Re: Call for GSoC internship project ideas

[Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de>]

On 2/7/25 15:47, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 9:39 AM Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Stefan,
>>
>> On 1/28/25 17:16, Stefan Hajnoczi wrote:
>>> How to propose your idea
>>> ------------------------------
>>> Reply to this email with the following project idea template filled in:
>>
>> Would something like this be acceptable?
>
> Yes, it would be great to have an emulation project idea like this!
>
> Please choose exactly which device you'd like them to implement.
> Interns may not be knowledgeable in the field yet and you actually
> help by setting limitations.
>
> Link to the specific device's datasheet, existing open source driver
> example, internal QEMU APIs needed to implement this type of device,
> etc so that it's easy for an applicant to investigate the idea and
> decide whether or not to apply.

Ok, here is an updated text:

=== Develop a driver to emulate an existing network-, scsi- or graphic-card in software ===

'''Summary:''' Develop a driver for Qemu to emulate an old network-, SCSI- or graphic card in software

Qemu allows to emulate a lot of physical machines. Beside widely used
x86 machines as used with KVM, this includes historic machines
based on PowerPC, Alpha or HP PA-RISC CPUs too.
To allow to emulate additional specific historic machine models,
drivers to emulate specific hardware like network-, SCSI- or graphic
cards need to be developed.
This project is about to develop such a driver for the historic
HP PA-RISC architecture. Based on the knowledge and interest of the
applicant, here are two non-exclusive options:
a) driver for the "LASI" network card. This is basically an Intel 82596
network chip, which was integrated into another ASIC in the HP 700 series.
That chip was used in SUN machines as well, and the full Linux driver
for the various machines can be found here:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/net/ethernet/i825xx
A driver for Qemu exists, but it's not fully functional yet:
https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/hw/net/lasi_i82596.c
https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/blob/master/hw/net/i82596.c
Datasheets for this chip exists too.
This project is about debugging and analyzing existing code, including
development of missing code.

b) a driver to emulate a "classic" first-generation NCR 710 SCSI controller.
Really old machines used a NCR 710 SCSI controller, for which currently
no qemu driver exists.
Qemu has a LSI53C895A driver, which partly even allows to
emulate a LSI53C810 too, but those chips are "too new" and as such
are not accepted and supported on old operating systems (e.g. HP-UX9).
The WinUAE project seem to have modified the existing qemu driver
to emulate a NCR710 to support the Amiga:
https://github.com/tonioni/WinUAE/blob/master/qemuvga/lsi53c710.cpp
The goal of this project should be to develop a nice & clean NCR710
driver which is acceptable to include in qemu source code repository.

'''Links:'''
* https://parisc.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/technical_documentation.html
* existing Linux kernel drivers

'''Details:'''
* Skill level: advanced
* Language: C