Subject: Re: PHY firmware update method

From: "Russell King (Oracle)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2022 13:18:51 +0100

On Fri, Sep 30, 2022 at 07:45:46AM -0700, Jakub Kicinski wrote:
> Actually maybe there's something in DMTF, does PLDM have standard image
> format? Adding Jake. Not sure if PHYs would use it tho :S 

DMTF? PLDM?

> What's the interface that the PHY FW exposes? Ben H was of the opinion
> that we should just expose the raw mtd devices.. just saying..

Not all PHYs provide raw access to the firmware memory to the host; in
some cases, firmware memory access needs the PHY to be shutdown, and
programs loaded into the PHY to provide a "bridge" to program the
external firmware memory. I'm thinking about 88x3310 here - effectively
there it's write-only access via an intermediate program on the PHY,
and there's things like checksums etc.

So, exposing everything as a MTD sounds like a solution, but not all
PHYs provide such access. IMHO, if we say "everything must provide a
MTD" then we're boxing ourselves into a corner.

-- 
RMK's Patch system: https://www.armlinux.org.uk/developer/patches/
FTTP is here! 40Mbps down 10Mbps up. Decent connectivity at last!