI tables. Support for labels 
in 
"generic" portions of tables such as UEFI. See the iASL reference manual.

Debugger: Added a command to display the status of global handlers. The 
"handlers" command will display op region, fixed event, and miscellaneous 
global handlers. installation status -- and for op regions, whether 
default 
or user-installed handler will be used.

iASL: Warn if reserved method incorrectly returns a value. Many 
predefined 
names are defined such that they do not return a value. If implemented as 
a 
method, issue a warning if such a name explicitly returns a value. ACPICA 
Bugzilla 855.

iASL: Added detection of GPE method name conflicts. Detects a conflict 
where 
there are two GPE methods of the form _Lxy and _Exy in the same scope. 
(For 
example, _L1D and _E1D in the same scope.) ACPICA bugzilla 848.

iASL/DTC: Fixed a couple input scanner issues with comments and line 
numbers. Comment remover could get confused and miss a comment ending. 
Fixed 
a problem with line counter maintenance.

iASL/DTC: Reduced the severity of some errors from fatal to error. There 
is 
no need to abort on simple errors within a field definition.

Debugger: Simplified the output of the help command. All help output now 
in 
a single screen, instead of help subcommands. ACPICA Bugzilla 897.

----------------------------------------
12 January 2011. Summary of changes for version 20110112:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Fixed a race condition between method execution and namespace walks that 
can 
possibly cause a fault. The problem was apparently introduced in version 
20100528 as a result of a performance optimization that reduces the 
number 
of 
namespace walks upon method exit by using the delete_namespace_subtree 
function instead of the delete_namespace_by_owner function used 
previously. 
Bug is a missing namespace lock in the delete_namespace_subtree function. 
dana.myers@oracle.com

Fixed several issues and a possible fault with the automatic "serialized" 
method support. History: This support changes a method to "serialized" on 
the 
fly if the method generates an AE_ALREADY_EXISTS error, indicating the 
possibility that it cannot handle reentrancy. This fix repairs a couple 
of 
issues seen in the field, especially on machines with many cores:

    1) Delete method children only upon the exit of the last thread,
       so as to not delete objects out from under other running threads
      (and possibly causing a fault.)
    2) Set the "serialized" bit for the method only upon the exit of the
       Last thread, so as to not cause deadlock when running threads
       attempt to exit.
    3) Cleanup the use of the AML "MethodFlags" and internal method flags
       so that there is no longer any confusion between the two.

    Lin Ming, Bob Moore. Reported by dana.myers@oracle.com.

Debugger: Now lock the namespace for duration of a namespace dump. 
Prevents 
issues if the namespace is changing dynamically underneath the debugger. 
Especially affects temporary namespace nodes, since the debugger displays 
these also.

Updated the ordering of include files. The ACPICA headers should appear 
before any compiler-specific headers (stdio.h, etc.) so that acenv.h can 
set 
any necessary compiler-specific defines, etc. Affects the ACPI-related 
tools 
and utilities.

Updated all ACPICA copyrights and signons to 2011. Added the 2011 
copyright 
to all module headers and signons, including the Linux header. This 
affects 
virtually every file in the ACPICA core subsystem, iASL compiler, and all 
utilities.

Added project files for MS Visual Studio 2008 (VC++ 9.0). The original 
project files for VC++ 6.0 are now obsolete. New project files can be 
found 
under acpica/generate/msvc9. See acpica/generate/msvc9/readme.txt for 
details.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release (VC 6.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.8K Code, 18.9K Data, 108.7K Total
    Debug Version:     166.6K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.7K Total
  Current Release (VC 9.0):
    Non-Debug Version:  89.7K Code, 23.7K Data, 113.4K Total
    Debug Version:     163.9K Code, 67.5K Data, 231.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Added generic data types to the Data Table compiler. Add "generic" 
data 
types such as UINT32, String, Unicode, etc., to simplify the generation 
of 
platform-defined tables such as UEFI. Lin Ming.

iASL: Added listing support for the Data Table Compiler. Adds listing 
support 
(-l) to display actual binary output for each line of input code.

----------------------------------------
09 December 2010. Summary of changes for version 20101209:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Completed the major overhaul of the GPE support code that was begun in 
July 
2010. Major features include: removal of _PRW execution in ACPICA (host 
executes _PRWs anyway), cleanup of "wake" GPE interfaces and processing, 
changes to existing interfaces, simplification of GPE handler operation, 
and 
a handful of new interfaces:

    AcpiUpdateAllGpes
    AcpiFinishGpe
    AcpiSetupGpeForWake
    AcpiSetGpeWakeMask
    One new file, evxfgpe.c to consolidate all external GPE interfaces.

