The presence of this GUID in the PPI database, and/or in the DXE protocol
database (as dictated by the platform's needs in these firmware phases)
implies that the platform provides the operating system with an ACPI-based
hardware description. This is not necessarily exclusive with other types
of hardware description (for example, a Device Tree-based one).
A platform PEIM and/or DXE driver is supposed to produce a single instance
of the PPI and/or protocol (with NULL contents), if appropriate. The
decision to produce the PPI and/or protocol is platform specific; for
example, in the DXE phase, it could depend on an HII checkbox / underlying
non-volatile UEFI variable.
In the DXE phase, the protocol is meant to be depended-upon by
"MdeModulePkg/Universal/Acpi/AcpiTableDxe", indirectly:
* In the long term, interested platforms will establish this dependency by
hooking an (upcoming) NULL-class DepexLib instance into AcpiTableDxe in
their DSC files, pointing DepexLib's DEPEX through a FixedAtBuild PCD to
the GUID introduced here. (For the prerequisite BaseTools feature, refer
to <https://bugzilla.tianocore.org/show_bug.cgi?id=443>).
* In the short term, an interested platform may hook a private NULL-class
library instance (called e.g. "PlatformHasAcpiLib") into AcpiTableDxe.
Such a library instance would be a specialization of the above described
generic DepexLib, with the DEPEX open-coded on the GUID introduced here.
Either way, the platform makes EFI_ACPI_TABLE_PROTOCOL and (if enabled)
EFI_ACPI_SDT_PROTOCOL dependent on the platform's dynamic decision to
produce or not to produce a NULL protocol instance with this GUID.
In turn, other (platform and universal) DXE drivers that produce ACPI
tables will wait for EFI_ACPI_TABLE_PROTOCOL / EFI_ACPI_SDT_PROTOCOL, via
DEPEX, protocol notify, or a simple gBS->LocateProtocol() in a "late
enough" callback (such as Ready To Boot).
Because this GUID is not standard, it is prefixed with EDKII / Edkii, as
seen elsewhere in MdeModulePkg and SecurityPkg. In addition, an effort is
made to avoid the phrase "AcpiPlatform", as that belongs to drivers /
libraries that produce platform specific ACPI content (as opposed to
deciding whether the entire firmware will have access to
EFI_ACPI_TABLE_PROTOCOL, or any similar facilities in the PEI phase).
Cc: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@linaro.org>
Cc: Leif Lindholm <leif.lindholm@linaro.org>
Contributed-under: TianoCore Contribution Agreement 1.0
Signed-off-by: Laszlo Ersek <lersek@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@linaro.org>
05db0948cc