Hi,

recently we have hit the case where Linux has pl011 driver and using it as a console. The same console is also used by TF-A. If you look at implementation details Linux pl011 driver has in pl011_console_write() clk_enable/clk_disable calls. I can't see any clock handling for PL011 in TF-A that's why I guess that TF-A expectation is that clocks are enabled and must be enabled all the time because pl011 is also used as crashed console. That's why I would like to check with you what's the clock expectation in these shared IP cases. Do you have a requirement that firmware should keep refcount of IP users and never disable clock when only one requires it?

Thanks, Michal