From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Aug 5 17:30:13 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id RAA15274 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 5 Aug 1997 17:30:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: from awfulhak.demon.co.uk (awfulhak.demon.co.uk [158.152.17.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id RAA15266 for ; Tue, 5 Aug 1997 17:30:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from awfulhak.org (dev.lan.awfulhak.org [10.0.1.5]) by awfulhak.demon.co.uk (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id AAA04769; Wed, 6 Aug 1997 00:02:18 +0100 (BST) Received: from dev.lan.awfulhak.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by awfulhak.org (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id AAA29396; Wed, 6 Aug 1997 00:02:17 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: <199708052302.AAA29396@awfulhak.org> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97 To: "Brian J. McGovern" cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Suggestions for extending minor numbers... In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 04 Aug 1997 15:42:22 EDT." <199708041942.PAA02933@spoon.beta.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 00:02:17 +0100 From: Brian Somers 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? Is there an 8-bit limit ? dev:/dev $ l /dev/rsd0s1 crw-r----- 1 root operator 13, 0x00020002 Sep 3 1996 /dev/rsd0s1 Looks like 32 bits to me :-) > -Brian -- Brian , Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....