graphics on G4

[Peter Grehan]

Hi Justin,

>>What happens if we have physical or device memory in the
>>same range as kmem VAs?

 This shouldn't happen: kmem VAs use seg regs 13 and 14 i.e.
the virtually-mapped space is 0xD000.0000 -> 0xEFFF.FFFF.

 Kernel physical memory is 1:1 mapped, using BAT registers, as
is i/o space. Since there are only 4 BAT registers used, a DSI
trap will evict a BAT and re-use it, if the faulting address
falls in the battable[] array. See
powerpc/aim/trap_subr.s:dsitrap().

 Now, mapping the frame buffer from user-space *doesn't* use
the BATs, but instead uses PTEs from user VA. Each process has
unique segment register values which prevent it from
corrupting memory in other address spaces (including the
kernel's).

>> > > >It seems like trying to modify it through the BAT map (as
>> > > >zero/copy page, /dev/mem and friends do) will overwrite
>> > > >random bits of KVA instead...
 
 Shouldn't do, since KVA doesn't occupy that space.

>I wrote a simple kernel module to print out BAT and segment
registers, and the
>output immediately following boot is:

>Later, and I don't know precisely what is meant by "later",
registers 540 and 541 get changed to 0x4......., which
>means the video memory gets un-BAT-mapped.

 That is probably a BAT spill, which should be harmless.

 None of the above helps, I know :( But it's outlining what
should be happening.

later,

Peter.