See the ACPICA Programmer Reference for full details and programming 
information. See the new section 4.4 "General Purpose Event (GPE) 
Support" 
for a full overview, and section 8.7 "ACPI General Purpose Event 
Management" 
for programming details. ACPICA BZ 858,870,877. Matthew Garrett, Lin 
Ming, 
Bob Moore, Rafael Wysocki.

Implemented a new GPE feature for Windows compatibility, the "Implicit 
Wake 
GPE Notify". This feature will automatically issue a Notify(2) on a 
device 
when a Wake GPE is received if there is no corresponding GPE method or 
handler. ACPICA BZ 870.

Fixed a problem with the Scope() operator during table parse and load 
phase. 
During load phase (table load or method execution), the scope operator 
should 
not enter the target into the namespace. Instead, it should open a new 
scope 
at the target location. Linux BZ 19462, ACPICA BZ 882.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.8K Code, 18.9K Data, 108.7K Total
    Debug Version:     166.6K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.7K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.9K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.9K Total
    Debug Version:     166.3K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Relax the alphanumeric restriction on _CID strings. These strings 
are 
"bus-specific" per the ACPI specification, and therefore any characters 
are 
acceptable. The only checks that can be performed are for a null string 
and 
perhaps for a leading asterisk. ACPICA BZ 886.

iASL: Fixed a problem where a syntax error that caused a premature EOF 
condition on the source file emitted a very confusing error message. The 
premature EOF is now detected correctly. ACPICA BZ 891.

Disassembler: Decode the AccessSize within a Generic Address Structure 
(byte 
access, word access, etc.) Note, this field does not allow arbitrary bit 
access, the size is encoded as 1=byte, 2=word, 3=dword, and 4=qword.

New: AcpiNames utility - Example namespace dump utility. Shows an example 
of 
ACPICA configuration for a minimal namespace dump utility. Uses table and 
namespace managers, but no AML interpreter. Does not add any 
functionality 
over AcpiExec, it is a subset of AcpiExec. The purpose is to show how to 
partition and configure ACPICA. ACPICA BZ 883.

AML Debugger: Increased the debugger buffer size for method return 
objects. 
Was 4K, increased to 16K. Also enhanced error messages for debugger 
method 
execution, including the buffer overflow case.

----------------------------------------
13 October 2010. Summary of changes for version 20101013:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Added support to clear the PCIEXP_WAKE event. When clearing ACPI events, 
now 
clear the PCIEXP_WAKE_STS bit in the ACPI PM1 Status Register, via 
HwClearAcpiStatus. Original change from Colin King. ACPICA BZ 880.

Changed the type of the predefined namespace object _TZ from ThermalZone 
to 
Device. This was found to be confusing to the host software that 
processes 
the various thermal zones, since _TZ is not really a ThermalZone. 
However, 
a 
Notify() can still be performed on it. ACPICA BZ 876. Suggestion from Rui 
Zhang.

Added Windows Vista SP2 to the list of supported _OSI strings. The actual 
string is "Windows 2006 SP2".

Eliminated duplicate code in AcpiUtExecute* functions. Now that the 
nsrepair 
code automatically repairs _HID-related strings, this type of code is no 
longer needed in Execute_HID, Execute_CID, and Execute_UID. ACPICA BZ 
878.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.9K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.9K Total
    Debug Version:     166.3K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.4K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.9K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.9K Total
    Debug Version:     166.3K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented additional compile-time validation for _HID strings. 
The 
non-hex prefix (such as "PNP" or "ACPI") must be uppercase, and the 
length 
of 
the string must be exactly seven or eight characters. For both _HID and 
_CID 
strings, all characters must be alphanumeric. ACPICA BZ 874.

iASL: Allow certain "null" resource descriptors. Some BIOS code creates 
descriptors that are mostly or all zeros, with the expectation that they 
will 
be filled in at runtime. iASL now allows this as long as there is a 
"resource 
tag" (name) associated with the descriptor, which gives the ASL a handle 
needed to modify the descriptor. ACPICA BZ 873.

