6 Currently the ALPS touchpad driver supports seven protocol versions in use by
7 ALPS touchpads, called versions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
9 Since roughly mid-2010 several new ALPS touchpads have been released and
10 integrated into a variety of laptops and netbooks. These new touchpads
11 have enough behavior differences that the alps_model_data definition
12 table, describing the properties of the different versions, is no longer
13 adequate. The design choices were to re-define the alps_model_data
14 table, with the risk of regression testing existing devices, or isolate
15 the new devices outside of the alps_model_data table. The latter design
16 choice was made. The new touchpad signatures are named: "Rushmore",
17 "Pinnacle", and "Dolphin", which you will see in the alps.c code.
18 For the purposes of this document, this group of ALPS touchpads will
19 generically be called "new ALPS touchpads".
21 We experimented with probing the ACPI interface _HID (Hardware ID)/_CID
22 (Compatibility ID) definition as a way to uniquely identify the
23 different ALPS variants but there did not appear to be a 1:1 mapping.
24 In fact, it appeared to be an m:n mapping between the _HID and actual
30 All ALPS touchpads should respond to the "E6 report" command sequence:
31 E8-E6-E6-E6-E9. An ALPS touchpad should respond with either 00-00-0A or
32 00-00-64 if no buttons are pressed. The bits 0-2 of the first byte will be 1s
33 if some buttons are pressed.
35 If the E6 report is successful, the touchpad model is identified using the "E7
36 report" sequence: E8-E7-E7-E7-E9. The response is the model signature and is
37 matched against known models in the alps_model_data_array.
39 For older touchpads supporting protocol versions 3 and 4, the E7 report
40 model signature is always 73-02-64. To differentiate between these
41 versions, the response from the "Enter Command Mode" sequence must be
42 inspected as described below.
44 The new ALPS touchpads have an E7 signature of 73-03-50 or 73-03-0A but
45 seem to be better differentiated by the EC Command Mode response.
50 Protocol versions 3 and 4 have a command mode that is used to read and write
51 one-byte device registers in a 16-bit address space. The command sequence
52 EC-EC-EC-E9 places the device in command mode, and the device will respond
53 with 88-07 followed by a third byte. This third byte can be used to determine
54 whether the devices uses the version 3 or 4 protocol.
56 To exit command mode, PSMOUSE_CMD_SETSTREAM (EA) is sent to the touchpad.
58 While in command mode, register addresses can be set by first sending a
59 specific command, either EC for v3 devices or F5 for v4 devices. Then the
60 address is sent one nibble at a time, where each nibble is encoded as a
61 command with optional data. This enoding differs slightly between the v3 and
64 Once an address has been set, the addressed register can be read by sending
65 PSMOUSE_CMD_GETINFO (E9). The first two bytes of the response contains the
66 address of the register being read, and the third contains the value of the
67 register. Registers are written by writing the value one nibble at a time
68 using the same encoding used for addresses.
70 For the new ALPS touchpads, the EC command is used to enter command
71 mode. The response in the new ALPS touchpads is significantly different,
72 and more important in determining the behavior. This code has been
73 separated from the original alps_model_data table and put in the
74 alps_identify function. For example, there seem to be two hardware init
75 sequences for the "Dolphin" touchpads as determined by the second byte
81 In the following tables, the following notation is used.
83 CAPITALS = stick, miniscules = touchpad
85 ?'s can have different meanings on different models, such as wheel rotation,
86 extra buttons, stick buttons on a dualpoint, etc.
91 byte 0: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 M R L
92 byte 1: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
93 byte 2: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
95 Note that the device never signals overflow condition.
97 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 1
98 --------------------------------------
100 byte 0: 1 0 0 0 1 x9 x8 x7
101 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
102 byte 2: 0 ? ? l r ? fin ges
103 byte 3: 0 ? ? ? ? y9 y8 y7
104 byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
105 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
107 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 2
108 ---------------------------------------
110 byte 0: 1 ? ? ? 1 ? ? ?
