[ofa-general] RE: [PATCH] core/mthca: Distinguish multiple IB cards in /proc/interrupts

[Arputham Benjamin]

>> Can I proceed with the ib_alloc_device_set_name()IB core API changes,
>> and mthca driver changes we agreed? After we test and apply these
>> patches, we can take a look at how we can fix mlx4 as well.

> I think it would be much better to come up with a way to handle mlx4 as
> well.  There's not much point in making core changes if they don't fix
> the issue for all drivers.

> - R.

I wanted to add some clarification.

We have two types of IB devices:
1)Devices that can operate as an InfiniBand adapter only
2)Devices that can operate as an InfiniBand adapter or as an Ethernet NIC

As per the current implementation of OFED stack, the driver architecture
of #2 is very different from #1 because it needs to make sure InfiniBand
and Ethernet functions can share the device without interfering with
each other.

I was thinking that we can fix /proc/interrupts issue for case#1 first
and worry about #2 later because the design to fix /proc/interrupts 
for mlx4 case is going to be different and independent just as the
driver design is different and independent for the two cases today.

We don't have a common kernel module in OFED stack that plugs into
both types of IB devices as far as interrupt resource allocation
is concerned. I think creating such a module would be a fundamental
S/W arch change and would require a lot of changes to adopt to it.

Please let me know if you still think we need a common solution for
both cases mentioned above. Any suggestions at a high level for such
a common solution?

Thank you for your help.

Regards,
Benjamin
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