Recent Oracle Sparc processors (M7 and M8) have a coprocessor which lives on the cpu chip. The coprocessor is called DAX (Data Analytics Accelerator), and is controlled via sun4v hypercalls. The programmatic interface to the coprocessor is somewhat unorthodox, and is documented in detail in an included file. The driver API is described in the accompanying Documentation file. Also included is an example program that shows how the raw driver API is used, though it is expected that general use of the coprocessor will go through the companion userspace library, which has been published under UPL at: https://oss.oracle.com/git/gitweb.cgi?p=libdax.git This library is a comprehensive collection of higher level functions along with tests and documentation. The format of the command control blocks is described in this library as well. Though the primary purpose of the coprocessor is to accelerate data analytics operations, it may be used for any suitable purpose. The coprocessor may also be used by internal kernel code for any purpose for which one sees fit. Example code to do this is also included. Those who wish to use the coprocessor will need to construct their own command blocks to submit, as no higher level services are provided. The library contains numerous code examples to assist in this, and the included Hypervisor API document provides a complete specification of all the commands and parameters that may be used. The machine descriptor identifies the device as "dax", and all internal documentation refers to it as "dax". But since the term "dax" already has other meanings and uses in Linux, we call this driver "oradax". Right now we've got the main driver source file in drivers/sbus/char, which seems to be where Sparc specific drivers go, but seeing as "sbus" is a very old Sparc feature and not used anymore, it might perhaps be better placed elsewhere. Any and all feedback welcome and appreciated. Thanks, Rob Gardner Sanath Kumar Jonathan Helman -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe sparclinux" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
