Message-ID: <524F5442.20402@zytor.com>
Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:50:26 -0700
From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
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To: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
CC: monstr@monstr.eu, Pavel Machek <pavel@denx.de>,
        Michal Simek <michal.simek@xilinx.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        Alan Tull <atull@altera.com>, Dinh Nguyen <dinguyen@altera.com>,
        Philip Balister <philip@balister.org>,
        Alessandro Rubini <rubini@gnudd.com>,
        Steffen Trumtrar <s.trumtrar@pengutronix.de>,
        Jason Gunthorpe <jgunthorpe@obsidianresearch.com>,
        Jason Cooper <jason@lakedaemon.net>,
        Yves Vandervennet <rocket.yvanderv@gmail.com>,
        Kyle Teske <kyle.teske@ni.com>, Josh Cartwright <joshc@eso.teric.us>,
        Nicolas Pitre <nico@linaro.org>,
        Mark Langsdorf <mark.langsdorf@calxeda.com>,
        Felipe Balbi <balbi@ti.com>, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
        Mauro Carvalho Chehab <m.chehab@samsung.com>,
        David Brown <davidb@codeaurora.org>, Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>, Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>,
        Cesar Eduardo Barros <cesarb@cesarb.net>,
        Samuel Ortiz <sameo@linux.intel.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2 0/1] FPGA subsystem core
References: <cover.1380727889.git.michal.simek@xilinx.com> <524C6D64.8080801@zytor.com> <20131003064915.GB17155@amd.pavel.ucw.cz> <524EC965.70701@monstr.eu> <20131004141646.GA9396@kroah.com> <d700a91e-1319-4c35-895d-55e323c40703@email.android.com> <524ED081.1040600@monstr.eu> <524EF0CE.4040002@zytor.com> <524EFE76.70200@monstr.eu> <524F04FD.5020804@zytor.com> <20131004233341.GA4028@kroah.com>
In-Reply-To: <20131004233341.GA4028@kroah.com>
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On 10/04/2013 04:33 PM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> 
> Ideally I thought this would be just like "firmware", you dump the file
> to the FPGA, it validates it and away you go with a new image running in
> the chip.
> 
> But, it sounds like this is much more complicated, so much so that
> configfs might be the correct interface for it, as you can do lots of
> things there, and it is very flexible (some say too flexible...)
> 
> A char device, with a zillion different custom ioctls is also a way to
> do it, but one that I really want to avoid as that gets messy really
> quickly.
> 

I'm not sure that a zillion custom ioctls are necessary, but I think we
really need to get a better understanding of the various usage cases
(and there are going to be ones where an "FPGA driver" simply makes no
sense at all.)

	-hpa


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