P1394> SBP-2 Targets

P1394> SBP-2 Targets

Eric Anderson ewa at apple.com
Tue Sep 12 14:50:49 EDT 2000


Multiple targets, represented by multiple Unit Directories, are
fully allowed by the SBP-2 and 1394 specs.  A computer, in
particular, is likely to publish multiple SBP-2 units for
unrelated purposes.

In principle, multiple targets represented by multiple unit
directories would be fully independent, aside from sharing
a node's characteristics such as node ID and GUID.  In practice
the level of independence depends on the sophistication of
your microcontroller.

I haven't kept up with the 1212r work; it may change the
terminology somewhat.  But I don't believe it adds any
restrictions or limits to what 1394 and SBP-2 allow.  In
particular if you have multiple instance directories, and
each one has a (different) unit directory associated with
it, I believe that would represent multiple targets.

Multiple instance directories, each pointing to the same unit
directory, would be different (if 1212r allows that).  The unit
directory would have a single management agent; each node is
limited to at most one login to that agent (by SBP-2); this would
effectively be a single target.

I'm not sure if I'm on the t10 at t10.org mailing list (or if I can
post to it), by the way.

Eric Anderson
Apple Computer
ewa at apple.com


>Hi All,
>
>Recently I have been involved in some discussions about what
>constitutes an SBP-2 Target; these discussions have pointed out
>some areas of the SBP-2 spec that are kind of fuzzy.  I'm posting
>this question to get an idea of how this issue is viewed by the
>rest of the industry.
>
>3.1.2.25 target: A node that receives device service or management
>requests from an initiator....
>
>This has been interpreted to mean that there is only one SBP-2 target
>per node.
>
>4.1 Unit Architecture
>In CSR architecture and Serial Bus terminology, targets implemented
>to this standard are units.  A Serial Bus node that implements a
>target has a unit directory in configuration ROM that identifies the
>presence and capabilities of the target.
>
>This implies that each SBP-2 unit directory is a separate target.
>
>The case not covered by the SBP-2 specification is the one where
>there are multiple instance directories each containing an SBP-2
>unit directory.  Is this one target or multiple targets?  I have
>been assuming that this represents multiple targets; are my
>assumptions correct?
>
>Thanks
>Chuck
>
>Chuck Rice
>Software Engineer
>Hewlett Packard Company
>Vancouver Division
>18110 SE 34th Street
>Vancouver, WA 98683
>360-212-0348
>chuck_rice2 at vcd.hp.com
>https://ecardfile.com/id/crice
>







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