Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754523AbaGHMZd (ORCPT ); Tue, 8 Jul 2014 08:25:33 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:3343 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754226AbaGHMZa (ORCPT ); Tue, 8 Jul 2014 08:25:30 -0400 Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2014 14:26:07 +0200 From: Alexander Gordeev To: Bjorn Helgaas Cc: "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" , "linux-doc@vger.kernel.org" , "linux-mips@linux-mips.org" , linuxppc-dev , linux-s390@vger.kernel.org, "x86@kernel.org" , xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org, "open list:INTEL IOMMU (VT-d)" , "linux-ide@vger.kernel.org" , "linux-pci@vger.kernel.org" Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3] PCI/MSI: Add pci_enable_msi_partial() Message-ID: <20140708122606.GB6270@dhcp-26-207.brq.redhat.com> References: <4fef62a2e647a7c38e9f2a1ea4244b3506a85e2b.1402405331.git.agordeev@redhat.com> <20140702202201.GA28852@google.com> <20140704085741.GA12247@dhcp-26-207.brq.redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Jul 07, 2014 at 01:40:48PM -0600, Bjorn Helgaas wrote: > >> Can you quantify the benefit of this? Can't a device already use > >> MSI-X to request exactly the number of vectors it can use? (I know > > > > A Intel AHCI chipset requires 16 vectors written to MME while advertises > > (via AHCI registers) and uses only 6. Even attempt to init 8 vectors results > > in device's fallback to 1 (!). > > Is the fact that it uses only 6 vectors documented in the public spec? Yes, it is documented in ICH specs. > Is this a chipset erratum? Are there newer versions of the chipset > that fix this, e.g., by requesting 8 vectors and using 6, or by also > supporting MSI-X? No, this is not an erratum. The value of 8 vectors is reserved and could cause undefined results if used. > I know this conserves vector numbers. What does that mean in real > user-visible terms? Are there systems that won't boot because of this > issue, and this patch fixes them? Does it enable bigger > configurations, e.g., more I/O devices, than before? Visibly, it ceases logging messages ('ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 107 for MSI/MSI-X') for IRQs that are not shown in /proc/interrupts later. No, it does not enable/fix any existing hardware issue I am aware of. It just saves a couple of interrupt vectors, as Michael put it (10/16 to be precise). However, interrupt vectors space is pretty much scarce resource on x86 and a risk of exhausting the vectors (and introducing quota i.e) has already been raised AFAIR. > Do you know how Windows handles this? Does it have a similar interface? Have no clue, TBH. Can try to investigate if you see it helpful. > As you can tell, I'm a little skeptical about this. It's a fairly big > change, it affects the arch interface, it seems to be targeted for > only a single chipset (though it's widely used), and we already > support a standard solution (MSI-X, reducing the number of vectors > requested, or even operating with 1 vector). I also do not like the fact the arch interface is getting complicated, so I happily leave it to your judgement ;) Well, it is low-level and hidden from drivers at least. Thanks! > Bjorn -- Regards, Alexander Gordeev agordeev@redhat.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/