Re: [Linux-nvdimm] [PATCH 2/3] x86: add a is_e820_ram() helper

From: Dan Williams
Date: Thu Mar 26 2015 - 12:02:28 EST


On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 8:49 AM, Boaz Harrosh <boaz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 03/26/2015 11:34 AM, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
>> +/*
>> + * This is a non-standardized way to represent ADR or NVDIMM regions that
>> + * persist over a reboot. The kernel will ignore their special capabilities
>> + * unless the CONFIG_X86_PMEM_LEGACY option is set.
>> + *
>> + * Note that older platforms also used 6 for the same type of memory,
>> + * but newer versions switched to 12 as 6 was assigned differently. Some
>> + * time they will learn..
>> + */
>> +#define E820_PRAM 12
>
> Why the PRAM Name. For one 2/3 of this patch say PMEM the Kconfig
> to enable is _PMEM_, the driver stack that gets loaded is pmem,
> so PRAM is unexpected.
>
> Also I do believe PRAM is not the correct name. Yes NvDIMMs are RAM,
> but there are other not RAM technologies that can be supported exactly
> the same way.
> MEM is a more general name meaning "on the memory bus". I think.
>
> I would love the consistency.

One of nice side of effects of having a "PRAM" name is that we can
later add a UEFI "PMEM" type where the distinction is thsy "PRAM" is
included in the system memory map by default and "PMEM" is analogous
to "IOMEM". Just a thought...
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