111 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
112 byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 ? fin ges
113 byte 3: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 M R L
114 byte 4: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
115 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
117 Protocol Version 2 DualPoint devices send standard PS/2 mouse packets for
120 Dualpoint device -- interleaved packet format
121 ---------------------------------------------
123 byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
124 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
125 byte 2: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 0 fin ges
126 byte 3: 0 0 YSGN XSGN 1 1 1 1
127 byte 4: X7 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
128 byte 5: Y7 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
129 byte 6: 0 y9 y8 y7 1 m r l
130 byte 7: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
131 byte 8: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
133 Devices which use the interleaving format normally send standard PS/2 mouse
134 packets for the DualPoint Stick + ALPS Absolute Mode packets for the
135 touchpad, switching to the interleaved packet format when both the stick and
136 the touchpad are used at the same time.
138 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 3
139 ---------------------------------------
141 ALPS protocol version 3 has three different packet formats. The first two are
142 associated with touchpad events, and the third is associatd with trackstick
145 The first type is the touchpad position packet.
147 byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1
148 byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4
149 byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4
150 byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l
151 byte 4: 0 mt x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0
152 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
154 Note that for some devices the trackstick buttons are reported in this packet,
155 and on others it is reported in the trackstick packets.
157 The second packet type contains bitmaps representing the x and y axes. In the
158 bitmaps a given bit is set if there is a finger covering that position on the
159 given axis. Thus the bitmap packet can be used for low-resolution multi-touch
160 data, although finger tracking is not possible. This packet also encodes the
161 number of contacts (f1 and f0 in the table below).
163 byte 0: 1 1 x1 x0 1 1 1 1
164 byte 1: 0 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2
165 byte 2: 0 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1
166 byte 3: 0 y10 y9 y8 1 1 1 1
167 byte 4: 0 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10 x9 y0
168 byte 5: 0 1 ? ? ? ? f1 f0
170 This packet only appears after a position packet with the mt bit set, and
171 usually only appears when there are two or more contacts (although
172 occasionally it's seen with only a single contact).
174 The final v3 packet type is the trackstick packet.
176 byte 0: 1 1 x7 y7 1 1 1 1
177 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
178 byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
179 byte 3: 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
180 byte 4: 0 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0 ? ?
181 byte 5: 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1
183 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 4
184 ---------------------------------------
186 Protocol version 4 has an 8-byte packet format.
188 byte 0: 1 ? x1 x0 1 1 1 1
189 byte 1: 0 x10 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4
190 byte 2: 0 y10 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5 y4
191 byte 3: 0 1 x3 x2 y3 y2 y1 y0
192 byte 4: 0 ? ? ? 1 ? r l
193 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
194 byte 6: bitmap data (described below)
195 byte 7: bitmap data (described below)
197 The last two bytes represent a partial bitmap packet, with 3 full packets
198 required to construct a complete bitmap packet. Once assembled, the 6-byte
199 bitmap packet has the following format:
201 byte 0: 0 1 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2
202 byte 1: 0 x1 x0 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
203 byte 2: 0 0 ? x14 x13 x12 x11 x10
204 byte 3: 0 x9 x8 y9 y8 y7 y6 y5
205 byte 4: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
206 byte 5: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 y10
208 There are several things worth noting here.
210 1) In the bitmap data, bit 6 of byte 0 serves as a sync byte to
211 identify the first fragment of a bitmap packet.
213 2) The bitmaps represent the same data as in the v3 bitmap packets, although
214 the packet layout is different.
216 3) There doesn't seem to be a count of the contact points anywhere in the v4
217 protocol packets. Deriving a count of contact points must be done by
218 analyzing the bitmaps.
220 4) There is a 3 to 1 ratio of position packets to bitmap packets. Therefore
221 MT position can only be updated for every third ST position update, and
222 the count of contact points can only be updated every third packet as
225 So far no v4 devices with tracksticks have been encountered.
227 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 5
228 ---------------------------------------
229 This is basically Protocol Version 3 but with different logic for packet
230 decode. It uses the same alps_process_touchpad_packet_v3 call with a
231 specialized decode_fields function pointer to correctly interpret the
232 packets. This appears to only be used by the Dolphin devices.
