.\" .\" Copyright (c) 2017 Alexander Motin .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" $FreeBSD$ .\" .Dd August 30, 2017 .Dt NTB_HW_PLX 4 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm ntb_hw_plx .Nd PLX/Avago/Broadcom Non-Transparent Bridge driver .Sh SYNOPSIS To compile this driver into your kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Cd "device ntb" .Cd "device ntb_hw_plx" .Ed .Pp Or, to load the driver as a module at boot, place the following line in .Xr loader.conf 5 : .Bd -literal -offset indent ntb_hw_plx_load="YES" .Ed .Pp The following tunables are settable from the .Xr loader 8 : .Bl -ohang .It Va hint.ntb_hw. Ns Ar X Ns Va .b2b Being set to 1 (default) tells the driver attached to Virtual Interface of the NTB that it works in NTB-to-NTB (back-to-back) mode, 0 -- NTB-to-Root Port. Driver attached to Link Interface (visible from Root Port side) switches to NTB-to-Root Port mode automatically, but one attached to Virtual Interface can't detect what is on the other side and require external knowledge. .El .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm driver provides support for the Non-Transparent Bridge (NTB) hardware in PLX PCIe bridge chips, which allow up to two of their PCIe ports to be switched from transparent to non-transparent bridge mode. In this mode bridge looks not as a PCI bridge, but as PCI endpoint device. The driver hides hardware details, exposing memory windows, scratchpads and doorbells of the other side via hardware independent KPI to .Xr ntb 4 subsystem. .Pp Each PLX NTB provides up to 2 64-bit or 4 32-bit memory windows to the other system's memory, 6 or 12 scratchpad registers and 16 doorbells to interrupt the other system. In NTB-to-NTB mode one of memory windows (or half of it, if bigger then 1MB) is consumed by the driver itself to access scratchpad and doorbell registers of the other side. .Sh HARDWARE The following PLX/Avago/Broadcom chips are supported by the .Nm driver: .Pp .Bl -bullet -compact .It PEX 8713 .It PEX 8717 .It PEX 8725 .It PEX 8733 .It PEX 8749 .El .Pp , but it may also work with other compatible ones. .Sh CONFIGURATION The basic chip configuration should be done by serial EEPROM or via i2c. It includes enabling NTB on one or both sides (choosing between NTB-to-NTB (back-to-back) and NTB-to-Root Port modes) and configuring BARs sizes. .Pp The recommended mode is NTB-to-NTB mode, since while NTB-to-Root Port is generally supported by the driver, it require PCI hotplug handling on the Root Port, that may be difficult or cause different kinds of problems. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr if_ntb 4 , .Xr ntb_transport 4 , .Xr ntb 4 , .Sh AUTHORS .An -nosplit The .Nm driver was written by .An Alexander Motin Aq Mt mav@FreeBSD.org . .Sh BUGS There is no way to protect your system from malicious behavior on the other system once the link is brought up. Anyone with root or kernel access on the other system can read or write to any location on your system. In other words, only connect two systems that completely trust each other.