Re: [RFC][PATCH] Expanding the size of "start" and "end" field in "struct resource"

From: Kumar Gala
Date: Wed Mar 15 2006 - 16:27:11 EST



On Mar 15, 2006, at 3:13 PM, Benjamin LaHaise wrote:

On Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 03:05:30PM -0600, Kumar Gala wrote:
I disagree. I think we need to look to see what the "bloat" is
before we go and make start/end config dependent.

Eh? 32 bit kernels get used in embedded systems, which includes those
with only 8MB of RAM. The upper 32 bits will never be anything other
than 0.

Why do people equate embedded with small amounts of memory. I know of embedded systems which use 32-bit PowerPCs that have >4G of system memory.

It seems clear that drivers dont handle the fact that "start"/"end"
change an 32-bit vs 64-bit archs to begin with. By making this even
more config dependent seems to be asking for more trouble.

You can't get a non-32 bit value on a 32 bit platform, so why should a
driver be expected to handle anything?

I dont follow. I would say that most drivers shouldn't care about the fact that they are on a 32-bit platform or 64-bit platform. The point is that drivers have made assumptions about being on 32-bit platforms which breaks when a 32-bit platform supports a larger physical address space.

- kumar
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