| ALPS Touchpad Protocol |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| Introduction |
| ------------ |
| Currently the ALPS touchpad driver supports five protocol versions in use by |
| ALPS touchpads, called versions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. |
| |
| Since roughly mid-2010 several new ALPS touchpads have been released and |
| integrated into a variety of laptops and netbooks. These new touchpads |
| have enough behavior differences that the alps_model_data definition |
| table, describing the properties of the different versions, is no longer |
| adequate. The design choices were to re-define the alps_model_data |
| table, with the risk of regression testing existing devices, or isolate |
| the new devices outside of the alps_model_data table. The latter design |
| choice was made. The new touchpad signatures are named: "Rushmore", |
| "Pinnacle", and "Dolphin", which you will see in the alps.c code. |
| For the purposes of this document, this group of ALPS touchpads will |
| generically be called "new ALPS touchpads". |
| |
| We experimented with probing the ACPI interface _HID (Hardware ID)/_CID |
| (Compatibility ID) definition as a way to uniquely identify the |
| different ALPS variants but there did not appear to be a 1:1 mapping. |
| In fact, it appeared to be an m:n mapping between the _HID and actual |
| hardware type. |
| |
| Detection |
| --------- |
| |
| All ALPS touchpads should respond to the "E6 report" command sequence: |
| E8-E6-E6-E6-E9. An ALPS touchpad should respond with either 00-00-0A or |
| 00-00-64 if no buttons are pressed. The bits 0-2 of the first byte will be 1s |
| if some buttons are pressed. |
| |
| If the E6 report is successful, the touchpad model is identified using the "E7 |
| report" sequence: E8-E7-E7-E7-E9. The response is the model signature and is |
| matched against known models in the alps_model_data_array. |
| |
| For older touchpads supporting protocol versions 3 and 4, the E7 report |
| model signature is always 73-02-64. To differentiate between these |
| versions, the response from the "Enter Command Mode" sequence must be |
| inspected as described below. |
| |
| The new ALPS touchpads have an E7 signature of 73-03-50 or 73-03-0A but |
| seem to be better differentiated by the EC Command Mode response. |
| |
| Command Mode |
| ------------ |
| |
| Protocol versions 3 and 4 have a command mode that is used to read and write |
| one-byte device registers in a 16-bit address space. The command sequence |
| EC-EC-EC-E9 places the device in command mode, and the device will respond |
| with 88-07 followed by a third byte. This third byte can be used to determine |
| whether the devices uses the version 3 or 4 protocol. |
| |
| To exit command mode, PSMOUSE_CMD_SETSTREAM (EA) is sent to the touchpad. |
| |
| While in command mode, register addresses can be set by first sending a |
| specific command, either EC for v3 devices or F5 for v4 devices. Then the |
| address is sent one nibble at a time, where each nibble is encoded as a |
| command with optional data. This enoding differs slightly between the v3 and |
| v4 protocols. |
| |
| Once an address has been set, the addressed register can be read by sending |
| PSMOUSE_CMD_GETINFO (E9). The first two bytes of the response contains the |
| address of the register being read, and the third contains the value of the |
| register. Registers are written by writing the value one nibble at a time |
| using the same encoding used for addresses. |
| |
| For the new ALPS touchpads, the EC command is used to enter command |
| mode. The response in the new ALPS touchpads is significantly different, |
| and more important in determining the behavior. This code has been |
| separated from the original alps_model_data table and put in the |
| alps_identify function. For example, there seem to be two hardware init |
| sequences for the "Dolphin" touchpads as determined by the second byte |
| of the EC response. |
| |
| Packet Format |
| ------------- |
| |
| In the following tables, the following notation is used. |
| |
| CAPITALS = stick, miniscules = touchpad |
| |
| ?'s can have different meanings on different models, such as wheel rotation, |
| extra buttons, stick buttons on a dualpoint, etc. |
| |
| PS/2 packet format |
| ------------------ |
| |
| byte 0: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 M R L |
| byte 1: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0 |
| byte 2: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0 |
| |
| Note that the device never signals overflow condition. |
| |
| ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Verion 1 |
| -------------------------------------- |
| |
| byte 0: 1 0 0 0 1 x9 x8 x7 |
| byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 |
| byte 2: 0 ? ? l r ? fin ges |
| byte 3: 0 ? ? ? ? y9 y8 y7 |
| byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| |
| ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 2 |
| --------------------------------------- |
| |
| byte 0: 1 ? ? ? 1 ? ? ? |
| byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 |
| byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 ? fin ges |
| byte 3: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 M R L |
| byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| |
| Dualpoint device -- interleaved packet format |
| --------------------------------------------- |
| |
| byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 |
| byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 0 fin ges |
