linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH v2 0/1] FPGA subsystem core

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Date:	Fri, 04 Oct 2013 11:12:13 -0700
From:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
To:	monstr@...str.eu
CC:	Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
	Pavel Machek <pavel@...x.de>,
	Michal Simek <michal.simek@...inx.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Alan Tull <atull@...era.com>,
	Dinh Nguyen <dinguyen@...era.com>,
	Philip Balister <philip@...ister.org>,
	Alessandro Rubini <rubini@...dd.com>,
	Steffen Trumtrar <s.trumtrar@...gutronix.de>,
	Jason Gunthorpe <jgunthorpe@...idianresearch.com>,
	Jason Cooper <jason@...edaemon.net>,
	Yves Vandervennet <rocket.yvanderv@...il.com>,
	Kyle Teske <kyle.teske@...com>,
	Josh Cartwright <joshc@....teric.us>,
	Nicolas Pitre <nico@...aro.org>,
	Mark Langsdorf <mark.langsdorf@...xeda.com>,
	Felipe Balbi <balbi@...com>, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <m.chehab@...sung.com>,
	David Brown <davidb@...eaurora.org>,
	Rob Landley <rob@...dley.net>,
	"David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>,
	Cesar Eduardo Barros <cesarb@...arb.net>,
	Samuel Ortiz <sameo@...ux.intel.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2 0/1] FPGA subsystem core

On 10/04/2013 10:44 AM, Michal Simek wrote:
> 
> If you look at it in general I believe that there is wide range of 
> applications which just contain one bitstream per fpga and the 
> bitstream is replaced by newer version in upgrade. For them 
> firmware interface should be pretty useful. Just setup firmware 
> name with bitstream and it will be automatically loaded in startup 
> phase.
> 
> Then there is another set of applications especially in connection 
> to partial reconfiguration where this can be done statically by 
> pregenerated partial bitstreams or automatically generated on 
> target cpu. For doing everything on the target firmware interface 
> is not the best because everything can be handled by user 
> application and it is easier just to push this bitstream to do 
> device and not to save it to the fs.
> 
> I think the question here is if this subsystem could have several 
> interfaces. For example Alan is asking for adding char support. 
> Does it even make sense to have more interfaces with the same 
> backend driver? When this is answered then we can talk which one 
> make sense to have. In v2 is sysfs and firmware one. Adding char
> is also easy to do.
> 

Greg, what do you think?

I agree that the firmware interface makes sense when the use of the
FPGA is an implementation detail in a fixed hardware configuration,
but that is a fairly restricted use case all things considered.

	-hpa

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