Added single-thread support to the generic Unix application OSL. 
Primarily 
for iASL support, this change removes the use of semaphores in the 
single-
threaded ACPICA tools/applications - increasing performance. The 
_MULTI_THREADED option was replaced by the (reverse) ACPI_SINGLE_THREADED 
option. ACPICA BZ 879.

AcpiExec: several fixes for the 64-bit version. Adds XSDT support and 
support 
for 64-bit DSDT/FACS addresses in the FADT. Lin Ming.

iASL: Moved all compiler messages to a new file, aslmessages.h.

----------------------------------------
15 September 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100915:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Removed the AcpiOsDerivePciId OSL interface. The various host 
implementations 
of this function were not OS-dependent and are now obsolete and can be 
removed from all host OSLs. This function has been replaced by 
AcpiHwDerivePciId, which is now part of the ACPICA core code. 
AcpiHwDerivePciId has been implemented without recursion. Adds one new 
module, hwpci.c. ACPICA BZ 857.

Implemented a dynamic repair for _HID and _CID strings. The following 
problems are now repaired at runtime: 1) Remove a leading asterisk in the 
string, and 2) the entire string is uppercased. Both repairs are in 
accordance with the ACPI specification and will simplify host driver 
code. 
ACPICA BZ 871.

The ACPI_THREAD_ID type is no longer configurable, internally it is now 
always UINT64. This simplifies the ACPICA code, especially any printf 
output. 
UINT64 is the only common data type for all thread_id types across all 
operating systems. It is now up to the host OSL to cast the native 
thread_id 
type to UINT64 before returning the value to ACPICA (via 
AcpiOsGetThreadId). 
Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Added the ACPI_INLINE type to enhance the ACPICA configuration. The 
"inline" 
keyword is not standard across compilers, and this type allows inline to 
be 
configured on a per-compiler basis. Lin Ming.

Made the system global AcpiGbl_SystemAwakeAndRunning publically 
available. 
Added an extern for this boolean in acpixf.h. Some hosts utilize this 
value 
during suspend/restore operations. ACPICA BZ 869.

All code that implements error/warning messages with the "ACPI:" prefix 
has 
been moved to a new module, utxferror.c.

The UINT64_OVERLAY was moved to utmath.c, which is the only module where 
it 
is used. ACPICA BZ 829. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.1K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.1K Code, 51.9K Data, 217.0K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.9K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.9K Total
    Debug Version:     166.3K Code, 52.1K Data, 218.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/Disassembler: Write ACPI errors to stderr instead of the output 
file. 
This keeps the output files free of random error messages that may 
originate 
from within the namespace/interpreter code. Used this opportunity to 
merge 
all ACPI:-style messages into a single new module, utxferror.c. ACPICA BZ 
866. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Tools: update some printfs for ansi warnings on size_t. Handle width 
change 
of size_t on 32-bit versus 64-bit generations. Lin Ming.

----------------------------------------
06 August 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100806:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Designed and implemented a new host interface to the _OSI support code. 
This 
will allow the host to dynamically add or remove multiple _OSI strings, 
as 
well as install an optional handler that is called for each _OSI 
invocation. 
Also added a new AML debugger command, 'osi' to display and modify the 
global 
_OSI string table, and test support in the AcpiExec utility. See the 
ACPICA 
reference manual for full details. Lin Ming, Bob Moore. ACPICA BZ 836.
New Functions:
    AcpiInstallInterface - Add an _OSI string.
    AcpiRemoveInterface - Delete an _OSI string.
    AcpiInstallInterfaceHandler - Install optional _OSI handler.
Obsolete Functions:
    AcpiOsValidateInterface - no longer used.
New Files:
    source/components/utilities/utosi.c

Re-introduced the support to enable multi-byte transfers for Embedded 
Controller (EC) operation regions. A reported problem was found to be a 
bug 
in the host OS, not in the multi-byte support. Previously, the maximum 
data 
size passed to the EC operation region handler was a single byte. There 
are 
often EC Fields larger than one byte that need to be transferred, and it 
is 
useful for the EC driver to lock these as a single transaction. This 
change 
enables single transfers larger than 8 bits. This effectively changes the 
access to the EC space from ByteAcc to AnyAcc, and will probably require 
changes to the host OS Embedded Controller driver to enable 16/32/64/256-
bit 
transfers in addition to 8-bit transfers. Alexey Starikovskiy, Lin Ming.

Fixed a problem with the prototype for AcpiOsReadPciConfiguration. The 
prototype in acpiosxf.h had the output value pointer as a (void *).
It should be a (UINT64 *). This may affect some host OSL code.

