[PATCH 0/8] optimize the firmware loading process

[Chaoyong He]

> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit at amd.com>
> >> Sent: Monday, January 22, 2024 11:09 PM
> >> To: Chaoyong He <chaoyong.he at corigine.com>; dev at dpdk.org
> >> Cc: oss-drivers <oss-drivers at corigine.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/8] optimize the firmware loading process
> >>
> >> On 1/15/2024 2:54 AM, Chaoyong He wrote:
> >>> This patch series aims to speedup the DPDK application start by
> >>> optimize the firmware loading process in sereval places.
> >>> We also simplify the port name in multiple PF firmware case to make
> >>> the customer happy.
> >>>
> >>
> >> <...>
> >>
> >>>   net/nfp: add the elf module
> >>>   net/nfp: reload the firmware only when firmware changed
> >>
> >> Above commit adds elf parser capability and second one loads firmware
> >> when build time is different.
> >>
> >> I can see this is an optimization effort, to understand FW status
> >> before loading FW, but relying on build time seems fragile. Does it
> >> help to add a new section to store version information and evaluate based
> on this information?
> >>
> >
> > We have a branch of firmware (several app type combined with
> > NFD3/NFDk) with the same version information(monthly publish), so the
> version information can't help us, because we can't distinguish among them.
> >
> > But the build time is different for every firmware, and that's the reason we
> choose it.
> >
> 
> If version is same although FW itself is different, isn't this problem on its own?
> Perhaps an additional field is required in version syntax.

Actually, it's just the role the build time which embed in the firmware plays, which is unique for every firmware, and which can't be modified once the firmware was published.

What you said also has its mean, but in practice we can't accept(at least can't do it immediately), which needs to discuss with firmware team.

If you insist that we should change the design, maybe we can just kick off two commits, and upstream the other commits?
- net/nfp: add the elf module
- net/nfp: reload the firmware only when firmware changed