[RFC][PATCH] bcmai: introduce AI driver

[mb@bu3sch.de (Michael Büsch)]

On Thu, 2011-04-07 at 02:54 +0200, Rafa? Mi?ecki wrote: 
> W dniu 7 kwietnia 2011 02:00 u?ytkownik George Kashperko
> <george@znau.edu.ua> napisa?:
> > For PCI function description take a look at PCI specs or PCI
> > configuration space description (e. g.
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_configuration_space)
> >
> > Sorry for missleading short-ups, w11 - bcm80211 core, under two-head I
> > mean ssb/axi with two functional cores on same interconnect (like w11
> > +w11, not a lot of these exists I guess). Also there were some b43+b44
> > on single PCI ssb host and those where implemented as ssb interconnect
> > on multifunctional PCI host therefore providing separate access windows
> > for each function.
> >
> > Might I mussunderstood something (its late night here at my place) when
> > you where talking about using coreswitching involved for two drivers
> > therefore I remembered about those functions. Seems now you were talking
> > about chipcommon+b43 access sharing same window.
> >
> > As for core switching requirments for earlier SSB interconnects on PCI
> > hosts where there were no direct chipcommon access, that one can be
> > accomplished without spin_lock/mutex for b43 or b44 cores with proper
> > bus design.
> >
> > AXI doesn't need spinlocks/mutexes as both chipcommon and pci bridge are
> > available directly and b43 will be the only one requiring window access.
> 
> Ahh, so while talking about 4 windows, I guess you counted fixes
> windows as well. That would be right, matching my knowledge.
> 
> When asking question about amount of cores we may want to use
> simultaneously I didn't think about ChipCommon or PCIe. The real
> problem would be to support for example two 802.11 cores and one
> ethernet core at the same time. That gives us 3 cores while we have
> only 2 sliding windows.

Would that really be a problem? Think of it. This combination 
will only be available on embedded devices. But do we have windows
on embedded devices? I guess not. If AXI is similar to SSB, the MMIO
of all cores will always be mapped. So accesses can be done
without switch or lock.

I do really think that engineers at broadcom are clever enough
to design a hardware that does not require expensive window sliding
all the time while operating.

-- 
Greetings Michael.