xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ntb_hw_plx.4 (revision b9f654b163bce26de79705e77b872427c9f2afa1)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
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28.Dd August 30, 2017
29.Dt NTB_HW_PLX 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm ntb_hw_plx
33.Nd PLX/Avago/Broadcom Non-Transparent Bridge driver
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35To compile this driver into your kernel,
36place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:
37.Bd -ragged -offset indent
38.Cd "device ntb"
39.Cd "device ntb_hw_plx"
40.Ed
41.Pp
42Or, to load the driver as a module at boot, place the following line in
43.Xr loader.conf 5 :
44.Bd -literal -offset indent
45ntb_hw_plx_load="YES"
46.Ed
47.Pp
48The following tunables are settable from the
49.Xr loader 8 :
50.Bl -ohang
51.It Va hint.ntb_hw. Ns Ar X Ns Va .b2b
52Being set to 1 (default) tells the driver attached to Virtual Interface of the
53NTB that it works in NTB-to-NTB (back-to-back) mode, 0 -- NTB-to-Root Port.
54Driver attached to Link Interface (visible from Root Port side) switches to
55NTB-to-Root Port mode automatically, but one attached to Virtual Interface
56can't detect what is on the other side and require external knowledge.
57.El
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59The
60.Nm
61driver provides support for the Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB) hardware in
62PLX PCIe bridge chips, which allow up to two of their PCIe ports to be
63switched from transparent to non-transparent bridge mode.
64In this mode bridge looks not as a PCI bridge, but as PCI endpoint device.
65The driver hides hardware details, exposing memory windows, scratchpads
66and doorbells of the other side via hardware independent KPI to
67.Xr ntb 4
68subsystem.
69.Pp
70Each PLX NTB provides up to 2 64-bit or 4 32-bit memory windows to the
71other system's memory, 6 or 12 scratchpad registers and 16 doorbells to
72interrupt the other system.
73In NTB-to-NTB mode one of memory windows (or half of it, if bigger then 1MB)
74is consumed by the driver itself to access scratchpad and doorbell registers
75of the other side.
76.Sh HARDWARE
77The following PLX/Avago/Broadcom chips are supported by the
78.Nm
79driver:
80.Pp
81.Bl -bullet -compact
82.It
83PEX 8713
84.It
85PEX 8717
86.It
87PEX 8725
88.It
89PEX 8733
90.It
91PEX 8749
92.El
93.Pp
94, but it may also work with other compatible ones.
95.Sh CONFIGURATION
96The basic chip configuration should be done by serial EEPROM or via i2c.
97It includes enabling NTB on one or both sides (choosing between NTB-to-NTB
98(back-to-back) and NTB-to-Root Port modes) and configuring BARs sizes.
99.Pp
100The recommended mode is NTB-to-NTB mode, since while NTB-to-Root Port is
101generally supported by the driver, it require PCI hotplug handling on the
102Root Port, that may be difficult or cause different kinds of problems.
103.Sh SEE ALSO
104.Xr if_ntb 4 ,
105.Xr ntb_transport 4 ,
106.Xr ntb 4 ,
107.Sh AUTHORS
108.An -nosplit
109The
110.Nm
111driver was written by
112.An Alexander Motin Aq Mt mav@FreeBSD.org .
113.Sh BUGS
114There is no way to protect your system from malicious behavior on the other
115system once the link is brought up.
116Anyone with root or kernel access on the other system can read or write to
117any location on your system.
118In other words, only connect two systems that completely trust each other.
119