| byte 3: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 4: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0 |
| byte 5: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0 |
| byte 6: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 m r l |
| byte 7: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 8: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| |
| ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 3 |
| --------------------------------------- |
| |
| ALPS protocol version 3 has three different packet formats. The first two are |
| associated with touchpad events, and the third is associatd with trackstick |
| events. |
| |
| The first type is the touchpad position packet. |
| |
| byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 |
| byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4 |
| byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l |
| byte 4: 0 mt x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| |
| Note that for some devices the trackstick buttons are reported in this packet, |
| and on others it is reported in the trackstick packets. |
| |
| The second packet type contains bitmaps representing the x and y axes. In the |
| bitmaps a given bit is set if there is a finger covering that position on the |
| given axis. Thus the bitmap packet can be used for low-resolution multi-touch |
| data, although finger tracking is not possible. This packet also encodes the |
| number of contacts (f1 and f0 in the table below). |
| |
| byte 0: 1 1 x1 x0 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 1: 0 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 |
| byte 2: 0 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 |
| byte 3: 0 y10 y9 y8 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 4: 0 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10 x9 y0 |
| byte 5: 0 1 ? ? ? ? f1 f0 |
| |
| This packet only appears after a position packet with the mt bit set, and |
| usually only appears when there are two or more contacts (although |
| occasionally it's seen with only a single contact). |
| |
| The final v3 packet type is the trackstick packet. |
| |
| byte 0: 1 1 x7 y7 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 |
| byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 3: 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 |
| byte 4: 0 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 ? ? |
| byte 5: 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 |
| |
| ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 4 |
| --------------------------------------- |
| |
| Protocol version 4 has an 8-byte packet format. |
| |
| byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1 |
| byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 |
| byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4 |
| byte 3: 0 1 x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 4: 0 ? ? ? 1 ? r l |
| byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| byte 6: bitmap data (described below) |
| byte 7: bitmap data (described below) |
| |
| The last two bytes represent a partial bitmap packet, with 3 full packets |
| required to construct a complete bitmap packet. Once assembled, the 6-byte |
| bitmap packet has the following format: |
| |
| byte 0: 0 1 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 |
| byte 1: 0 x1 x0 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 2: 0 0 ? x14 x13 x12 x11 x10 |
| byte 3: 0 x9 x8 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 |
| byte 4: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 |
| byte 5: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 y10 |
| |
| There are several things worth noting here. |
| |
| 1) In the bitmap data, bit 6 of byte 0 serves as a sync byte to |
| identify the first fragment of a bitmap packet. |
| |
| 2) The bitmaps represent the same data as in the v3 bitmap packets, although |
| the packet layout is different. |
| |
| 3) There doesn't seem to be a count of the contact points anywhere in the v4 |
| protocol packets. Deriving a count of contact points must be done by |
| analyzing the bitmaps. |
| |
| 4) There is a 3 to 1 ratio of position packets to bitmap packets. Therefore |
| MT position can only be updated for every third ST position update, and |
| the count of contact points can only be updated every third packet as |
| well. |
| |
| So far no v4 devices with tracksticks have been encountered. |
| |
| ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 5 |
| --------------------------------------- |
| This is basically Protocol Version 3 but with different logic for packet |
| decode. It uses the same alps_process_touchpad_packet_v3 call with a |
| specialized decode_fields function pointer to correctly interpret the |
| packets. This appears to only be used by the Dolphin devices. |
| |
| For single-touch, the 6-byte packet format is: |
| |
| byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 |
| byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0 |
| byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0 |
| byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l |
| byte 4: y10 y9 y8 y7 x10 x9 x8 x7 |
| byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 |
| |
| For mt, the format is: |
| |
| byte 0: 1 1 1 n3 1 n2 n1 x24 |
| byte 1: 1 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 |
| byte 2: ? x2 x1 y12 y11 y10 y9 y8 |
| byte 3: 0 x23 x22 x21 x20 x19 x18 x17 |
| byte 4: 0 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 |
| byte 5: 0 x16 x15 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10 |
