netdev - Re: PHY firmware update method

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Date:   Tue, 24 Jan 2023 18:13:25 +0100
From:   Michael Walle <michael@...le.cc>
To:     "Russell King (Oracle)" <linux@...linux.org.uk>
Cc:     Jakub Kicinski <kuba@...nel.org>, Andrew Lunn <andrew@...n.ch>,
        Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@...el.com>,
        Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>,
        Heiner Kallweit <hkallweit1@...il.com>, netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: PHY firmware update method

Am 2022-10-03 14:18, schrieb Russell King (Oracle):
> On Fri, Sep 30, 2022 at 07:45:46AM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
>> Actually maybe there's something in DMTF, does PLDM have standard 
>> image
>> format? Adding Jake. Not sure if PHYs would use it tho :S
> 
> DMTF? PLDM?
> 
>> What's the interface that the PHY FW exposes? Ben H was of the opinion
>> that we should just expose the raw mtd devices.. just saying..
> 
> Not all PHYs provide raw access to the firmware memory to the host; in
> some cases, firmware memory access needs the PHY to be shutdown, and
> programs loaded into the PHY to provide a "bridge" to program the
> external firmware memory. I'm thinking about 88x3310 here - effectively
> there it's write-only access via an intermediate program on the PHY,
> and there's things like checksums etc.
> 
> So, exposing everything as a MTD sounds like a solution, but not all
> PHYs provide such access. IMHO, if we say "everything must provide a
> MTD" then we're boxing ourselves into a corner.

I agree, the PHY I'm looking at right now, can't read back the
firmware binary. And there is also no random access, you basically
have to stream the whole binary in one go to the PHY.

-michael