Date: Fri, 2 Aug 1996 18:13:28 -0400
From: milendor@chicklet.East.Sun.COM (Michael Milendorf (Godin) - Sun BOS Firmware)
Subject: Item #383: clarifications on MEMORY-TEST-SUITE and MASK

[ dmk: reformatted text to 80 char lines ]

P1275 Openboot Working Group Proposal -- Proposal #:383 Ver <Author-Version#>

Title:          Clarification on MASK and MEMORY-TEST-SUITE fcodes

Author:         Michael Milendorf

Date:           August 2, 1996

Ed/Tech:        Technical

Synopsis:       Clarification

Doc & Version:  IEEE Std P1275-1994

Problem:        MEMORY-TEST-SUITE and MASK definitions need clarification
                
                The P1275 definition of MEMORY-TEST-SUITE says "perform
		tests of memory, starting at addr for len bytes". It says
		that "the actual tests performed are machine specific"
		however it doesn't clarify on what kinds of memories the
		test could be applied to, and what kinds of accesses it is
		using. The test can't be applied to both system and device
		memories and always provide a correct error reporting 
                in case of failure. The same types of accesses presumably
		used in MEMORY-TEST-SUITE wouldn't always work the same
		way on system and device memories. 

Proposal:       The definition for MEMORY-TEST-SUITE should clearly state
		that the test is intended for device registers only and
		shall implement device type reads and writes. Otherwise
		MEMORY-TEST-SUITE is not guaranteed to work on plug-in cards. 

                In conjunction with clarifications on MEMORY-TEST-SUITE
		the definiton for MASK should be changed from "which bits
		out of every cell will be tested" to "which bits will be
		tested with MEMORY-TEST-SUITE".  
                
Note:           To make MEMORY-TEST-SUITE more usefull TWO other FCODEs
		could be introduced: REG@ and REG! MEMORY-TEST-SUITE shall
		use REG@ and REG! types of accesses. Each particular FCODE
		driver or FCODE selftest then shall set the required
		cell-read and cell-write words along with 
                MASK value prior to calling MEMORY-TEST-SUITE:

                ['] rl@ to reg@ ['] rl! to reg! ffff.0000 mask !
                addr len MEMORY-TEST-SUITE
                
 
 

[ P1275 Item #383 -- Received: Fri Aug  2 15:19:03 PDT 1996 ]