PCI rework

Mark Kettenis mark.kettenis at xs4all.nl
Tue May 2 13:29:35 PDT 2006


> Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 11:43:19 -0700
> From: Ian Romanick <idr at us.ibm.com>
> 
> > I'm talking specifically about pci_device_map_region() and
> > pci_device_unmap_region().  These interfaces are clearly there because
> > the Linux sysfs provides these "regions" as files which you can open
> > and then mmap.  Other operating systems don't support this view, and
> 
> On those systems (including older Linux kernels that do not have sysfs),
> pci_device_map_region internally does an mmap on /dev/mem of the proper
> offset.

If there is a 1:1 mapping from region ID's to BARs then yes, of course
this can be done.  How does the mapping work if there are 64-bit Base
Adress registers, possibly intermixed with 32-bit Base Address
registers?  The "region" in the interface name is a bit strange, but
admittedly the PCI standard doesn't really suggest a better name.
Perhaps pci_device_map_bar() expresses the intent a bit better.

> Note that this is currently broken in X on some platforms.  IBM pSeries
> hardware always maps BARs above 0xffffffff.  If the X-server is built as
> a 32-bit app (which is the default), it silently drops the upper
> 32-bits.  This problem is propagate to each and every driver.  By
> isoalting it in a single library, the amount of code that is exposed to
> this issue is limited.

Ah yes, 32-bit userland on a 64-bit kernel can be a bit schizophrenic.
But this just means that currently either:

a) X doesn't decode 64-bit BARs correctly.

b) X uses the wrong type for physical addresses when compiled as a
32-bit app on a 64-bit system.

> > there's a good reason not to do it: Many PCI devices put mappable
> > memory addresses in config space outside the standard PCI BARs.  What
> > you really need is an interface to read from PCI config space and an
> > interface to map physicall addresses on the pci bus into memory.  Some
> > standard helper functions to decode the standard BARs is certainly
> > desirable.
> 
> Excluding legacy VGA memory, can you name any?

I've no experience with graphics hardware.  But the VIA VT8237
southbridge has Watchdog Timer memory base at offset 0xe8.  The Intel
ICH7 sothbridge as a gpio base address register at offset 0x48.  Looks
like the Winbond W89C840F Fast Ethernet adapter has a bootrom at the
address specified by offset 0x28.

Mark



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