Message-ID: <7b30e468-e32c-cba7-8ec1-00477194ad33@microchip.com>
Date:   Wed, 29 Mar 2023 05:06:33 +0000
From:   <Parthiban.Veerasooran@...rochip.com>
To:     <andrew@...n.ch>, <Allan.Nielsen@...rochip.com>
CC:     <netdev@...r.kernel.org>, <Jan.Huber@...rochip.com>,
        <Thorsten.Kummermehr@...rochip.com>
Subject: Re: RFC: Adding Microchip's LAN865x 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHY driver support
 to Linux

Hi Andrew,

Thanks a lot for your support. I will check with our colleagues 
suggested by you and get back to mainline again.

Best Regards,
Parthiban V
On 11/03/23 11:15 pm, Andrew Lunn wrote:
> EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe
> 
> Hi Allan
> 
> It has been a long time since we talked, maybe 2019 at the Linux
> Plumbers conference.... And then PTP discussions etc.
> 
> It seems like Sparx5 is going well, along with felix, seville, etc.
> 
> On Fri, Mar 10, 2023 at 11:13:23AM +0000, Parthiban.Veerasooran@...rochip.com wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I would like to add Microchip's LAN865x 10BASE-T1S MAC-PHY driver
>> support to Linux kernel.
>> (Product link: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/LAN8650)
>>
>> The LAN8650 combines a Media Access Controller (MAC) and an Ethernet PHY
>> to access 10BASE‑T1S networks. The common standard Serial Peripheral
>> Interface (SPI) is used so that the transfer of Ethernet packets and
>> LAN8650 control/status commands are performed over a single, serial
>> interface.
>>
>> Ethernet packets are segmented and transferred over the serial interface
>> according to the OPEN Alliance 10BASE‑T1x MAC‑PHY Serial Interface
>> specification designed by TC6.
>> (link: https://www.opensig.org/Automotive-Ethernet-Specifications/)
>> The serial interface protocol can simultaneously transfer both transmit
>> and receive packets between the host and the LAN8650.
>>
>> Basically the driver comprises of two parts. One part is to interface
>> with networking subsystem and SPI subsystem. The other part is a TC6
>> state machine which implements the Ethernet packets segmentation
>> according to OPEN Alliance 10BASE‑T1x MAC‑PHY Serial Interface
>> specification.
>>
>> The idea behind the TC6 state machine implementation is to make it as a
>> generic library and platform independent. A set of API's provided by
>> this TC6 state machine library can be used by the 10BASE-T1x MAC-PHY
>> drivers to segment the Ethernet packets according to the OPEN Alliance
>> 10BASE‑T1x MAC‑PHY Serial Interface specification.
>>
>> With the above information, kindly provide your valuable feedback on my
>> below queries.
>>
>> Can we keep this TC6 state machine within the LAN865x driver or as a
>> separate generic library accessible for other 10BASE-T1x MAC-PHY drivers
>> as well?
>>
>> If you recommend to have that as a separate generic library then could
>> you please advice on what is the best way to do that in kernel?
> 
> Microchip is getting more and more involved in mainline. Jakub
> publishes some developers statistics for netdev:
> 
> https://lwn.net/Articles/918007/
> 
> It shows Microchip are near the top for code contributions. Which is
> great. However, as a reviewer, i see the quality really varies. Given
> how active Microchip is within Linux, the netdev community, and to
> some extent Linux as a whole, expects a company like Microchip to
> build up its internal resources to offer training and Mentoring to
> mainline developers, rather than expect the community to do that
> work. Does such a thing exist within Microchip? Could you point
> Parthiban towards a mentor who can help guide the work adding generic
> support for the OPEN Alliance 10BASE-T1x MAC-PHY Serial Interface and
> the LAN8650/1 specific bits? If not, could Steen Hegelund or Horatiu
> Vultur make some time available to be a mentor?
> 
> Thanks
>          Andrew

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