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<TITLE>RE: [openib-general] [PATCH][RFC/v1][0/12] Initial submission of InfiniBand patches for review</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Congratulations for this important step toward the inclusion of Infiniband drivers in Linux kernel.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Tziporet</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Roland Dreier [<A HREF="mailto:roland@topspin.com">mailto:roland@topspin.com</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 5:13 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Cc: openib-general@openib.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: [openib-general] [PATCH][RFC/v1][0/12] Initial submission of</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>InfiniBand patches for review</FONT>
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<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'm very happy to be able to post an initial version of InfiniBand</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>patches for review. Although this code should be far closer to kernel</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>coding standards than previous open source InfiniBand drivers, this</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>initial posting should be treated as a request for comments and not a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>request for inclusion; our ultimate goal is to have these drivers</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>included in the mainline kernel, but we expect that fixes and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>improvements will need to be made before the code is completely</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>acceptable.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>These patches add a minimal but complete level of InfiniBand support,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>including an IB midlayer, a low-level driver for Mellanox HCAs, an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>IP-over-InfiniBand driver, and a mechanism for MADs (management</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>datagrams) to be passed to and from userspace. This means that these</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>patches are all that is required for the kernel to bring up and use an</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>IP-over-InfiniBand link. (The OpenSM subnet manager has not been</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>ported to this kernel API yet, although this work is underway. This</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>means that at the moment, a kernel with these patches cannot be used</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to bring up a fabric; however, the kernel side is complete)</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>The code has not been through extreme stress testing yet, but it has</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>been used successfully on i386, x86_64, ppc64, ia64 and sparc64</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>systems, including mixed 32/64 systems.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Feedback on both details of the code as well as the high-level</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>organization of the code will be very much appreciated. For example,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the current set of patches puts include files in driver/infiniband/include;</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>would it be preferred to put include files in include/linux/infiniband/,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>directly in include/linux, or perhaps in include/infiniband?</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>We would also like to explore the best avenue for having these patches</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>merged. It may be desirable for the patches to spend some time in -mm</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>before moving into Linus's kernel; on the other hand, the patches make</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>only very minimal and safe changes outside of drivers/infiniband, so</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>it is quite reasonable to merge them directly into the mainline</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>kernel. Although 2.6.10 is now closed, 2.6.11 will probably be open</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>by the time the review process is complete.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>We look forward to the community's comments and criticisms!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Thanks,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Roland Dreier</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> OpenIB Alliance</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> www.openib.org</FONT>
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