Re: [PATCH] NFC: Driver for Inside Secure MicroRead NFC chip

[Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 01:05:02PM +0200, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Tuesday 29 March 2011, Waldemar.Rymarkiewicz@tieto.com wrote:
> > >Yes, NFC seems to be a good fit for a new socket family. 
> > >Especially if we ever want to have a proper NFC p2p support 
> > >from the kernel.
> > >Sending HCI commands should be done through a dedicated 
> > >netlink socket too.
> > >
> > >I am currently strting to work on such solution, and I hope to 
> > >be able to come up with a basic prototype for it in a few weeks.
> > 
> > What about common drivers interface in this case.
> > Should we go for common /dev/nfcX interface as well?
> 
> I fear there can only be one. A good implementation of a socket
> interface would mean that there is no need for a character device.
My idea of an initial NFC subsystem architecture was actually the following
one:
- A core NFC layer against which NFC drivers would register.
- A netlink socket for handling the HCI commands. That would put a big part of
the NFC HCI layer in kernel land and could potentially simplify the existing
NFC stacks.
- A socket family for the LLCP abstraction, a.k.a. NFC peer to peer mode.

We can start working on the first 2 items and leave the last one as a future
enhancement, since what NFC is currently mostly used for is tag
reading/writing and smartcard emulation.

Basically, we'd replace the current character device option with a netlink
one, allowing for a single kernel entry point for multiple applications
willing to do NFC.

Cheers,
Samuel.

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