From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751073AbdKHIUX (ORCPT ); Wed, 8 Nov 2017 03:20:23 -0500 Received: from us01smtprelay-2.synopsys.com ([198.182.47.9]:55727 "EHLO smtprelay.synopsys.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750944AbdKHIUU (ORCPT ); Wed, 8 Nov 2017 03:20:20 -0500 From: Alexey Brodkin To: Vineet Gupta CC: "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , "linux-snps-arc@lists.infradead.org" Subject: Re: [PATCH] ARCv2: Accomodate NS48 MMUv5 by releaxing MMU ver checking Thread-Topic: [PATCH] ARCv2: Accomodate NS48 MMUv5 by releaxing MMU ver checking Thread-Index: AQHTVzXc8ED0ZTLKxESx1zqEYt8ErKMI/BIA Date: Wed, 8 Nov 2017 08:20:14 +0000 Message-ID: <1510068752.8417.9.camel@synopsys.com> References: <1509996651-7174-1-git-send-email-vgupta@synopsys.com> In-Reply-To: <1509996651-7174-1-git-send-email-vgupta@synopsys.com> Accept-Language: en-US, ru-RU Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: x-originating-ip: [10.121.8.86] Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-ID: <6D2F592F683C4A44833876B8F25AD159@internal.synopsys.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from base64 to 8bit by nfs id vA88KRH3015206 Hi Vineet, Subject contains one typo: NS48 -> HS48. On Mon, 2017-11-06 at 11:30 -0800, Vineet Gupta wrote: > HS48 cpus will have a new MMUv5, although Linux is currently not > explicitly supporting the newer features (so remains at V4). > The existing software/hardware version check is very tight and causes > boot abort. Given that the MMUv5 hardware is backwards compatible, > relax the boot check to allow current kernel support level to work > with new hardware. I don't terribly like this approach with assuming all ARCv2 MMUs are backward-compatible. This time v5 is indeed backward compatible with v4 from our stand-point. But what if v6 becomes non-compatible to both v4 and v6? That said I'd prefer to add each particular MMU version explicitly like we used to do previously. Your intention to make built today binaries future-proof is understood but again if following MMUs become non-compatible we'll need to rewrite this code again. One better option would be more precise encoding of MMU version in hardware such that based on combination of features we may decide if we may handle it. -Alexey