Fixed a couple problems with the recently modified Linux makefiles for 
iASL 
and AcpiExec. These new makefiles place the generated object files in the 
local directory so that there can be no collisions between the files that 
are 
shared between them that are compiled with different options.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.3K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.1K Total
    Debug Version:     164.0K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  89.1K Code, 19.0K Data, 108.1K Total
    Debug Version:     165.1K Code, 51.9K Data, 217.0K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/Disassembler: Added a new option (-da, "disassemble all") to load 
the 
namespace from and disassemble an entire group of AML files. Useful for 
loading all of the AML tables for a given machine (DSDT, SSDT1...SSDTn) 
and 
disassembling with one simple command. ACPICA BZ 865. Lin Ming.

iASL: Allow multiple invocations of -e option. This change allows 
multiple 
uses of -e on the command line: "-e ssdt1.dat -e ssdt2.dat". ACPICA BZ 
834. 
Lin Ming.

----------------------------------------
02 July 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100702:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Implemented several updates to the recently added GPE reference count 
support. The model for "wake" GPEs is changing to give the host OS 
complete 
control of these GPEs. Eventually, the ACPICA core will not execute any 
_PRW 
methods, since the host already must execute them. Also, additional 
changes 
were made to help ensure that the reference counts are kept in proper 
synchronization with reality. Rafael J. Wysocki.

1) Ensure that GPEs are not enabled twice during initialization.
2) Ensure that GPE enable masks stay in sync with the reference count.
3) Do not inadvertently enable GPEs when writing GPE registers.
4) Remove the internal wake reference counter and add new AcpiGpeWakeup 
interface. This interface will set or clear individual GPEs for wakeup.
5) Remove GpeType argument from AcpiEnable and AcpiDisable. These 
interfaces 
are now used for "runtime" GPEs only.

Changed the behavior of the GPE install/remove handler interfaces. The 
GPE 
is 
no longer disabled during this process, as it was found to cause problems 
on 
some machines. Rafael J. Wysocki.

Reverted a change introduced in version 20100528 to enable Embedded 
Controller multi-byte transfers. This change was found to cause problems 
with 
Index Fields and possibly Bank Fields. It will be reintroduced when these 
problems have been resolved.

Fixed a problem with references to Alias objects within Package Objects. 
A 
reference to an Alias within the definition of a Package was not always 
resolved properly. Aliases to objects like Processors, Thermal zones, 
etc. 
were resolved to the actual object instead of a reference to the object 
as 
it 
should be. Package objects are only allowed to contain integer, string, 
buffer, package, and reference objects. Redhat bugzilla 608648.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.3K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.1K Total
    Debug Version:     164.1K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.6K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.3K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.1K Total
    Debug Version:     164.0K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.5K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented a new compiler subsystem to allow definition and 
compilation of the non-AML ACPI tables such as FADT, MADT, SRAT, etc. 
These 
are called "ACPI Data Tables", and the new compiler is the "Data Table 
Compiler". This compiler is intended to simplify the existing error-prone 
process of creating these tables for the BIOS, as well as allowing the 
disassembly, modification, recompilation, and override of existing ACPI 
data 
tables. See the iASL User Guide for detailed information.

iASL: Implemented a new Template Generator option in support of the new 
Data 
Table Compiler. This option will create examples of all known ACPI tables 
that can be used as the basis for table development. See the iASL 
documentation and the -T option.

Disassembler and headers: Added support for the WDDT ACPI table (Watchdog 
Descriptor Table).

Updated the Linux makefiles for iASL and AcpiExec to place the generated 
object files in the local directory so that there can be no collisions 
between the shared files between them that are generated with different 
options.

Added support for Mac OS X in the Unix OSL used for iASL and AcpiExec. 
Use 
the #define __APPLE__ to enable this support.

----------------------------------------
28 May 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100528:

Note: The ACPI 4.0a specification was released on April 5, 2010 and is 
available at www.acpi.info. This is primarily an errata release.

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Undefined ACPI tables: We are looking for the definitions for the 
following 
ACPI tables that have been seen in the field: ATKG, IEIT, GSCI.

