Version 20130214

1) ACPICA Kernel-resident Subsystem:

Fixed a possible regression on some hosts: Reinstated the safe return macros (return_ACPI_STATUS, etc.) that ensure that the argument is evaluated only once. Although these macros are not needed for the ACPICA code itself, they are often used by ACPI-related host device drivers where the safe feature may be necessary.

Fixed several issues related to the ACPI 5.0 reduced hardware support (SOC): Now ensure that if the platform declares itself as hardware-reduced via the FADT, the following functions become NOOPs (and always return AE_OK) because ACPI is always enabled by definition on these machines:
AcpiEnable
AcpiDisable
AcpiHwGetMode
AcpiHwSetMode

Dynamic Object Repair: Implemented additional runtime repairs for predefined name return values. Both of these repairs can simplify code in the related device drivers that invoke these methods:

1. For the _STR and _MLS names, automatically repair/convert an ASCII string to a Unicode buffer.
2. For the _CRS, _PRS, and _DMA names, return a resource descriptor with a lone end tag descriptor in the following cases: A Return(0) was executed, a null buffer was returned, or no object at all was returned (non-slack mode only). Adds a new file, nsconvert.c

ACPICA BZ 998. Bob Moore, Lv Zheng.

Resource Manager: Added additional code to prevent possible infinite loops while traversing corrupted or ill-formed resource template buffers. Check for zero-length resource descriptors in all code that loops through resource templates (the length field is used to index through the template). This change also hardens the external AcpiWalkResources and AcpiWalkResourceBuffer interfaces.

Local Cache Manager: Enhanced the main data structure to eliminate an unnecessary mechanism to access the next object in the list. Actually provides a small performance enhancement for hosts that use the local ACPICA cache manager. Jung-uk Kim.

Example Code and Data Size: These are the sizes for the OS-independent acpica.lib produced by the Microsoft Visual C++ 9.0 32-bit compiler. The debug version of the code includes the debug output trace mechanism and has a much larger code and data size.

Previous Release:
Non-Debug Version: 94.5K Code, 25.4K Data, 119.9K Total
Debug Version: 182.3K Code, 75.0K Data, 257.3K Total
Current Release:
Non-Debug Version: 95.0K Code, 25.9K Data, 120.9K Total
Debug Version: 182.9K Code, 75.6K Data, 258.5K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL/Disassembler: Fixed several issues with the definition of the ACPI 5.0 RASF table (RAS Feature Table). This change incorporates late changes that were made to the ACPI 5.0 specification.

iASL/Disassembler: Added full support for the following new ACPI tables:

1. The MTMR table (MID Timer Table)
2. The VRTC table (Virtual Real Time Clock Table).

Includes header file, disassembler, table compiler, and template support for both tables.

iASL: Implemented compile-time validation of package objects returned by predefined names. This new feature validates static package objects returned by the various predefined names defined to return packages. Both object types and package lengths are validated, for both parent packages and sub-packages, if any. The code is similar in structure and behavior to the runtime repair mechanism within the AML interpreter and uses the existing predefined name information table. Adds a new file, aslprepkg.c. ACPICA BZ 938.

iASL: Implemented auto-detection of binary ACPI tables for disassembly. This feature detects a binary file with a valid ACPI table header and invokes the disassembler automatically. Eliminates the need to specifically invoke the disassembler with the -d option. ACPICA BZ 862.

iASL/Disassembler: Added several warnings for the case where there are unresolved control methods during the disassembly. This can potentially cause errors when the output file is compiled, because the disassembler assumes zero method arguments in these cases (it cannot determine the actual number of arguments without resolution/definition of the method).

Debugger: Added support to display all resources with a single command. Invocation of the resources command with no arguments will now display all resources within the current namespace.

AcpiHelp: Added descriptive text for each ACPICA exception code displayed via the -e option.