PowerPC BOF at Ottawa Linux Symposium July 19

PowerPC BOF at Ottawa Linux Symposium July 19

[rodgersg]

[ Redirected to linuxppc-announce to eliminate cross-posting -- dw ]

I introduced the idea of a PowerPC Linux BOF on linuxppc-workstation
and someone said I should also post it on linuxppc-dev.
The idea is to have a meeting of people interested in PowerPC
Linux on the first day (July 19) of the Ottawa Linux Symposium
from 5-7PM eastern time.   This doesn't appear to conflict
with any other meetings at the Symposium.

There are some people who would like to attend a PowerPC
Linux BOF, but will not be in Ottawa.   So I decided to get an
800 dial-in conference number for people to call in and talk/listen.
I know how hard it is to hear on those things, but it will be helpful
if people on the phone can do a 5 minute talk on the work they
are doing with respect to PowerPC Linux and to share
their concerns with everyone.     So if you are not going to
Ottawa and want to join the PowerPC BOF, send me e-mail
so I can send you the 800 number.   Also, if there is enough
interest, I will get an international number for Europe.   Although
it will be pretty late for Europe.   You should also e-mail me
if you are going to Ottawa in person so I can buy enough pizza
and beverages.

I have asked the symposium organizers if a BOF at 5-7pm on the
first day (July 19) is OK and I have not heard anything back yet.
I will wait for some response and if OK,  I will reserve a room at the
Conference Centre with a conference phone.

Please send me ideas for what people would like to cover at
the meeting.  I was hoping to create a top10 list of tactical and
strategic work items for PowerPC Linux.    For example one item
might be the port of QuickTime Player to Linux PPC.   If this
meeting is successful, we can review these lists every year.
I will be glad to serve as secretary and post them on these
news groups.

You may ask, "who am I to be organizing this?"  This is probably
the first time you've seen my name.   I have been quietly listening
to linuxppc-dev and linuxppc-workstation for about a year.
My interest is running Linux on high-end PowerPC servers.
I know we will never get there without all the work that was done
for the Mac and other PowerPC platforms.    I am still getting up
to speed technically, but I do bring some organizational skills.
I recently lead a team of people to port Linux to the POWER4
microprocessor.    Paul Mackerras and Tom Gall were on that
team.   These names should be more familiar to people on this
news group.

If anyone else wants to help organize this meeting,
please let me know.   The more the better.

Have fun!

Greg Rodgers (rodgersg@us.ibm.com)
914-892-1319  Tie 532-1319

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: PowerPC BOF at Ottawa Linux Symposium July 19

[Cort Dougan]

I won't be in Ottawa but I have a suggestion for something to talk about
there if anyone would be interested in it.  Could you have a brainstorming
session about how to re-structure the chip/architecture portions of
arch/ppc/?  I know there are several solutions out there for
arch/ppc/{chrp,prep,embedded,pmac} and arch/ppc/{4xx,6xx,8xx} but would
like to find a solution that fits everyones needs (or at least satisfies
several of them.

I'd like to start the work sometime in 2.5.

