[RFC] introducing the Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet driver

[RFC] introducing the Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet driver

[Chris Snook]

Hey folks --

	I've begun cleaning up the atl2 vendor driver for merging.  It's very similar 
to the atl1 driver, and needs a lot of the same work, though I have already 
fixed the 64-bit DMA data corrupter that atl1 users remember so fondly.  Right 
now this is very raw, and there is a large amount of cosmetic work to do to make 
it more maintainable, but it should generally work, at least as well as the 
vendor driver does.

	While this is in pre-submission cleanup mode, the latest standalone source 
tarball and patch (currently against 2.6.23) will be available here:

http://people.redhat.com/csnook/atl2/

	If you have atl2 hardware, please give this a spin.  I plan to submit the 
driver for merging some time in the next month or so.  Questions, comments, 
patches welcome.

	-- Chris

Re: [RFC] introducing the Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet driver

[Jeff Garzik]

Chris Snook wrote:
> Hey folks --
> 
>     I've begun cleaning up the atl2 vendor driver for merging.  It's 
> very similar to the atl1 driver, and needs a lot of the same work, 
> though I have already fixed the 64-bit DMA data corrupter that atl1 
> users remember so fondly.  Right now this is very raw, and there is a 
> large amount of cosmetic work to do to make it more maintainable, but it 
> should generally work, at least as well as the vendor driver does.
> 
>     While this is in pre-submission cleanup mode, the latest standalone 
> source tarball and patch (currently against 2.6.23) will be available here:
> 
> http://people.redhat.com/csnook/atl2/
> 
>     If you have atl2 hardware, please give this a spin.  I plan to 
> submit the driver for merging some time in the next month or so.  
> Questions, comments, patches welcome.

Why not update atl1 for this new hardware?  Why is a new driver needed?

	Jeff

Re: [RFC] introducing the Atheros L2 Fast Ethernet driver

[Chris Snook]

Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Chris Snook wrote:
>> Hey folks --
>>
>>     I've begun cleaning up the atl2 vendor driver for merging.  It's 
>> very similar to the atl1 driver, and needs a lot of the same work, 
>> though I have already fixed the 64-bit DMA data corrupter that atl1 
>> users remember so fondly.  Right now this is very raw, and there is a 
>> large amount of cosmetic work to do to make it more maintainable, but 
>> it should generally work, at least as well as the vendor driver does.
>>
>>     While this is in pre-submission cleanup mode, the latest 
>> standalone source tarball and patch (currently against 2.6.23) will be 
>> available here:
>>
>> http://people.redhat.com/csnook/atl2/
>>
>>     If you have atl2 hardware, please give this a spin.  I plan to 
>> submit the driver for merging some time in the next month or so.  
>> Questions, comments, patches welcome.
> 
> Why not update atl1 for this new hardware?  Why is a new driver needed?
> 
>     Jeff

They have some common hardware at the PCIe level, but at the ethernet level it's 
totally different (simple, low-power 100 Mb vs. Gb with all the bells and 
whistles).  We'd end up special-casing all over the place, because they have 
rather different capabilities, like, say, if we tried to merge ixgb and e1000 
(which have a lot of code in common).  It could be done, but I don't think it 
would be beneficial.  If Atheros decides to maintain the in-tree drivers 
directly, and wants to take it in that direction, I won't object, but from where 
I sit, on the other side of the planet from the guys with the chips hooked up to 
the hardware analyzers, separate drivers seems less painful.

	-- Chris