On Fri Oct 24, 2008 at 10:23:37AM +1300, Caleb Gordon wrote: > > Hi to everyone on this mailing list, > > I have been directed to post this project to this mailing list by Greg KH. I > have attached some of the conversation that I have had with Greg regarding > the development of a Linux device driver for an IC I am currently using - n> the ZL50408/CX97316. > > > Thanks for getting back to me on this. From my perspective what I need > > is a Kernel driver module that will allow for me to initialise and > > talk to the > > ZL50408 using the 16-bit CPU interface. There will be some glue logic > > that can be performed by the programmable hardware of the FPGA if > > needed to mainly help with timing. I believe that the functionality of > > the driver will be similar to that of the Davicom DM9000 ISA fast > > Ethernet driver, however I am slightly unsure about how to deal with > > some of the specific needs of this driver. The ZL50408 CPU interface > > can be used for both configuration and as a port of the switch, > > therefore packets can be sent and received via this interface and at > > times during normal operation, statistics will have to be retrieved > > and the switch configuration (i.e. VLANs) can be changed. I plan to > > use this interface for management messages, remote configuration and > remote upgrade. > > > > Are you able to help me or perhaps point me in a good direction for help. > > Are there any other device drivers that are part of the Kernel that > > you can recommend that I look at? Any drivers for a switch with an > > addressable type interface that allows for both configuration of the > > hardware and passing of packets? Do you think using embedded linux is > actually the way to go? Caleb, I would like to help on this. I have worked on the management driver of similar chip. Probably we need two seperate drivers, CMIIW. - management driver with a char interface for switch management - network driver for managing the data packets and Iam interested to work on the management driver if you agree with the above. Or do we have a better way of doing it? -- Linu cherian