Implemented support to enable multi-byte transfers for Embedded 
Controller 
(EC) operation regions. Previously, the maximum data size passed to the 
EC 
operation region handler was a single byte. There are often EC Fields 
larger 
than one byte that need to be transferred, and it is useful for the EC 
driver 
to lock these as a single transaction. This change enables single 
transfers 
larger than 8 bits. This effectively changes the access to the EC space 
from 
ByteAcc to AnyAcc, and will probably require changes to the host OS 
Embedded 
Controller driver to enable 16/32/64/256-bit transfers in addition to 8-
bit 
transfers. Alexey Starikovskiy, Lin Ming

Implemented a performance enhancement for namespace search and access. 
This 
change enhances the performance of namespace searches and walks by adding 
a 
backpointer to the parent in each namespace node. On large namespaces, 
this 
change can improve overall ACPI performance by up to 9X. Adding a pointer 
to 
each namespace node increases the overall size of the internal namespace 
by 
about 5%, since each namespace entry usually consists of both a namespace 
node and an ACPI operand object. However, this is the first growth of the 
namespace in ten years. ACPICA bugzilla 817. Alexey Starikovskiy.

Implemented a performance optimization that reduces the number of 
namespace 
walks. On control method exit, only walk the namespace if the method is 
known 
to have created namespace objects outside of its local scope. Previously, 
the 
entire namespace was traversed on each control method exit. This change 
can 
improve overall ACPI performance by up to 3X. Alexey Starikovskiy, Bob 
Moore.

Added support to truncate I/O addresses to 16 bits for Windows 
compatibility. 
Some ASL code has been seen in the field that inadvertently has bits set 
above bit 15. This feature is optional and is enabled if the BIOS 
requests 
any Windows OSI strings. It can also be enabled by the host OS. Matthew 
Garrett, Bob Moore.

Added support to limit the maximum time for the ASL Sleep() operator. To 
prevent accidental deep sleeps, limit the maximum time that Sleep() will 
actually sleep. Configurable, the default maximum is two seconds. ACPICA 
bugzilla 854.

Added run-time validation support for the _WDG and_WED Microsoft 
predefined 
methods. These objects are defined by "Windows Instrumentation", and are 
not 
part of the ACPI spec. ACPICA BZ 860.

Expanded all statistic counters used during namespace and device 
initialization from 16 to 32 bits in order to support very large 
namespaces.

Replaced all instances of %d in printf format specifiers with %u since 
nearly 
all integers in ACPICA are unsigned.

Fixed the exception namestring for AE_WAKE_ONLY_GPE. Was incorrectly 
returned 
as AE_NO_HANDLER.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.4K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.2K Total
    Debug Version:     164.2K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.7K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.3K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.1K Total
    Debug Version:     164.1K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.6K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Added compiler support for the _WDG and_WED Microsoft predefined 
methods. These objects are defined by "Windows Instrumentation", and are 
not 
part of the ACPI spec. ACPICA BZ 860.

AcpiExec: added option to disable the memory tracking mechanism. The -dt 
option will disable the tracking mechanism, which improves performance 
considerably.

AcpiExec: Restructured the command line options into -d (disable) and -e 
(enable) options.

----------------------------------------
28 April 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100428:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Implemented GPE support for dynamically loaded ACPI tables. For all GPEs, 
including FADT-based and GPE Block Devices, execute any _PRW methods in 
the 
new table, and process any _Lxx/_Exx GPE methods in the new table. Any 
runtime GPE that is referenced by an _Lxx/_Exx method in the new table is 
immediately enabled. Handles the FADT-defined GPEs as well as GPE Block 
Devices. Provides compatibility with other ACPI implementations. Two new 
files added, evgpeinit.c and evgpeutil.c. ACPICA BZ 833. Lin Ming, Bob 
Moore.

Fixed a regression introduced in version 20100331 within the table 
manager 
where initial table loading could fail. This was introduced in the fix 
for 
AcpiReallocateRootTable. Also, renamed some of fields in the table 
manager 
data structures to clarify their meaning and use.

Fixed a possible allocation overrun during internal object copy in 
AcpiUtCopySimpleObject. The original code did not correctly handle the 
case 
where the object to be copied was a namespace node. Lin Ming. ACPICA BZ 
847.

