[linux-dvb] Re: Proposal for new frontend architecture

[Holger Waechtler <holger@qanu.de>]

Michael Hunold wrote:

> The last question is (after we have converted the stv0299 frontend 
> driver to the plain demod driver) if we want to keep it as a real 
> kernel i2c device.
>
> In that case, we need to revamp kernel i2c to have separate busses 
> with a well-known functional interface between clients and adapters. 
> Please see my other mail for details.
>
> This work can be very useful for other parts of the kernel, too, where 
> currently a type-safe interface is missing. The lm-sensors team 
> basically has the same problem, that they don't have any interface 
> between the mainboard sm-busses and the thermal sensors, so they can 
> share h/w dependent informations. The need to probe all settings that 
> might be specific to the hardware.

They can easily reuse our approach, it is general enough to work in 
their environment, too. It would even support 1-wire busses like they 
are used for mobile phone battery pack fuel gauges and thermals. PDA 
temperature control chips are often controlled by SPI.

So they get support for both new protocols for free and can simplify 
their code by remove their probing code.

Holger