From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Aug 4 12:42:34 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id MAA22560 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 12:42:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from spoon.beta.com (root@[199.165.180.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA22553 for ; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 12:42:25 -0700 (PDT) Received: from spoon.beta.com (mcgovern@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spoon.beta.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id PAA02933 for ; Mon, 4 Aug 1997 15:42:22 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <199708041942.PAA02933@spoon.beta.com> To: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Suggestions for extending minor numbers... Date: Mon, 04 Aug 1997 15:42:22 -0400 From: "Brian J. McGovern" Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Well, I've got my driver working for the 8 port Cyclades cards. Now its time to work on the 64 port cards. As you can see, if I have a call in, call out, call in initial state, call out initial state, call in lock state, and call out lock state, I'm going to need 384 minor numbers, which is already over the 8-bit limit on minor numbers. If I choose to support multiple boards, I could use between 768, and 1536 minor numbers, possibly more in machines with more than 4 PCI slots. With the % of CPU per board the driver is taking, 3 of these 64 port boards should be possible.... Anyhow, I've considered dropping initial and lock state devices, and use a different major number for each of the boards. I'm curious to see if this is a "reasonable thing to do" (tm), or whether this is a better way to go that I haven't yet figured out. Suggestions anyone? -Brian