Subject: Re: [PATCH 4/5] [POWERPC] QE: implement support for the GPIO LIB API

From: David Brownell <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 13:01:12 -0700

On Monday 21 April 2008, Anton Vorontsov wrote:
>  From: J. Random Hacker
>  Subject: [POWERPC] cleanup board initialization code
> 
>  This patch removes vast amount of machine_arch_initcall()s that were
>  used to solely initialize some hardware, like this:
> 
>  qe_add_gpio_chips();
>  fsl_gtm_init();
>  fsl_spi_init();
>  ...
> 
>  So, instead of calling this stuff from the board files, we implement
>  own arch_initcalls for these functions.

The way other platforms do this is to hav SOC-specific
init code, and have board-specific initcalls call the
relevant SOC-specific setup.

Among other things that facilitates kernels that handle
multiple SOCs (if they're closely-enough related).  That
may not be used by many distros (handhelds.org being at
least a partial exception), but it certainly helps cut
the number of configurations that need build-testing.

- Dave