ASI Fabric Management for Linux

I intend to publish here documents and code which I've written to describe my suggested approach to managing an ASI fabric and devices using the Linux Device Driver Model.

Not very imaginatively, its currently called "AFML." Need something with a pronounceable acronym which is suggestive of a cute anthropomorphic logo!

Obviously, I won't be publishing NDA or copyright material of the ASI-SIG or related organizations, nor any proprietary information about particular devices of same, but I would like to publish my own commentary on publicly, if not freely, available specifications and publish GPL code based on those specifications.

This is intended to be supportive and complimentary to the on-going ASI-SIG efforts of which I am no longer able to be a participant. I'd be happy to "work" with any and/or all of those participants on a best effort, independent Linux hacker, unpaid consultant basis, given that I now have a full-time day job! I would not easily be able to enter into any NDA or contractural agreements nor produce anything other than GPL based code for the same reason. This work is separate from my employer by virtue of Section 2870 of the California Labor Code and relevant clauses of my employment contract.

Feedback and/or donations of specifications, etc., would obviously help move my effort forward and keep it relevant to the ongoing work, as the ASI-SIG prices are a little steep for the unaffiliated, best effort, hacker. Beyond making participants initially aware of this page, allowing them to "pull" these contributions as they see fit, I will not be attempting to "push" these into the SIG as I'm not an independently wealthy member! Absent feedback my motivation may falter if this effort isn't going anywhere. Third parties are also welcome to contribute.

This approach is based on the latest developments in the 2.6 kernel and may not reflect reality in any current distributions based on early stable versions of the 2.6 tree. I'm currently working out of 2.6.11.4 from kernel.org. Current distro's are around 2.6.8.

Current status of this project is:

  1. a document which tries to explain the vision of:
    1. a pure unified Linux device model approach to this new bus technolgy; and
    2. the basic differences of ASI from current bus devices which may need extensions to the existant model; and
  2. a patch to the kernel to add some clean skeletal drivers exhibiting the behaviour envisaged and described in the document.

Phil Terry
Last modified: Tue Jan 29 22:03:17 PST 2008