Updated the allocation dump routine, AcpiUtDumpAllocation and fixed a 
possible access beyond end-of-allocation. Also, now fully validate 
descriptor 
(size and type) before output. Lin Ming, Bob Moore. ACPICA BZ 847

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.9K Code, 18.6K Data, 106.5K Total
    Debug Version:     163.5K Code, 51.3K Data, 214.8K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  88.4K Code, 18.8K Data, 107.2K Total
    Debug Version:     164.2K Code, 51.5K Data, 215.7K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented Min/Max/Len/Gran validation for address resource 
descriptors. This change implements validation for the address fields 
that 
are common to all address-type resource descriptors. These checks are 
implemented: Checks for valid Min/Max, length within the Min/Max window, 
valid granularity, Min/Max a multiple of granularity, and _MIF/_MAF as 
per 
table 6-40 in the ACPI 4.0a specification. Also split the large 
aslrestype1.c 
and aslrestype2.c files into five new files. ACPICA BZ 840.

iASL: Added support for the _Wxx predefined names. This support was 
missing 
and these names were not recognized by the compiler as valid predefined 
names. ACPICA BZ 851.

iASL: Added an error for all predefined names that are defined to return 
no 
value and thus must be implemented as Control Methods. These include all 
of 
the _Lxx, _Exx, _Wxx, and _Qxx names, as well as some other miscellaneous 
names such as _DIS, _INI, _IRC, _OFF, _ON, and _PSx. ACPICA BZ 850, 856.

iASL: Implemented the -ts option to emit hex AML data in ASL format, as 
an 
ASL Buffer. Allows ACPI tables to be easily included within ASL files, to 
be 
dynamically loaded via the Load() operator. Also cleaned up output for 
the 
-
ta and -tc options. ACPICA BZ 853.

Tests: Added a new file with examples of extended iASL error checking. 
Demonstrates the advanced error checking ability of the iASL compiler. 
Available at tests/misc/badcode.asl.

----------------------------------------
31 March 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100331:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Completed a major update for the GPE support in order to improve support 
for 
shared GPEs and to simplify both host OS and ACPICA code. Added a 
reference 
count mechanism to support shared GPEs that require multiple device 
drivers. 
Several external interfaces have changed. One external interface has been 
removed. One new external interface was added. Most of the GPE external 
interfaces now use the GPE spinlock instead of the events mutex (and the 
Flags parameter for many GPE interfaces has been removed.) See the 
updated 
ACPICA Programmer Reference for details. Matthew Garrett, Bob Moore, 
Rafael 
Wysocki. ACPICA BZ 831.

Changed:
    AcpiEnableGpe, AcpiDisableGpe, AcpiClearGpe, AcpiGetGpeStatus
Removed:
    AcpiSetGpeType
New:
    AcpiSetGpe

Implemented write support for DataTable operation regions. These regions 
are 
defined via the DataTableRegion() operator. Previously, only read support 
was 
implemented. The ACPI specification allows DataTableRegions to be 
read/write, 
however.

Implemented a new subsystem option to force a copy of the DSDT to local 
memory. Optionally copy the entire DSDT to local memory (instead of 
simply 
mapping it.) There are some (albeit very rare) BIOSs that corrupt or 
replace 
the original DSDT, creating the need for this option. Default is FALSE, 
do 
not copy the DSDT.

Implemented detection of a corrupted or replaced DSDT. This change adds 
support to detect a DSDT that has been corrupted and/or replaced from 
outside 
the OS (by firmware). This is typically catastrophic for the system, but 
has 
been seen on some machines. Once this problem has been detected, the DSDT 
copy option can be enabled via system configuration. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed two problems with AcpiReallocateRootTable during the root table 
copy. 
When copying the root table to the new allocation, the length used was 
incorrect. The new size was used instead of the current table size, 
meaning 
too much data was copied. Also, the count of available slots for ACPI 
tables 
was not set correctly. Alexey Starikovskiy, Bob Moore.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.5K Code, 18.4K Data, 105.9K Total
    Debug Version:     163.4K Code, 51.1K Data, 214.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.9K Code, 18.6K Data, 106.5K Total
    Debug Version:     163.5K Code, 51.3K Data, 214.8K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implement limited typechecking for values returned from predefined 
control methods. The type of any returned static (unnamed) object is now 
validated. For example, Return(1). ACPICA BZ 786.

iASL: Fixed a predefined name object verification regression. Fixes a 
problem 
introduced in version 20100304. An error is incorrectly generated if a 
predefined name is declared as a static named object with a value defined 
using the keywords "Zero", "One", or "Ones". Lin Ming.

iASL: Added Windows 7 support for the -g option (get local ACPI tables) 
by 
reducing the requested registry access rights. ACPICA BZ 842.

