1 =========================================================== 2 Release Notes for Linux on Intel's IXP4xx Network Processor 3 =========================================================== 4 5 Maintained by Deepak Saxena <dsaxena@plexity.net> 6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 8 1. Overview 9 10 Intel's IXP4xx network processor is a highly integrated SOC that 11 is targeted for network applications, though it has become popular 12 in industrial control and other areas due to low cost and power 13 consumption. The IXP4xx family currently consists of several processors 14 that support different network offload functions such as encryption, 15 routing, firewalling, etc. The IXP46x family is an updated version which 16 supports faster speeds, new memory and flash configurations, and more 17 integration such as an on-chip I2C controller. 18 19 For more information on the various versions of the CPU, see: 20 21 http://developer.intel.com/design/network/products/npfamily/ixp4xx.htm 22 23 Intel also made the IXCP1100 CPU for sometime which is an IXP4xx 24 stripped of much of the network intelligence. 25 26 2. Linux Support 27 28 Linux currently supports the following features on the IXP4xx chips: 29 30 - Dual serial ports 31 - PCI interface 32 - Flash access (MTD/JFFS) 33 - I2C through GPIO on IXP42x 34 - GPIO for input/output/interrupts 35 See arch/arm/mach-ixp4xx/include/mach/platform.h for access functions. 36 - Timers (watchdog, OS) 37 38 The following components of the chips are not supported by Linux and 39 require the use of Intel's proprietary CSR software: 40 41 - USB device interface 42 - Network interfaces (HSS, Utopia, NPEs, etc) 43 - Network offload functionality 44 45 If you need to use any of the above, you need to download Intel's 46 software from: 47 48 http://developer.intel.com/design/network/products/npfamily/ixp425.htm 49 50 DO NOT POST QUESTIONS TO THE LINUX MAILING LISTS REGARDING THE PROPRIETARY 51 SOFTWARE. 52 53 There are several websites that provide directions/pointers on using 54 Intel's software: 55 56 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/ixp4xx-osdg/ 57 Open Source Developer's Guide for using uClinux and the Intel libraries 58 59 - http://gatewaymaker.sourceforge.net/ 60 Simple one page summary of building a gateway using an IXP425 and Linux 61 62 - http://ixp425.sourceforge.net/ 63 ATM device driver for IXP425 that relies on Intel's libraries 64 65 3. Known Issues/Limitations 66 67 3a. Limited inbound PCI window 68 69 The IXP4xx family allows for up to 256MB of memory but the PCI interface 70 can only expose 64MB of that memory to the PCI bus. This means that if 71 you are running with > 64MB, all PCI buffers outside of the accessible 72 range will be bounced using the routines in arch/arm/common/dmabounce.c. 73 74 3b. Limited outbound PCI window 75 76 IXP4xx provides two methods of accessing PCI memory space: 77 78 1) A direct mapped window from 0x48000000 to 0x4bffffff (64MB). 79 To access PCI via this space, we simply ioremap() the BAR 80 into the kernel and we can use the standard read[bwl]/write[bwl] 81 macros. This is the preferred method due to speed but it 82 limits the system to just 64MB of PCI memory. This can be 83 problematic if using video cards and other memory-heavy devices. 84 85 2) If > 64MB of memory space is required, the IXP4xx can be 86 configured to use indirect registers to access PCI This allows 87 for up to 128MB (0x48000000 to 0x4fffffff) of memory on the bus. 88 The disadvantage of this is that every PCI access requires 89 three local register accesses plus a spinlock, but in some 90 cases the performance hit is acceptable. In addition, you cannot 91 mmap() PCI devices in this case due to the indirect nature 92 of the PCI window. 93 94 By default, the direct method is used for performance reasons. If 95 you need more PCI memory, enable the IXP4XX_INDIRECT_PCI config option. 96 97 3c. GPIO as Interrupts 98 99 Currently the code only handles level-sensitive GPIO interrupts 100 101 4. Supported platforms 102 103 ADI Engineering Coyote Gateway Reference Platform 104 http://www.adiengineering.com/productsCoyote.html 105 106 The ADI Coyote platform is reference design for those building 107 small residential/office gateways. One NPE is connected to a 10/100 108 interface, one to 4-port 10/100 switch, and the third to and ADSL 109 interface. In addition, it also supports to POTs interfaces connected 110 via SLICs. Note that those are not supported by Linux ATM. Finally, 111 the platform has two mini-PCI slots used for 802.11[bga] cards. 112 Finally, there is an IDE port hanging off the expansion bus. 113 114 Gateworks Avila Network Platform 115 http://www.gateworks.com/support/overview.php 116 117 The Avila platform is basically and IXDP425 with the 4 PCI slots 118 replaced with mini-PCI slots and a CF IDE interface hanging off 119 the expansion bus. 120 121 Intel IXDP425 Development Platform 122 http://www.intel.com/design/network/products/npfamily/ixdpg425.htm 123 124 This is Intel's standard reference platform for the IXDP425 and is 125 also known as the Richfield board. It contains 4 PCI slots, 16MB 126 of flash, two 10/100 ports and one ADSL port. 127 128 Intel IXDP465 Development Platform 129 http://www.intel.com/design/network/products/npfamily/ixdp465.htm 130 131 This is basically an IXDP425 with an IXP465 and 32M of flash instead 132 of just 16. 133 134 Intel IXDPG425 Development Platform 135 136 This is basically and ADI Coyote board with a NEC EHCI controller 137 added. One issue with this board is that the mini-PCI slots only 138 have the 3.3v line connected, so you can't use a PCI to mini-PCI 139 adapter with an E100 card. So to NFS root you need to use either 140 the CSR or a WiFi card and a ramdisk that BOOTPs and then does 141 a pivot_root to NFS. 142 143 Motorola PrPMC1100 Processor Mezanine Card 144 http://www.fountainsys.com 145 146 The PrPMC1100 is based on the IXCP1100 and is meant to plug into 147 and IXP2400/2800 system to act as the system controller. It simply 148 contains a CPU and 16MB of flash on the board and needs to be 149 plugged into a carrier board to function. Currently Linux only 150 supports the Motorola PrPMC carrier board for this platform. 151 152 5. TODO LIST 153 154 - Add support for Coyote IDE 155 - Add support for edge-based GPIO interrupts 156 - Add support for CF IDE on expansion bus 157 158 6. Thanks 159 160 The IXP4xx work has been funded by Intel Corp. and MontaVista Software, Inc. 161 162 The following people have contributed patches/comments/etc: 163 164 - Lennerty Buytenhek 165 - Lutz Jaenicke 166 - Justin Mayfield 167 - Robert E. Ranslam 168 169 [I know I've forgotten others, please email me to be added] 170 171 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 172 173 Last Update: 01/04/2005
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