Subject: Re: shark
To: David Chaiken <chaiken@pa.dec.com>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-arm32
Date: 06/30/1998 09:52:51
On Tue, 30 Jun 1998 10:01:02 -0700
chaiken@pa.dec.com (David Chaiken) wrote:
> While I'm posting, I'd like to apologize publicly for the ISA DMA mess.
> At least I documented the horrible hacks: see arm32/isa_machdep.c.
Heh... in the code that I'm hoping to commit soon'ish, I have cleaned
it up a lot, actually. The stuff that asks OpenFirmware for DMA-safe
memory is gone, replaced by a more generalized method for protecting
the DMA ranges in the VM system (see my post to tech-kern about multiple
free lists).
I've also generalized it somewhat so that once platform-specific code
has defined the DMA ranges, the code that deals w/ DMA ranges and DMA
safe memory is the same... i.e. can be shared by code for the CATS board,
etc.
> Bunging an ISA bus on the side of a StrongARM is the root cause of
> some of these hacks. In defense of this architecture, note that shark
> went from a blank sheet of paper to its first trade show in 6 months.
> Shark achieved its target: $300 bill of materials with the same
> performance as a 166 MHz Pentium (quite good at this time last year).
Yah, don't worry... I think all of us think the machine is Too Cool
enough to forgive you for whatever hacks had to be done to make it work :-)
Jason R. Thorpe thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
NASA Ames Research Center Home: +1 408 866 1912
NAS: M/S 258-5 Work: +1 650 604 0935
Moffett Field, CA 94035 Pager: +1 650 428 6939