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SubjectRe: [PATCH] MII bus API for PHY devices
Date
Replying this to the netdev list for their perusal.

First, I'm flattered that you've based this on the gianfar phy code,
which I stole shamelessly from Benh's code, but Benh changed his code,
and so I stole once more (the sungem_phy code he mentioned). The
current 2.6.9 gianfar driver has a completely different PHY
infrastructure. One which is a better model, I think, for abstraction
than my previous code.

Which brings me to item #2: I have taken the code from the previous
patch, and combined it with my newer PHY code, which should ease the
way for someone to add some of the WOL features, and such. I have
compiled, and tested this code, and it works with the gianfar driver.

However, I've got a few questions for the network device community, on
how best to finish this off.

The primary issue is how to classify the MII bus. Should it be a
proper bus, fitting within the new driver model? This seems like the
proper method to me, since the MII bus is, in fact, a bus. But it's a
bit of a strange bus. The bus is attached at two ends. One end has
some number of PHY devices, and the corresponding drivers for them.
The other end has some number of ethernet controllers, and their
drivers.

So we have 3 implementation decisions which are affected by this:

1) How should we pass initialization information from the system to the
bus. Information like which irq to use for each PHY, and what the
address space for the bus's controls is. I would like to enforce
encapsulation so that the ethernet drivers don't need to know this
information, or pass it to the bus.

2) How should we reflect the dependency of the ethernet driver on the
mii bus driver?

3) How should we bind ethernet drivers to PHY drivers?

Oh, and a 4th side-issue:
Should each PHY have its own file? Or should we dump all the PHY
drivers in one file? And if so, should THAT file be separate from the
mii bus implementation file?

Andy Fleming
Open Source Team
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc

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