From owner-freebsd-net@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Dec 10 17:47:53 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 90D3CD46 for ; Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:47:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from out4-smtp.messagingengine.com (out4-smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.28]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 603BD1098 for ; Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:47:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from compute4.internal (compute4.nyi.mail.srv.osa [10.202.2.44]) by gateway1.nyi.mail.srv.osa (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0645921BD4 for ; Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:47:48 -0500 (EST) Received: from web3 ([10.202.2.213]) by compute4.internal (MEProxy); Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:47:49 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d= messagingengine.com; h=message-id:from:to:mime-version :content-transfer-encoding:content-type:in-reply-to:references :subject:date; s=smtpout; bh=nGsC6pKaGWKeEmlPrTBNFqD8Sbg=; b=V4N p4ONsY7XT4s4JwVIqeN8EVO2gqjFPl63SEsjPbVUvCT261/kCy70YiXSVfqxWiDO i0h2W7i3FDj9F5yKxhX29VMz3FDvoW3bV8h97aYD+lDYVjVOBjbwnUj/+1Zvbnzs ejoueGsixBYB672U4D23HwYZAwHGCpyN8rjE/kqI= Received: by web3.nyi.mail.srv.osa (Postfix, from userid 99) id 19C851A3575; Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:47:48 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <1386697668.8944.57916449.7576FC53@webmail.messagingengine.com> X-Sasl-Enc: hglsGrtCya+5IRX9dPbb83VQUrufxzD2hG/hjHS4Lkgr 1386697668 From: Mark Felder To: freebsd-net@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-Mailer: MessagingEngine.com Webmail Interface - ajax-605a1389 In-Reply-To: <1386634847.38473.YahooMailNeo@web121606.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> References: <1386634847.38473.YahooMailNeo@web121606.mail.ne1.yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Intel Controllers [Rant] Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 11:47:48 -0600 X-BeenThere: freebsd-net@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Networking and TCP/IP with FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:47:53 -0000 On Mon, Dec 9, 2013, at 18:20, Barney Cordoba wrote: > Why is it that every time I get a new MB it has yet-another intel > controller on it? How are you supposed to write good drivers that support > 9000 different controllers? As much as I appreciate the progression of > CPU technology, they > would serve the community better by making up their damn minds and just > build 1 or 2 controller for each=A0 > target market. >=20 I'm pretty sure an entirely new driver doesn't need to be written for each new controller. I assume like with most things (network cards, wifi chips, etc) it's usually a matter of adding its identifier to the driver code. It might be a foolish idea, but I've wondered for a while why drivers can't pick up a list of IDs from a file on the filesystem which could be distributed by, say, freebsd-update and then new ISOs could be rolled to include them. This probably presents too many layers of complexity and potential security issues, though. :-)