xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ntb_hw_plx.4 (revision 59c8e88e72633afbc47a4ace0d2170d00d51f7dc)
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26.Dd November 9, 2019
27.Dt NTB_HW_PLX 4
28.Os
29.Sh NAME
30.Nm ntb_hw_plx
31.Nd PLX/Avago/Broadcom Non-Transparent Bridge driver
32.Sh SYNOPSIS
33To compile this driver into your kernel,
34place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:
35.Bd -ragged -offset indent
36.Cd "device ntb"
37.Cd "device ntb_hw_plx"
38.Ed
39.Pp
40Or, to load the driver as a module at boot, place the following line in
41.Xr loader.conf 5 :
42.Bd -literal -offset indent
43ntb_hw_plx_load="YES"
44.Ed
45.Pp
46The following tunables are settable from the
47.Xr loader 8 :
48.Bl -ohang
49.It Va hint.ntb_hw. Ns Ar X Ns Va .b2b
50Being set to 1 (default) tells the driver attached to Virtual Interface of the
51NTB that it works in NTB-to-NTB (back-to-back) mode, 0 -- NTB-to-Root Port.
52Driver attached to Link Interface (visible from Root Port side) switches to
53NTB-to-Root Port mode automatically, but one attached to Virtual Interface
54can't detect what is on the other side and require external knowledge.
55.It Va hint.ntb_hw. Ns Ar X Ns Va .split
56Being set above zero splits BAR2 into 2^x memory windows using Address
57Lookup Table (A-LUT).
58.El
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The
61.Nm
62driver provides support for the Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB) hardware in
63PLX PCIe bridge chips, which allow up to two of their PCIe ports to be
64switched from transparent to non-transparent bridge mode.
65In this mode bridge looks not as a PCI bridge, but as PCI endpoint device.
66The driver hides hardware details, exposing memory windows, scratchpads
67and doorbells of the other side via hardware independent KPI to
68.Xr ntb 4
69subsystem.
70.Pp
71Each PLX NTB provides up to 2 64-bit or 4 32-bit memory windows to the
72other system's memory, 6 or 12 scratchpad registers and 16 doorbells to
73interrupt the other system.
74If Address Lookup Table (A-LUT) is enabled, BAR2 can be split into several
75(up to 128) memory windows.
76In NTB-to-NTB mode one of memory windows (or half of it, if bigger then 1MB)
77is consumed by the driver itself to access scratchpad and doorbell registers
78of the other side.
79.Sh HARDWARE
80The following PLX/Avago/Broadcom chips are supported by the
81.Nm
82driver:
83.Pp
84.Bl -bullet -compact
85.It
86PEX 8713
87.It
88PEX 8717
89.It
90PEX 8725
91.It
92PEX 8733
93.It
94PEX 8749
95.El
96.Pp
97, but it may also work with other compatible ones.
98.Sh CONFIGURATION
99The basic chip configuration should be done by serial EEPROM or via i2c.
100It includes enabling NTB on one or both sides (choosing between NTB-to-NTB
101(back-to-back) and NTB-to-Root Port modes) and configuring BARs sizes.
102.Pp
103The recommended mode is NTB-to-NTB mode, since while NTB-to-Root Port is
104generally supported by the driver, it require PCI hotplug handling on the
105Root Port, that may be difficult or cause different kinds of problems.
106.Sh SEE ALSO
107.Xr if_ntb 4 ,
108.Xr ntb 4 ,
109.Xr ntb_transport 4
110.Sh AUTHORS
111.An -nosplit
112The
113.Nm
114driver was written by
115.An Alexander Motin Aq Mt mav@FreeBSD.org .
116.Sh BUGS
117There is no way to protect your system from malicious behavior on the other
118system once the link is brought up.
119Anyone with root or kernel access on the other system can read or write to
120any location on your system.
121In other words, only connect two systems that completely trust each other.
122