cvs commit: src/sys/i386/pci pci_cfgreg.c

[David O'Brien]

On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 07:39:46PM -0800, Peter Wemm wrote:
> On Monday 13 December 2004 05:33 pm, David O'Brien wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 13, 2004 at 02:16:53PM -0800, Peter Wemm wrote:
> > > On Monday 13 December 2004 01:47 pm, Dag-Erling Sm?rgrav wrote:
> > > > "David O'Brien" <obrien at FreeBSD.org> writes:
> > > BTW, I think it is amusing that the only machines readily available
> > > that have PCI-Express to run FreeBSD/amd64 on are Intel systems...
> >
> > Why?
> > Today there is zero benefit to PCI-Express vs. AGP 8x or PCI-X
> > 133mhz.
> 
> Just like there was zero benefit to having a prototype amd64 machine to 
> do porting work on before they started coming out in retail?  At the 
> time, there was zero benefit compared to a 32 bit Athlon-XP system.

I don't think you're reading a word I said.  I told you why you don't see
AMD64 PCI-Express motherboards right now.  What is being said about
FreeBSD supporting them has nothing to do with that.

To address what you said anyway; engineering sample prototype systems
were available to FreeBSD people pre-launch. :-)  This isn't the case for
AMD64 PCI-Express.  I didn't even come near saying that Scott should not
work on code supporting AMD64 PCI-Express if he had a prototype mobo.
I've struck out so far using my contacts to get early access to an AMD64
PCI-Express motherboard.

If Scott can support AMD64 PCI-Express w/o having a mobo I'm thrilled.
Personally I think he really needs a mobo in hand to do this.  Right
after first of the year I think I can obtain something.  If you have
Asus, or other contacts better than mine, then by all means please get
Scott a motherboard.  I've simply been unable to.


> On that note, we still barely support anything more from AMD's platform 
> than the basic instruction set due to lack of documentation..

What documentation are you missing?  You personally are covered by an AMD
NDA that gives you access to AMD NDA platform documents -- the same
documentation that Suse and Red Hat have access to.

> That's 
> why FreeBSD/amd64 ran so quickly on the Intel hardware.   We only used 
> the most basic features of the generic instruction set in an otherwise 
> PC platform.  We don't take advantage of the IOMMU, the timers, etc.  
> (Still no documentation).

Have you ever visited your AMD NDA website?

-- 
-- David  (obrien at FreeBSD.org)