Mainlining Acronyms
This page lists a bunch of acronyms you may come across while working with PostmarketOS or mainlining devices.
If you come across any acronyms that are not on this list, please add them so others don't have to scratch their heads in the future.
| Acronym | Expansion | Description | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADSP | Application Digital Signal Processor | Remote processor that does audio and sometimes display port over usb-c | |
| CDSP | Camera Digital Signal Processor | ||
| PMIC | Power Management Integrated Circuit | Does power management for the device. The power and volume buttons are often connected via the PMIC | |
| PMU | Power Management Unit | Maybe synonymous to PMIC? | |
| IPA | Qualcomm IP Accelerator | Handles mobile data connection |
https://lwn.net/Articles/770924/ https://static.linaro.org/connect/lvc21/presentations/lvc21-119.pdf |
| AP | Application Processor | The CPU | |
| SSC / SLPI | Snapdragon Sensor Core / Sensor Low Power Island | Handles sensors like proximity or accelerometer | |
| QRTR | Qualcomn IPC Router | Communicates with services provided by other hardware blocks in the system like the modem | |
| MHI | Modem Host Interface | The protocol for talking to the modem on qcom SOCs | https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/mhi/mhi.html |
| I2C | Inter-Integrated Circuit | Two wire bus for connecting low-speed peripherals | |
| MIPI DSI | Display Serial Interface | Protocol to talk to the display | |
| GPIO | General Purpose Input Output | General purpose pins that can be connected to various devices. GPIOs are sometimes used to drive regulators, or as inputs for buttons. | |
| UART | Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter | Serial protocol, can be used to get a console or logs before anything else works since it's usually easy to hook up. Also used on the SOC to connect bluetooth and modem sometimes. | Serial debugging |
| SPSS | Secure Processor SubSystem | Extra processor for secure computation | |
| RPMH | Resource power manager hardening | Some kind of hardware based regulator control for qcom SOCs | |
| TLMM | Top-level mode multiplexer | Multiplexes GPIOs that have multiple functions (pls insert better description here) | |
| MDSS | MSM Mobile Display Subsystem | encapsulates sub-blocks like DPU display controller, DSI and DP interfaces etc | |
| LDO | Low-dropout regulator | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-dropout_regulator |