Version 20130725

25 July 2013. Summary of changes for version 20130725:

This release is available at https://acpica.org/downloads

1) ACPICA kernel-resident subsystem:

Fixed a problem with the DerefOf operator where references to FieldUnits and BufferFields incorrectly returned the parent object, not the actual value of the object. After this change, a dereference of a FieldUnit reference results in a read operation on the field to get the value, and likewise, the appropriate BufferField value is extracted from the target buffer.

Fixed a problem where the _WAK method could cause a fault under these circumstances: 1) Interpreter slack mode was not enabled, and 2) the _WAK method returned no value. The problem is rarely seen because most kernels run ACPICA in slack mode.

For the DerefOf operator, a fatal error now results if an attempt is made to dereference a reference (created by the Index operator) to a NULL package element. Provides compatibility with other ACPI implementations, and this behavior will be added to a future version of the ACPI specification.

The ACPI Power Management Timer (defined in the FADT) is now optional. This provides compatibility with other ACPI implementations and will appear in the next version of the ACPI specification. If there is no PM Timer on the platform, AcpiGetTimer returns AE_SUPPORT. An address of zero in the FADT indicates no PM timer.

Implemented a new interface for _OSI support, AcpiUpdateInterfaces. This allows the host to globally enable/disable all vendor strings, all feature strings, or both. Intended to be primarily used for debugging purposes only. Lv Zheng.

Expose the collected _OSI data to the host via a global variable. This data tracks the highest level vendor ID that has been invoked by the BIOS so that the host (and potentially ACPICA itself) can change behaviors based upon the age of the BIOS.

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.

Current Release:
Non-Debug Version: 96.2K Code, 27.1K Data, 123.3K Total
Debug Version: 184.4K Code, 76.8K Data, 261.2K Total
Previous Release:
Non-Debug Version: 95.9K Code, 26.9K Data, 122.8K Total
Debug Version: 184.1K Code, 76.7K Data, 260.8K Total

2) iASL Compiler/Disassembler and Tools:

iASL: Created the following enhancements for the -so option (create offset table):
1)Add offsets for the last nameseg in each namepath for every supported object type
2)Add support for Processor, Device, Thermal Zone, and Scope objects
3)Add the actual AML opcode for the parent object of every supported object type
4)Add support for the ZERO/ONE/ONES AML opcodes for integer objects

Disassembler: Emit all unresolved external symbols in a single block. These are external references to control methods that could not be resolved, and thus, the disassembler had to make a guess at the number of arguments to parse.

iASL: The argument to the -T option (create table template) is now optional. If not specified, the default table is a DSDT, typically the most common case.