diff --git a/Documentation/components/drivers/special/devfreq.rst b/Documentation/components/drivers/special/devfreq.rst
index 85e2f142897..a12d709a983 100644
--- a/Documentation/components/drivers/special/devfreq.rst
+++ b/Documentation/components/drivers/special/devfreq.rst
@@ -52,6 +52,20 @@ aggregate ``max``) the driver's ``conflict_policy`` decides who wins:
 - ``DEVFREQ_CONFLICT_PREFER_LOW`` clamps to the ceiling and chooses the lower
   frequency. A device protecting a thermal or power budget picks this.
 
+The thermal framework is one such requester. With
+``CONFIG_THERMAL_CDEV_DEVFREQ`` it registers a cooling device over the
+devfreq device named by ``CONFIG_THERMAL_CDEV_DEVFREQ_NAME``, and each
+cooling state installs a ceiling one entry further down the table. Drivers
+that expect to be throttled should carry ``DEVFREQ_CONFLICT_PREFER_LOW``, so
+that the ceiling wins against anything asking for more.
+
+A table of *n* usable frequencies gives the cooling device a maximum state of
+*n* - 1: state zero caps at the highest frequency, which leaves the device
+unthrottled, and the maximum state caps at the lowest. Entries of
+``DEVFREQ_ENTRY_INVALID`` are not frequencies the device can be held at, so
+they earn no state, and the ``low`` and ``high`` bounds of a thermal zone's
+cooling map therefore count usable frequencies rather than table positions.
+
 The resolved ``[min, max]`` is then snapped to the table: ``min`` rounds up to
 the lowest entry at or above it, ``max`` rounds down to the highest entry at
 or below it. The governor picks within that snapped range, and the lower half
diff --git a/Documentation/components/drivers/thermal/index.rst b/Documentation/components/drivers/thermal/index.rst
index 019c62ea27f..b14820afdb6 100644
--- a/Documentation/components/drivers/thermal/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/components/drivers/thermal/index.rst
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ Brief
 =====
 1. Support Zone, Cooling Device and Governor
     - ``Zone``: Responsible for monitoring the temperature of the specified area, obtains the temperature through the temperature sensor, and the sensor driver returns the temperature through callback function.
-    - ``Cooling Device``: A cooling device is a device that can reduce the temperature by using resources such as cpufreq, fan, etc. The cpufreq cooling device driver is preset to simplify CPU frequency modulation temperature control.
+    - ``Cooling Device``: A cooling device is a device that can reduce the temperature by using resources such as devfreq, fan, etc. The devfreq cooling device driver is preset to simplify frequency modulation temperature control: it caps the frequency of the devfreq device named by ``CONFIG_THERMAL_CDEV_DEVFREQ_NAME``, which must be registered before ``thermal_init()`` runs.
     - ``Governor``: For temperature control, you can use the preset or custom registered one, preset "step_wise" governor:
         - When the temperature of the "Zone" reaches the temperature trip point, and the temperature change trend rises or stabilizes ("step_wise" obtains the value of the corresponding "Zone" every 20ms [``CONFIG_THERMAL_DUMMY_POLLING_DELAY=200``, ``CONFIG_USEC_PER_TICK=100``]), the current temperature equals to OR greater than the last obtained temperature value), improve the state of the "Cooling Device" (trigger the cooling operation executed by the corresponding state, Through ``set_state``).
         - When the temperature of the zone is lower than the temperature trip point, and the temperature trend is steadily decreasing, the state of the "Cooling Device" is reduced.
@@ -80,8 +80,8 @@ Device Driver
 
         nsh> cat /proc/thermal/cpu-thermal
         z:cpu-thermal t:77 t:1 h:16 l:0 c:fan0 s:7|7
-        z:cpu-thermal t:77 t:1 h:3 l:3 c:cpufreq s:3|3
-        z:cpu-thermal t:77 t:2 h:2 l:0 c:cpufreq s:3|2
+        z:cpu-thermal t:77 t:1 h:3 l:3 c:cpu s:3|3
+        z:cpu-thermal t:77 t:2 h:2 l:0 c:cpu s:3|2
 
 Board Customization
 ===================
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ The binding relationship between Trip, Cooling Device, Governor and Zone is show
   {
     {
       .trip_name = "cpu_alert1",
-      .cdev_name = "cpufreq",
+      .cdev_name = CONFIG_THERMAL_CDEV_DEVFREQ_NAME,
       .low    = 3,
       .high   = THERMAL_NO_LIMIT,
       .weight = 20
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ The binding relationship between Trip, Cooling Device, Governor and Zone is show
     },
     {
       .trip_name = "cpu_alert0",
-      .cdev_name = "cpufreq",
+      .cdev_name = CONFIG_THERMAL_CDEV_DEVFREQ_NAME,
       .low    = THERMAL_NO_LIMIT,
       .high   = 2,
       .weight = 20
diff --git a/boards/sim/sim/sim/configs/thermal/defconfig b/boards/sim/sim/sim/configs/thermal/defconfig
index ed59eb3eab7..89dd469238a 100644
--- a/boards/sim/sim/sim/configs/thermal/defconfig
+++ b/boards/sim/sim/sim/configs/thermal/defconfig
@@ -4,9 +4,12 @@ CONFIG_DEBUG_THERMAL=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_THERMAL_ERROR=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_THERMAL_INFO=y
 CONFIG_DEBUG_THERMAL_WARN=y
+CONFIG_DEVFREQ=y
+CONFIG_DEVFREQ_PROCFS=y
 CONFIG_PM=y
 CONFIG_READLINE_CMD_HISTORY=y
 CONFIG_SCHED_LPWORK=y
 CONFIG_THERMAL=y
 CONFIG_THERMAL_DUMMY=y
+CONFIG_THERMAL_DUMMY_DEVFREQ=y
 CONFIG_THERMAL_PROCFS=y