xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/ntb_hw_plx.4 (revision d0b2dbfa0ecf2bbc9709efc5e20baf8e4b44bbbf)
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd November 9, 2019
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.It Va hint.ntb_hw. Ns Ar X Ns Va .split
58Being set above zero splits BAR2 into 2^x memory windows using Address
59Lookup Table (A-LUT).
60.El
61.Sh DESCRIPTION
62The
63.Nm
64driver provides support for the Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB) hardware in
65PLX PCIe bridge chips, which allow up to two of their PCIe ports to be
66switched from transparent to non-transparent bridge mode.
67In this mode bridge looks not as a PCI bridge, but as PCI endpoint device.
68The driver hides hardware details, exposing memory windows, scratchpads
69and doorbells of the other side via hardware independent KPI to
70.Xr ntb 4
71subsystem.
72.Pp
73Each PLX NTB provides up to 2 64-bit or 4 32-bit memory windows to the
74other system's memory, 6 or 12 scratchpad registers and 16 doorbells to
75interrupt the other system.
76If Address Lookup Table (A-LUT) is enabled, BAR2 can be split into several
77(up to 128) memory windows.
78In NTB-to-NTB mode one of memory windows (or half of it, if bigger then 1MB)
79is consumed by the driver itself to access scratchpad and doorbell registers
80of the other side.
81.Sh HARDWARE
82The following PLX/Avago/Broadcom chips are supported by the
83.Nm
84driver:
85.Pp
86.Bl -bullet -compact
87.It
88PEX 8713
89.It
90PEX 8717
91.It
92PEX 8725
93.It
94PEX 8733
95.It
96PEX 8749
97.El
98.Pp
99, but it may also work with other compatible ones.
100.Sh CONFIGURATION
101The basic chip configuration should be done by serial EEPROM or via i2c.
102It includes enabling NTB on one or both sides (choosing between NTB-to-NTB
103(back-to-back) and NTB-to-Root Port modes) and configuring BARs sizes.
104.Pp
105The recommended mode is NTB-to-NTB mode, since while NTB-to-Root Port is
106generally supported by the driver, it require PCI hotplug handling on the
107Root Port, that may be difficult or cause different kinds of problems.
108.Sh SEE ALSO
109.Xr if_ntb 4 ,
110.Xr ntb 4 ,
111.Xr ntb_transport 4
112.Sh AUTHORS
113.An -nosplit
114The
115.Nm
116driver was written by
117.An Alexander Motin Aq Mt mav@FreeBSD.org .
118.Sh BUGS
119There is no way to protect your system from malicious behavior on the other
120system once the link is brought up.
121Anyone with root or kernel access on the other system can read or write to
122any location on your system.
123In other words, only connect two systems that completely trust each other.
124