234 For single-touch, the 6-byte packet format is:
236 byte 0: 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
237 byte 1: 0 x6 x5 x4 x3 x2 x1 x0
238 byte 2: 0 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1 y0
239 byte 3: 0 M R L 1 m r l
240 byte 4: y10 y9 y8 y7 x10 x9 x8 x7
241 byte 5: 0 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
243 For mt, the format is:
245 byte 0: 1 1 1 n3 1 n2 n1 x24
246 byte 1: 1 y7 y6 y5 y4 y3 y2 y1
247 byte 2: ? x2 x1 y12 y11 y10 y9 y8
248 byte 3: 0 x23 x22 x21 x20 x19 x18 x17
249 byte 4: 0 x9 x8 x7 x6 x5 x4 x3
250 byte 5: 0 x16 x15 x14 x13 x12 x11 x10
252 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 6
253 ---------------------------------------
255 For trackstick packet, the format is:
257 byte 0: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
258 byte 1: 0 X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
259 byte 2: 0 Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0
260 byte 3: ? Y7 X7 ? ? M R L
261 byte 4: Z7 Z6 Z5 Z4 Z3 Z2 Z1 Z0
262 byte 5: 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
264 For touchpad packet, the format is:
266 byte 0: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
267 byte 1: 0 0 0 0 x3 x2 x1 x0
268 byte 2: 0 0 0 0 y3 y2 y1 y0
269 byte 3: ? x7 x6 x5 x4 ? r l
270 byte 4: ? y7 y6 y5 y4 ? ? ?
271 byte 5: z7 z6 z5 z4 z3 z2 z1 z0
273 (v6 touchpad does not have middle button)
275 ALPS Absolute Mode - Protocol Version 7
276 ---------------------------------------
278 For trackstick packet, the format is:
280 byte 0: 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0
281 byte 1: 1 1 * * 1 M R L
282 byte 2: X7 1 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0
283 byte 3: Z6 1 Y6 X6 1 Y2 Y1 Y0
284 byte 4: Y7 0 Y5 Y4 Y3 1 1 0
285 byte 5: T&P 0 Z5 Z4 Z3 Z2 Z1 Z0
287 For touchpad packet, the format is:
289 packet-fmt b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
290 byte 0: TWO & MULTI L 1 R M 1 Y0-2 Y0-1 Y0-0
291 byte 0: NEW L 1 X1-5 1 1 Y0-2 Y0-1 Y0-0
292 byte 1: Y0-10 Y0-9 Y0-8 Y0-7 Y0-6 Y0-5 Y0-4 Y0-3
293 byte 2: X0-11 1 X0-10 X0-9 X0-8 X0-7 X0-6 X0-5
294 byte 3: X1-11 1 X0-4 X0-3 1 X0-2 X0-1 X0-0
295 byte 4: TWO X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 X1-5 X1-4
296 byte 4: MULTI X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 Y1-5 1
297 byte 4: NEW X1-10 TWO X1-9 X1-8 X1-7 X1-6 0 0
298 byte 5: TWO & NEW Y1-10 0 Y1-9 Y1-8 Y1-7 Y1-6 Y1-5 Y1-4
299 byte 5: MULTI Y1-10 0 Y1-9 Y1-8 Y1-7 Y1-6 F-1 F-0
302 R / M: Non-clickpads: Right / Middle button
303 Clickpads: When > 2 fingers are down, and some fingers
304 are in the button area, then the 2 coordinates reported
305 are for fingers outside the button area and these report
306 extra fingers being present in the right / left button
307 area. Note these fingers are not added to the F field!
308 so if a TWO packet is received and R = 1 then there are
310 TWO: 1: Two touches present, byte 0/4/5 are in TWO fmt
311 0: If byte 4 bit 0 is 1, then byte 0/4/5 are in MULTI fmt
312 otherwise byte 0 bit 4 must be set and byte 0/4/5 are
314 F: Number of fingers - 3, 0 means 3 fingers, 1 means 4 ...