Status Page

Current Support:

The kernel currently supports:

• Execution independent of Firmware
  • The 32-bit boot wrapper will use the Firmware to:
    1. Extract necessary information, stashing it into the device tree.
    2. Spin up all threads into the standard Linux Kexec wait loops.
    3. Leap at the Kernel
• SMP operation, with IPI support
• Initialization of the Memory Unit
• Mailbox operation with control system
  • Allows for Console, RAS and intra-node messaging
  • Uses standard Linux Virtual Console sub-system
• The BIC interrupt controller, for devices and MSI
• PCIe and MSI
  • Tested with Mellanox card

Missing

The kernel does not support the ROQ driver which provides access to the Torus and other software running on the compute nodes. This driver software would require some herculean effort to clean up and detangle from much of the MCP code which has been written in a manner unacceptable to the community. It is our hope to make the ROQ driver available as a separate module, and then possibly clean it up and include it as part of the Linux kernel in the future after the first phase is complete and upstream. See:

• linux-bgq-dirty-mods

Upstream Plan

Current schedule, assuming 3-4 months per release:

• Linux 3.7 (12/12) has released: Linux 3.7
  • A 3.7 branch of the tree is in progress and will be follow linux-3.7.y branch of the linux-stable repository.
• Linux 3.8 (24/12/2012) "merge window" will close and no new features, we are too late for this.
  • A 3.8 branch will be created and will follow linux-3.8.y branch of the linux-stable repository when it is available.
• Linux 3.9 (03/13) "merge window" would likely be the next opportunity, although I'm told there is plenty of work in the queue ahead of us.

NOTE
It is important to have as many users of this code so it can be tested as much as possible to prepare for upstream.