cvs commit: src/etc Makefile sensorsd.conf src/etc/defaults rc.conf src/etc/rc.d Makefile sensorsd src/lib/libc/gen sysctl.3 src/sbin/sysctl sysctl.8 sysctl.c src/share/man/man5 rc.conf.5 src/share/man/man9 Makefile sensor_attach.9 src/sys/conf files ...

Warner Losh imp at bsdimp.com
Thu Oct 18 09:55:03 PDT 2007


> Also Digital didn't used switches to spare a few cent, the i2c was
> integrated into the chipset and adding multiple channel didn't work
> easily.

We also use i2c switches in our product because we have only one i2c
channel, but there are many devices on that channel that have to have
the same address (think multiple plug-in cards).  We have cards that
have multiple SFP fiber nodes that are all on the same address, but
only one pair of i2c lines to the board.  There are good technical
reasons why one needs i2c switches in real-world systems.  It was
cheaper to do the multiplexing than to get a SoC with real
multichannel support.

> > Thanks for this example. Do you know enough about this code that you  
> > can help further if Constantine has questions regarding it and Sam has  
> > no time to answer?
> 
> I will try to help you with questions, but I just know the driver not
> the attachment framework.
> IIRC Warner Losh did the hint based attachment framework, so he will
> likely be able to help you about this.

I have a similar driver to the ds1672 as well that's waiting to go
into the tree.  I'll be happy to answer questions about them both.

The whole reason I did hinted i2c was that I have an i2c bus here in
my boxes at work that has both 16-bit and 8-bit eeprom on it.  The's
no way to probe eeprom devices.  If you look at only 8-bit addresses,
then you'll fail to see the 16-bit ones on the bus.  If you look only
at the 16-bit ones, then you will write a byte to the 8-bit ones due
to the aborted write used to set the read addresses.  I also had one
device that we wound up not using hang the bus after a 0-byte write to
it.  It drove the clock line low and nobody else could clock after
that.  Since this was two years ago, I don't recall the part in
question anymore and the hardware guy that I did the evaluation has
left the company.  Probing the i2c bus is dangerous.  You might get
away with it in liminited environments, but in general it is bad
medicine.  However, when I talked to Constatine about it, it seemed
like he understood the dangers and was willing to make it optional.

Warner


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