July 14, 2005

Overview

The following changes are introduced in this release:

• Device driver support for Linux 2.6 kernel.

• Other Unix device driver updates.

• New API function to determine PCI slot location.

• Modifications to utility and diagnostic programs.

• Component versions for this release.

• Known problems.

Note: The primary purpose for this release is the provision of support for Linux Kernel 2.6 and some bug fixes in the Linux device driver. Minor updates for the Solaris device driver, Host API and programs are also included. There is no new functionality for Windows at this time.

Device Driver Support for Linux 2.6 Kernel

The Linux device driver for DPT4 now supports the latest 2.6 series of the Linux kernel, and therefore, Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 4. Red Hat EL4 (and kernel version 2.6.9) is currently the only distribution for which the 2.6 build and installation has been tested but it should work for any generic 2.6 kernel installation as long as changes to future kernel releases do not require device driver changes.

Support for the 2.6 kernel required only minor changes to the actual device driver code. More substantial changes were necessary for the configuration script and Makefile to support the new module building process. The Makefile and boot scripts configured for 2.4 and 2.6 kernels are not compatible. If you are maintaining installations for both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, be sure to maintain separate software build directories.

Other Unix Device Driver Updates

This release include some changes to the Unix device drivers (for Linux and Solaris).

The Linux device driver includes the following changes:
• New options to the software configuration script enable compiling the Linux device driver for a kernel version target different than the version currently running. The use of the new options and limitations are described in the updated software installation instructions.
• Some dummy read operations are added in the interrupt handling code to prevent burst writes to registers in PCI memory space.
• Added proper initialization of JTAG control information. The lack of initialization could sometimes prevent the embedded processor from booting.
• Initial changes are made to support Linux running on the Intel IA64 platform used by SGI Altix servers. This project does not yet have a scheduled completion date.

Both the Linux and Solaris device drivers include the following changes:

• Added the CAC_PCI_LOCATION ioctl to support the pci_get_location API function.
• Added code to save and restore PCI configuration space information of the PCI bridge for future version of the DPT4 that uses a bridge device as the interface to the system PCI bus.

New API Function to Determine PCI Slot Location

The new pci_get_location function will return the PCI bus, device and function numbers for an open DPT4 board.

The prototype for the function is:

    int pci_get_location(
       PCI_MOD *dev;     /* Handle for open DPT4 device */
       int     *pcibus;  /* pointer for storage of the PCI bus number */
       int     *pcidev;  /* pointer for storage of the PCI device number */
       int     *pcifn ); /* pointer for storage of the PCI function number */

The value stored in pcibus and pcidev indicate the system bus number and the number of the device on that bus. The value stored in pcifn will always be 0 for the DPT4. It is included in the function for completeness and the pointer can be NULL to avoid storing any value. The function returns a value of 1 if the information was succesfully retrieved or 0 if an error occurred.

This information can be used to determine which physical PCI slot in the system corresponds to the open device. This is most useful on Linux where the board instance numbers can change when boards are added, removed or moved in the system.

Modifications to Utility and Diagnostic Programs

The dpinfo and dpfind programs now include indication of the board's PCI slot location. (dpfind only includes the location if given the -v option.)

The dpinfo and dpburn programs now display full 8-digit serial numbers for boards. The upper three digits differentiate between major board revisions.

Component Versions for This Release

The DPT4 software release includes several components of software and hardware FPGA configurations. All the components have the same major and minor version numbers. However the update version number of each component may vary depending on the number of changes and iterations each component has gone through between general distribution releases.

The components and their versions for DPT4 Software Release 1.4.6 are:

Component:	Version:
API Library and Programs	1.4.6
Solaris Device Driver	1.4.6
Linux Device Driver	1.4.6
Windows Device Driver	1.4.5
Embedded MIPS Loader	1.4.0
Embedded MIPS Application	1.4.8
PLD Configuration	1.4.0
Host FPGA Configuration	1.4.5
Expansion FPGA Configuration	1.4.0

Known Problems

The following problems are known to exist in this release:
• Waiting for receive data to become available and/or buffer space to write transmit data can time out under certain circumstances. This is most likely to occur with fast, multi-processor host systems when transmit and receive channels are opened in rapid succession (as is done by default by the dpchantest program).

• Data errors are detected by the dpchantest program. The cause of this problem appears to be related to the timeout problem, above.

• On rare occasions the DPT4 can hang during the initialization process. This has only been known to occur when being initialized the first time following a power cycle.