Disassembler: fixed a possible fault when generating External() 
statements. 
Introduced in commit ae7d6fd: Properly handle externals with parent-
prefix 
(carat). Fixes a string length allocation calculation. Lin Ming.

----------------------------------------
04 March 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100304:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Fixed a possible problem with the AML Mutex handling function 
AcpiExReleaseMutex where the function could fault under the very rare 
condition when the interpreter has blocked, the interpreter lock is 
released, 
the interpreter is then reentered via the same thread, and attempts to 
acquire an AML mutex that was previously acquired. FreeBSD report 140979. 
Lin 
Ming.

Implemented additional configuration support for the AML "Debug Object". 
Output from the debug object can now be enabled via a global variable, 
AcpiGbl_EnableAmlDebugObject. This will assist with remote machine 
debugging. 
This debug output is now available in the release version of ACPICA 
instead 
of just the debug version. Also, the entire debug output module can now 
be 
configured out of the ACPICA build if desired. One new file added, 
executer/exdebug.c. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Added header support for the ACPI MCHI table (Management Controller Host 
Interface Table). This table was added in ACPI 4.0, but the defining 
document 
has only recently become available.

Standardized output of integer values for ACPICA warnings/errors. Always 
use 
0x prefix for hex output, always use %u for unsigned integer decimal 
output. 
Affects ACPI_INFO, ACPI_ERROR, ACPI_EXCEPTION, and ACPI_WARNING (about 
400 
invocations.) These invocations were converted from the original 
ACPI_DEBUG_PRINT invocations and were not consistent. ACPICA BZ 835.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.1K Code, 18.0K Data, 105.1K Total
    Debug Version:     163.5K Code, 50.9K Data, 214.4K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.5K Code, 18.4K Data, 105.9K Total
    Debug Version:     163.4K Code, 51.1K Data, 214.5K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Implemented typechecking support for static (non-control method) 
predefined named objects that are declared with the Name() operator. For 
example, the type of this object is now validated to be of type Integer: 
Name(_BBN, 1). This change migrates the compiler to using the core 
predefined 
name table instead of maintaining a local version. Added a new file, 
aslpredef.c. ACPICA BZ 832.

Disassembler: Added support for the ACPI 4.0 MCHI table.

----------------------------------------
21 January 2010. Summary of changes for version 20100121:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Added the 2010 copyright to all module headers and signons. This affects 
virtually every file in the ACPICA core subsystem, the iASL compiler, the 
tools/utilities, and the test suites.

Implemented a change to the AcpiGetDevices interface to eliminate 
unnecessary 
invocations of the _STA method. In the case where a specific _HID is 
requested, do not run _STA until a _HID match is found. This eliminates 
potentially dozens of _STA calls during a search for a particular 
device/HID, 
which in turn can improve boot times. ACPICA BZ 828. Lin Ming.

Implemented an additional repair for predefined method return values. 
Attempt 
to repair unexpected NULL elements within returned Package objects. 
Create 
an 
Integer of value zero, a NULL String, or a zero-length Buffer as 
appropriate. 
ACPICA BZ 818. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Removed the obsolete ACPI_INTEGER data type. This type was introduced as 
the 
code was migrated from ACPI 1.0 (with 32-bit AML integers) to ACPI 2.0 
(with 
64-bit AML integers). It is now obsolete and this change removes it from 
the 
ACPICA code base, replaced by UINT64. The original typedef has been 
retained 
for now for compatibility with existing device driver code. ACPICA BZ 
824.

Removed the unused UINT32_STRUCT type, and the obsolete Integer64 field 
in 
the parse tree object.

Added additional warning options for the gcc-4 generation. Updated the 
source 
accordingly. This includes some code restructuring to eliminate 
unreachable 
code, elimination of some gotos, elimination of unused return values, 
some 
additional casting, and removal of redundant declarations.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.0K Code, 18.0K Data, 105.0K Total
    Debug Version:     163.4K Code, 50.8K Data, 214.2K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.1K Code, 18.0K Data, 105.1K Total
    Debug Version:     163.5K Code, 50.9K Data, 214.4K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

No functional changes for this release.

