Re: [PATCH 3/3] e820: Add the unknown-12 Memory type (DDR3-NvDIMM)

[Boaz Harrosh <boaz@plexistor.com>]

On 03/09/2015 05:17 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 11:14 AM, Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 7:44 AM, Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> wrote:
>>> On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 7:19 AM, Boaz Harrosh <boaz@plexistor.com> wrote:
>>>> On 03/05/2015 10:56 PM, Dan Williams wrote:
>>> [..]
>>>>> It's not "politics".  Setting standards takes time and the platforms
>>>>> in question simply jumped the gun to enable a proof-of-concept.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> So ye, but once you have 100,000 devices out there, then the dichotomy
>>>> between standards-takes-time vs proof-of-concept, becomes politics.
>>>
>>> Ok.
>>>
>>> ...although, I have a question about this "100,000 devices" you quote.
>>> What's not clear to me is how many platforms are shipping with
>>> type-12.  Certainly there are very many NVDIMMs on the market, but
>>> which off-the-shelf systems can one obtain that include type-12
>>> support?  Not that it would change the disposition of this patch, if
>>> platforms are in the field they're "in the field!", just clarifying
>>> that "100,000 devices" is NVDIMMs not type-12 platforms, right?
>>
>> This is a type-12 platform:
>>
>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DRH-iF-NV.cfm
>>
>> You can order one online, for example:
>>
>> http://www.acmemicro.com/Product/11926/Supermicro+X9DRH-iF-NV-O+Server+Board+DP+Xeon+E5-2600+LGA2011+DDR3+SATA3+RAID+IPMI+GbE+PCIe+ATX+MBD-X9DRH-iF-NV
>>
> 
> Ok, the gig is up :)
> 

Hi Dan.

Sigh, yes. These systems are out there. lots of them, and not only at developers.

So far all the system I had a hands on and all the people I've asked all reported
type-12, if the DIMM was reported at all (or even booted). With various success rate
of actual NVIDIMM functionality.

I call to all developers that are working on NvDIMM. What are the methods you see
that these chips are presented to the system? Are you using BIOS or UEFI?

(From what I understood, there is actually only one family of motherboards/firmware
 That actually boot NVDIMMs, and it all originated from Intel. I might be off by a
 mile, I have not signed any NDA and no one told me so, just my personal follow the
 bread crumbs)

Could we please reconsider and name those in /proc/iomem as NVDIMM-12 instead of unknow-12
just as the nobleness obliges? We are tainting the Kernel and complaining at driver use of
them, that will not change, just the name?

Thanks
Boaz