What's in a (device) name?

[Mike Meyer]

In <20060409.185335.105395062.imp at bsdimp.com>, M. Warner Losh <imp at bsdimp.com> typed:
> In message: <17465.32905.727289.260996 at bhuda.mired.org>
>             Mike Meyer <mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers.102a7e at mired.org> writes:
> : The major problem with it is that todays bus architectures don't have
> : stable device addresses. Instead of devices having a fixed address on
> : the bus that the user sets, the addresses are assigned as the devices
> : are discovered. This is pretty much a requirement if you want to sell
> : hardware to 12:00 flashers. While that's not the market that FreeBSD
> : deals with, it is the hardware that FreeBSD runs on.
> usb assigns addresses dynamically.  Everyone else does it basically
> statically.  PCI slot/device numbers are static, but extreme
> configurations can change the bus number.

USB is popular enough and PCI changes enough that we have to be able
to deal with them.

Firewire would seem to be a lot like USB - hot pluggable and
chainable, though I'm not sure if something like a firewire hub. What
does it to do wire down device addresses?

	Thanks,
	<mike
-- 
Mike Meyer <mwm at mired.org>		http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.