----------------------------------------
14 December 2009. Summary of changes for version 20091214:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Enhanced automatic data type conversions for predefined name repairs. 
This 
change expands the automatic repairs/conversions for predefined name 
return 
values to make Integers, Strings, and Buffers fully interchangeable. 
Also, 
a 
Buffer can be converted to a Package of Integers if necessary. The 
nsrepair.c 
module was completely restructured. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Implemented automatic removal of null package elements during predefined 
name 
repairs. This change will automatically remove embedded and trailing NULL 
package elements from returned package objects that are defined to 
contain 
a 
variable number of sub-packages. The driver is then presented with a 
package 
with no null elements to deal with. ACPICA BZ 819.

Implemented a repair for the predefined _FDE and _GTM names. The expected 
return value for both names is a Buffer of 5 DWORDs. This repair fixes 
two 
possible problems (both seen in the field), where a package of integers 
is 
returned, or a buffer of BYTEs is returned. With assistance from Jung-uk 
Kim.

Implemented additional module-level code support. This change will 
properly 
execute module-level code that is not at the root of the namespace (under 
a 
Device object, etc.). Now executes the code within the current scope 
instead 
of the root. ACPICA BZ 762. Lin Ming.

Fixed possible mutex acquisition errors when running _REG methods. Fixes 
a 
problem where mutex errors can occur when running a _REG method that is 
in 
the same scope as a method-defined operation region or an operation 
region 
under a module-level IF block. This type of code is rare, so the problem 
has 
not been seen before. ACPICA BZ 826. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed a possible memory leak during module-level code execution. An 
object 
could be leaked for each block of executed module-level code if the 
interpreter slack mode is enabled This change deletes any implicitly 
returned 
object from the module-level code block. Lin Ming.

Removed messages for successful predefined repair(s). The repair 
mechanism 
was considered too wordy. Now, messages are only unconditionally emitted 
if 
the return object cannot be repaired. Existing messages for successful 
repairs were converted to ACPI_DEBUG_PRINT messages for now. ACPICA BZ 
827.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent 
acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 32-bit compiler. The 
debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and 
has a 
much larger code and data size.

  Previous Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  86.6K Code, 18.2K Data, 104.8K Total
    Debug Version:     162.7K Code, 50.8K Data, 213.5K Total
  Current Release:
    Non-Debug Version:  87.0K Code, 18.0K Data, 105.0K Total
    Debug Version:     163.4K Code, 50.8K Data, 214.2K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Fixed a regression introduced in 20091112 where intermediate .SRC 
files 
were no longer automatically removed at the termination of the compile.

acpiexec: Implemented the -f option to specify default region fill value. 
This option specifies the value used to initialize buffers that simulate 
operation regions. Default value is zero. Useful for debugging problems 
that 
depend on a specific initial value for a region or field.

----------------------------------------
12 November 2009. Summary of changes for version 20091112:

1) ACPI CA Core Subsystem:

Implemented a post-order callback to AcpiWalkNamespace. The existing 
interface only has a pre-order callback. This change adds an additional 
parameter for a post-order callback which will be more useful for bus 
scans. 
ACPICA BZ 779. Lin Ming. Updated the ACPICA Programmer Reference.

Modified the behavior of the operation region memory mapping cache for 
SystemMemory. Ensure that the memory mappings created for operation 
regions 
do not cross 4K page boundaries. Crossing a page boundary while mapping 
regions can cause kernel warnings on some hosts if the pages have 
different 
attributes. Such regions are probably BIOS bugs, and this is the 
workaround. 
Linux BZ 14445. Lin Ming.

Implemented an automatic repair for predefined methods that must return 
sorted lists. This change will repair (by sorting) packages returned by 
_ALR, 
_PSS, and _TSS. Drivers can now assume that the packages are correctly 
sorted 
and do not contain NULL package elements. Adds one new file, 
namespace/nsrepair2.c. ACPICA BZ 784. Lin Ming, Bob Moore.

Fixed a possible fault during predefined name validation if a return 
Package 
object contains NULL elements. Also adds a warning if a NULL element is 
followed by any non-null elements. ACPICA BZ 813, 814. Future enhancement 
may 
include repair or removal of all such NULL elements where possible.

Implemented additional module-level executable AML code support. This 
change 
will execute module-level code that is not at the root of the namespace 
(under a Device object, etc.) at table load time. Module-level executable 
AML 
code has been illegal since ACPI 2.0. ACPICA BZ 762. Lin Ming.

Implemented a new internal function to create Integer objects. This 
function 
simplifies miscellaneous object creation code. ACPICA BZ 823.

Reduced the severity of predefined repair messages, Warning to Info.