Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add AMCC Arches 460GT eval board support to platforms/44x

From: Segher Boessenkool <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:24:29 +0200

>>> Shouldn't it be enough to have a common compatible value in each
>>> of these boards, e.g. "amcc,generic-ppc44x" and then just ignore the
>>> specific type unless you need to do something special?
>>
>> This is bad for the same reason that "amcc,44x-<blah>" compatible 
>> values
>> are bad in device nodes.  The definition of '*-44x-*' changes over 
>> time as
>> new parts are added.  Compatible values should always reflect an exact
>> part number.
>
> I agree in general, but I also think that all 44x boards should be
> regarded as the same machine time, in the same way that all powermacs
> are detected as compatible with "Power Macintosh" or "MacRISC", or
> how all sorts of serial ports claim compatibility with i8250.

And they can do that because a binding for those "compatible" names
exists, that describes exactly what it means for a device to be "i8250"
or "MacRISC" (well, in that last case, maybe such a binding exists, or
maybe it doesn't, but we don't know about it anyway, sigh).

Segher