Documentation: document the new smbus console feature

This explains how to enable the SMBus console in coreboot
and its Kconfigs.

Change-Id: I50cafbbaaea133c9ea50131e455151287c96176a
Signed-off-by: Husni Faiz <ahamedhusni73@gmail.com>
Reviewed-on: https://review.coreboot.org/c/coreboot/+/67386
Tested-by: build bot (Jenkins) <no-reply@coreboot.org>
Reviewed-by: Tim Wawrzynczak <inforichland@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Raul Rangel <rrangel@chromium.org>

2 files changed, 67 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/technotes/console.md b/Documentation/technotes/console.md
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+# coreboot Console
+
+coreboot supports multiple ways to access its console.
+https://www.coreboot.org/Console_and_outputs
+
+
+## SMBus Console
+
+SMBus is a two-wire interface which is based on the principles of
+operation of I2C. SMBus, was first was designed to allow a battery to
+communicate with the charger, the system host, and/or other
+power-related components in the system.
+
+Enable the SMBus console with `CONSOLE_I2C_SMBUS` Kconfig. Set
+`CONSOLE_I2C_SMBUS_SLAVE_ADDRESS` and
+`CONSOLE_I2C_SMBUS_SLAVE_DATA_REGISTER` configuration values of the
+slave I2C device which you will use to capture I2C packets.
+
+Modern computer Random Access Memory (RAM) slot has SMBus in it
+according to the JEDEC standards. We can use a breakout-board to expose
+those SMBus pins. Some mainboard have SMBus pins in the PCIe slot as
+well.
+
+This feature has been tested on the following platforms:
+```eval_rst
++------------------------------------+
+| Tested platforms                   |
++====================================+
+| GA-H61M-S2PV + Intel Ivy Bridge    |
++---------------------+---------------
+```
+
+A minimal DDR3 DIMM breakout board PCB design with only the
+SDA(Data line) and SCL(Clock line) pins of I2C/SMBus can be found
+[here](https://github.com/drac98/ram-breakout-board).
+See the PCB layout [here](https://archive.org/details/ddr3-dimm-F_Cu)
+
+NOTE:
+To capture the I2C packets, an I2C slave device is required. The easiest
+way to capture the log message is to use a I2C to UART converter chip
+with a UART to USB converter chip. The setup would be as follows.
+```text
++---------+    +-------------+    +-------------+
++   PC    +----+ UART to USB +----+ I2C to UART |
++---------+    +-------------+    +-------------+
+                                              | |
+------------------------------------------------+--  System Management
+----------------------------------------------+----  Bus
+```
+
+Watch this [video](https://youtu.be/Q0dK41n9db8) to see how it is set
+up. A backup of the video is available
+[here](https://web.archive.org/web/20220916172605/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0dK41n9db8)
+
+If you are using any of the `SC16IS740/750/760` I2C to UART converter
+chip, you can enable the `SC16IS7XX_INIT` option to initialize the chip.
+
+If not we can use other I2C slave devices like an Arduino or a
+Beagleboard.
+* [Linux I2C Slave interface](https://web.archive.org/web/20220926173943/https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/i2c/slave-interface.html)
+* [BeagleBone Black I2C Slave](https://web.archive.org/web/20220926171211/https://forum.beagleboard.org/t/beaglebone-black-and-arduino-uno-i2c-communication-using-c/29990/8)
+
+This feature was added as part of a GSoC 2022 project. Checkout the
+following blog posts for more details.
+* [coreboot Console via SMBus — Part I](https://medium.com/@husnifaiz/coreboot-console-via-smbus-introduction-38273691a8ac)
+* [coreboot Console via SMBus — Part II](https://medium.com/@husnifaiz/coreboot-console-via-smbus-part-ii-bc324fdd2f24)
diff --git a/Documentation/technotes/index.md b/Documentation/technotes/index.md
index fda8bd6219..da5b8644d2 100644
--- a/Documentation/technotes/index.md
+++ b/Documentation/technotes/index.md
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@
 * [Unit testing coreboot](2020-03-unit-testing-coreboot.md)
 * [Unit Test Code Coverage](2021-05-code-coverage.md)
 * [Address Sanitizer](asan.md)
+* [coreboot Consoles](console.md)