On 05/01/2010 01:19 PM, Christian Lamparter wrote:
Well, for starters the ar9170 uses a ZyDas MAC (aka ZD1221)
and a AR900x PHY/Radio. Therefore the phy code and registers
are very similar to those #definitions you can find in ath9k.
And for the MAC code& registers you can look into zd1211rw,
or look into drivers/staging/otus (original vendor driver,
shares some code with their windows drivers)
AFAICT, there are no technical documents about the AR9170
solution available w/o signing a NDA with Atheros
(probably because the devices are still produced and sold in high quantities?).
Thanks;
I did just discover a reasonably good 150p spec. in what I
received from my client.
If I can I will share it. I am under an NDA, but the client
also told me that they received no cooperation from atheros.
What is available for the ar9170 itself ?
How does the firmware and the linux driver communicate?
Is there an overview of the firmware - what is where ?
not really, apart from the headers of the original firmware
and vendor drivers.
But if you really need to implement some of your 'features'
(what are they, if I may ask?)
I think I can tell you what I am supposed add - I need to be able
to provide userspace apps with precise timing information for each packet.
Since i am working on GPL'd code and the results are going to be
provided to third parties whatever I do is GPL'd too.
Why gets into the NDA.
Right now i have an NDA with a new client and though I am
exercising care. But they seem fairly mellow. I am probably just being
overly cautious.
into the firmware you could
save some time by migrating to carl9170 code base:
( http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/chr/carl9170/1.0.5
+ linville's wireless-testing.git )
The carl9170 code is the expected future of the ar9170 in Linux ?
If so that is where I want to be working.
The advantages over the original firmware code (from a developers POV) are:
* customizable/configurable fw
+ driver can auto detect all selected fw features
* userspace testbench ( carlu ) for the usb subsystem
(allows you to run usb stress-test, dump the device's eeprom content
to stdout and of course: you can implement your own routines
and test& develop without crashing the kernel)
* all hardware& firmware interface definitions are all located
in a single directory /include/shared/*.h
version.h - carl9170 API/ABI version
eeprom.h - eeprom layout
phy.h - AR900x PHY/Radio definitions
fwcmd.h - implemented firmware commands
fwdesc.h - layout of the firmware descriptor (e.g. available/activated features)
hw.h - ZD1221 MAC + (Faraday USB) definitions
wlan.h - (part of hw.h& phy.h) contains all the information about
tx& rx frame formats.
* (tiny) printf + hexdump (obviously, you want those ;-) )
* follows linux' kernel coding style :-D
Thanks alot.
I will look seriously at that.
While I want to keep the scope of what I am doing small, and as
narrowly confined as a I can,
it would be nice if atleast some of my work was useful beyond the
unique needs of my client.
Regards,
Chr
--
Dave Lynch DLA Systems
Software Development: Embedded Linux
717.587.7774 dhlii@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.dlasys.net
Over 25 years' experience in platforms, languages, and technologies too numerous to list.
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein
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