Re: [PATCH] EDAC: core EDAC support code

Dave Peterson
2006-03-10T19:08:33Z

On Friday 10 March 2006 09:58, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
> > I'd be curious to hear people's opinions on the following idea:
> > move the PCI bus parity error checking functionality from EDAC
> > to the PCI subsystem.
>
> I can see the point on at least moving all the infrastructure there.
> The actual call to run it... maybe. that's more debatable I suppose.

Regarding the actual call to run it, I guess it depends on which of
the following you prefer:

Scenario A
----------
A more decentralized layout. Here, the controls that govern the
error handling behavior for a given category of hardware (a
category might be "PCI devices" or "devices that use bus
technology XYZ") are grouped together with other stuff for that
category.

Scenario B
----------
A more centralized layout. Here, the controls that govern a wide
variety of error handling behaviors are all grouped together (for
instance, within EDAC).

I tend to prefer scenario A. The conceptual model I currently have in
my mind for EDAC is as follows:

- Each low-level EDAC module (amd76x, e7xxx, etc.) implements
hardware error handling functionality that is specific to just
that platform.

- The purpose of the core EDAC module is to serve as a home for
abstractions that are common to the various low-level EDAC
modules. This creates uniformity of mechanism, and also uniform
behavior from the user's point of view. It also encourages
avoidance of replicated code. However, the core EDAC module
(and by extension, the low-level EDAC modules) should not
contain stuff that is generic enough to fit elsewhere (for
instance, in the PCI subsystem). In other words, EDAC serves as
a catch-all for error handling functionality that is too
platform-specific to fit anywhere else.

However, these are just my personal thoughts. I'd be curious to hear
other ideas people may have.