netdev - Re: [RFC PATCH v7 01/19] Add a new structure for skb buffer from external.

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Message-ID: <1277047154.14011.880.camel@localhost>
Date:	Sun, 20 Jun 2010 16:19:14 +0100
From:	Ben Hutchings <bhutchings@...arflare.com>
To:	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>
Cc:	"Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>,
	"Xin, Xiaohui" <xiaohui.xin@...el.com>,
	Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@...tta.com>,
	"netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
	"kvm@...r.kernel.org" <kvm@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"mingo@...e.hu" <mingo@...e.hu>,
	"davem@...emloft.net" <davem@...emloft.net>,
	"jdike@...ux.intel.com" <jdike@...ux.intel.com>,
	Rusty Russell <rusty@...tcorp.com.au>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v7 01/19] Add a new structure for skb buffer from
 external.

On Sun, 2010-06-20 at 21:59 +1000, Herbert Xu wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 02:47:19PM +0300, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> >
> > Let's do this then.  So far the virtio spec avoided making layout
> > assumptions, leaving guests lay out data as they see fit.
> > Isn't it possible to keep supporting this with zero copy for hardware
> > that can issue DMA at arbitrary addresses?
> 
> I think you're mistaken with respect to what is being proposed.
> Raising 512 bytes isn't a hard constraint, it is merely an
> optimisation for Intel NICs because their PS mode can produce
> a head fragment of up to 512 bytes.
> 
> If the guest didn't allocate 512 bytes it wouldn't be the end of
> the world, it'd just mean that we'd either copy whatever is in
> the head fragment, or we waste 4096-X bytes of memory where X
> is the number of bytes in the head.

If I understand correctly what this 'PS mode' is (I haven't seen the
documentation for it), it is a feature that Microsoft requested from
hardware vendors for use in Hyper-V.  As a result, the SFC9000 family
and presumably other controllers also implement something similar.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare Communications
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.

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