} I introduced the idea of a PowerPC Linux BOF on linuxppc-workstation
} and someone said I should also post it on linuxppc-dev.
} The idea is to have a meeting of people interested in PowerPC
} Linux on the first day (July 19) of the Ottawa Linux Symposium
} from 5-7PM eastern time.   This doesn't appear to conflict
} with any other meetings at the Symposium.
}
} There are some people who would like to attend a PowerPC
} Linux BOF, but will not be in Ottawa.   So I decided to get an
} 800 dial-in conference number for people to call in and talk/listen.
} I know how hard it is to hear on those things, but it will be helpful
} if people on the phone can do a 5 minute talk on the work they
} are doing with respect to PowerPC Linux and to share
} their concerns with everyone.     So if you are not going to
} Ottawa and want to join the PowerPC BOF, send me e-mail
} so I can send you the 800 number.   Also, if there is enough
} interest, I will get an international number for Europe.   Although
} it will be pretty late for Europe.   You should also e-mail me
} if you are going to Ottawa in person so I can buy enough pizza
} and beverages.
}
} I have asked the symposium organizers if a BOF at 5-7pm on the
} first day (July 19) is OK and I have not heard anything back yet.
} I will wait for some response and if OK,  I will reserve a room at the
} Conference Centre with a conference phone.
}
} Please send me ideas for what people would like to cover at
} the meeting.  I was hoping to create a top10 list of tactical and
} strategic work items for PowerPC Linux.    For example one item
} might be the port of QuickTime Player to Linux PPC.   If this
} meeting is successful, we can review these lists every year.
} I will be glad to serve as secretary and post them on these
} news groups.
}
} You may ask, "who am I to be organizing this?"  This is probably
} the first time you've seen my name.   I have been quietly listening
} to linuxppc-dev and linuxppc-workstation for about a year.
} My interest is running Linux on high-end PowerPC servers.
} I know we will never get there without all the work that was done
} for the Mac and other PowerPC platforms.    I am still getting up
} to speed technically, but I do bring some organizational skills.
} I recently lead a team of people to port Linux to the POWER4
} microprocessor.    Paul Mackerras and Tom Gall were on that
} team.   These names should be more familiar to people on this
} news group.
}
} If anyone else wants to help organize this meeting,
} please let me know.   The more the better.
}
} Have fun!
}
} Greg Rodgers (rodgersg@us.ibm.com)
} 914-892-1319  Tie 532-1319

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: PowerPC BOF at Ottawa Linux Symposium July 19

[Dan Malek]

Cort Dougan wrote:
>
> I won't be in Ottawa but I have a suggestion for something to talk about
> there if anyone would be interested in it.  Could you have a brainstorming
> session about how to re-structure the chip/architecture portions of
> arch/ppc/?

I don't know if I will be there, but I would like to make a comment
on this as well.  The BOF started as a workstation/server discussion,
and the chip/architecture issues are really the result of the variety
of embedded PowerPC processors and boards.

There is PREP/CHRP/PowerMac that you have successfully combined, with
minor configuration differences among all of them.  Then we have lots
of different PowerPC cores with highly integrated functional units on
a variety of different board configurations.  I think we are fortunate
to be able to provide this wide range of solutions, but it does present
the source code structure challenge as Cort (and others) have discussed.

As a workstation/server BOF, I don't know how much interest exists to
discuss this.  The easy answer is a set of orthogonal directory trees,
but I think the highest priority should be on maintaining a set of
common files.  Having experienced splitting some processor dependent
files, I would still take the #ifdefs over tracking similar changes
across multiple files.


	-- Dan

** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/

Re: PowerPC BOF at Ottawa Linux Symposium July 19

[Adrian Cox]

Dan Malek wrote:

> As a workstation/server BOF, I don't know how much interest exists to
> discuss this.  The easy answer is a set of orthogonal directory trees,
> but I think the highest priority should be on maintaining a set of
> common files.  Having experienced splitting some processor dependent
> files, I would still take the #ifdefs over tracking similar changes
> across multiple files.

I'd go with that some of the way, but I think MMU_init() in mm/init.c
goes a bit too far. It feels like every time I port my patches to a new
release kernel somebody has added extra boards and I have to sort switch
statements out by hand.

As an example, looking at 2.2 and 2.3, the actions performed by
xxx_find_end_of_memory() haven't changed very much. There probably
wouldn't be much problem introducing a ppc_md.find_end_of_memory call(),
and patches to add new machines would apply much cleaner.

I don't think the world is ready for my dream of eliminating _machine
completely, but if there's any interest I can attempt a test refactoring
of mm/init.c. This needn't be an all at once change; the idiom I'm
thinking of goes something like:
	if (ppc_md.do_whatever())
		ppc_md.do_whatever();
	else {
#ifndef CONFIG_8xx
	switch(_machine)
	...
#else
	8xx_do_whatever();
#endif
	}

- Adrian Cox, AG Electronics

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