};
This allows for the device to use these interrupts in a sparse fashion;
-for example it could use interrupts 3 and 1027 and allocate only a
+for example, it could use interrupts 3 and 1027 and yet allocate only a
two-element array. The driver is expected to fill in the 'entry' value
-in each element of the array to indicate which entries it wants the kernel
-to assign interrupts for. It is invalid to fill in two entries with the
+in each element of the array to indicate for which entries the kernel
+should assign interrupts; it is invalid to fill in two entries with the
same number.
4.3.1 pci_enable_msix
device is switched into MSI-X mode and the function returns 0.
The 'vector' member in each entry is populated with the interrupt number;
the driver should then call request_irq() for each 'vector' that it
-decides to use.
+decides to use. The device driver is responsible for keeping track of the
+interrupts assigned to the MSI-X vectors so it can free them again later.
If this function returns a negative number, it indicates an error and
the driver should not attempt to allocate any more MSI-X interrupts for
This function, in contrast with pci_enable_msi(), does not adjust
dev->irq. The device will not generate interrupts for this interrupt
-number once MSI-X is enabled. The device driver is responsible for
-keeping track of the interrupts assigned to the MSI-X vectors so it can
-free them again later.
+number once MSI-X is enabled.
Device drivers should normally call this function once per device
during the initialization phase.
-It is ideal if drivers can cope with a variable number of MSI-X interrupts,
+It is ideal if drivers can cope with a variable number of MSI-X interrupts;
there are many reasons why the platform may not be able to provide the
-exact number a driver asks for.
+exact number that a driver asks for.
A request loop to achieve that might look like:
void pci_disable_msix(struct pci_dev *dev)
-This API should be used to undo the effect of pci_enable_msix(). It frees
+This function should be used to undo the effect of pci_enable_msix(). It frees
the previously allocated message signaled interrupts. The interrupts may
subsequently be assigned to another device, so drivers should not cache
the value of the 'vector' elements over a call to pci_disable_msix().
4.4 Handling devices implementing both MSI and MSI-X capabilities
If a device implements both MSI and MSI-X capabilities, it can
-run in either MSI mode or MSI-X mode but not both simultaneously.
+run in either MSI mode or MSI-X mode, but not both simultaneously.
This is a requirement of the PCI spec, and it is enforced by the
PCI layer. Calling pci_enable_msi() when MSI-X is already enabled or
pci_enable_msix() when MSI is already enabled results in an error.
above, MSI-X supports any number of interrupts between 1 and 2048.
In constrast, MSI is restricted to a maximum of 32 interrupts (and
must be a power of two). In addition, the MSI interrupt vectors must
-be allocated consecutively, so the system may not be able to allocate
+be allocated consecutively, so the system might not be able to allocate
as many vectors for MSI as it could for MSI-X. On some platforms, MSI
interrupts must all be targeted at the same set of CPUs whereas MSI-X
interrupts can all be targeted at different CPUs.
PCI configuration space (especially the Hypertransport chipsets such
as the nVidia nForce and Serverworks HT2000). As with host chipsets,
Linux mostly knows about them and automatically enables MSIs if it can.
-If you have a bridge which Linux doesn't yet know about, you can enable
+If you have a bridge unknown to Linux, you can enable
MSIs in configuration space using whatever method you know works, then
enable MSIs on that bridge by doing:
0000:00:0e.0).
To disable MSIs, echo 0 instead of 1. Changing this value should be
-done with caution as it can break interrupt handling for all devices
+done with caution as it could break interrupt handling for all devices
below this bridge.
Again, please notify linux-pci@vger.kernel.org of any bridges that need
5.3. Disabling MSIs on a single device
Some devices are known to have faulty MSI implementations. Usually this
-is handled in the individual device driver but occasionally it's necessary
+is handled in the individual device driver, but occasionally it's necessary
to handle this with a quirk. Some drivers have an option to disable use
of MSI. While this is a convenient workaround for the driver author,
it is not good practise, and should not be emulated.