ASpeed AST2500/AST2600 XDMA Engine Support Pending For Linux

Kernel patches pending that might see mainlining for the upcoming Linux 5.7 window provide ASpeed XDMA engine support for the plethora of AST2500 BMCs found on server platforms and the forthcoming AST2600-based platforms.

Going back to last year was the ASpeed AST2600 bring-up in its initial form for this SoC. One of the ASpeed Linux kernel patch series worked on since then has been the XDMA engine support for both the new AST2600 and the prevalent AST2500.

The XDMA engine allows for PCI DMA operations between the SoC/BMC and the host processor. The host processor must have the driver loaded and is responsible for allocating the coherent system memory areas for the XDMA engine on the BMC SoC to have direct memory access.

The latest patches have been sitting on the mailing list while waiting to see if they get picked up by upstream maintainers in time for the Linux 5.7 merge window opening around the start of April.

Separately, also on the ASpeed front for Linux 5.7 is AST2600 vhub support with the SoC's USB improvements.