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Intel still does it. As far as I can see they're the only player in town that provide open, detailed documentation for their high-speed NICs [0]. You can actual

Intel still does it. As far as I can see they're the only player in town that provide open, detailed documentation for their high-speed NICs [0]. You can actually write a driver for their 100Gb cards from scratch using their datasheet. Most other vendors would either (1) ignore you, (2) make you sign an NDA or (3) refer you to their poorly documented Linux/BSD driver. Not sure what the situation is for other hardware like NVMe SSDs. [0] 2750 page datasheet for the e810 Ethernet controller https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/content-details/613875/intel-ethernet-controller-e810-datasheet.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/content-details/6138...

the-rc 1y ago
On the other hand, see the complete mess that are the IPU6/7 camera chipsets and their Linux support.
- XorNot 1y ago
  Good christ this is my current work laptop. It...mostly doesn't work. Plug in a USB camera and it'll just go. Several drivers, userspace utilities and other daemons and sometimes gstreamer works, but does Zoom work? Who knows!
wtallis 1y ago
The NVMe spec is freely downloadable and sufficient to write a driver with, if your OS already has PCIe support (which doesn't have open specifications). You don't need any vendor-specific features for ordinary everyday use, so it's a bit of a different situation from NICs. (Also, NVMe was in very large part an Intel creation, though it's maintained by an industry consortium.)
throwaway2037 1y ago
Wow... that PDF is 2,750 pages! There must be an army of technical writers behind it. That is an incredible technical achievement. Real question: Why do you think Intel does this? Does it guarantee a very strong foothold into data center NICs? I am sure competitors would argue two different angles: (1) this PDF shares too much info; some should be hidden behind an NDA, (2) it's too hard to write (and maintain) this PDF.
- pjjpo 1y ago
  In terms of (2), I wonder if it's even possible to write a driver without such a document. In the end, the vendor is on the foot for the driver for major platforms (let's assume Linux) - if they can write a Linux driver without a similar spec to this doc, then the doc probably doesn't need to exist since the business wins from hobbyist drivers will be low. If they can't though, then it's just a matter of formatting an internal document for public consumption - the doc itself has to be maintained anyways so the cost seems lower and maybe reasonable. I have a feeling the doc is necessary but I am not specialized in the field. Assumptions, fair or not, about (1) seems more likely somehow.
  - sour-taste 1y ago
    Didn't all the asahi Linux Mac m1 drivers essentially get reverse engineered with little to no support from apple and no public docs? If I'm remembering correctly then I guess it's possible with enough effort and reverse engineering skills
    - nicce 1y ago
      But it took 5 years. And since the first model, there are many others. It is huge work.
    - stefan_ 1y ago
      It was reverse engineered from a driver. With no driver and purely some PCIE device registers mapped into memory you might as well be trying to guess lottery numbers.
      - sour-taste 1y ago
        I guess the driver was the one that runs on Mac that they were able to refer to? Not sure you have any links to blog posts about this process it sounds so cool
        morganw 1y ago
theideaofcoffee 1y ago
That's interesting that it's that short. I remember a long while ago I had aspirations of implementing a custom board for Prestonia-/Gallatin-era Xeons and the datasheets and specs for those was around 3000 pages, iirc. Supporting infra was about that long as well. So I'm surprised to see a modern ethernet controller fit into the same space. I appreciated all of the docs because it was so open, I felt like I could actually achieve that project, but other things took priority.

the-rc 1y ago

On the other hand, see the complete mess that are the IPU6/7 camera chipsets and their Linux support.

XorNot 1y ago
Good christ this is my current work laptop. It...mostly doesn't work. Plug in a USB camera and it'll just go. Several drivers, userspace utilities and other daemons and sometimes gstreamer works, but does Zoom work? Who knows!

wtallis 1y ago

The NVMe spec is freely downloadable and sufficient to write a driver with, if your OS already has PCIe support (which doesn't have open specifications). You don't need any vendor-specific features for ordinary everyday use, so it's a bit of a different situation from NICs. (Also, NVMe was in very large part an Intel creation, though it's maintained by an industry consortium.)

throwaway2037 1y ago

Wow... that PDF is 2,750 pages! There must be an army of technical writers behind it. That is an incredible technical achievement. Real question: Why do you think Intel does this? Does it guarantee a very strong foothold into data center NICs? I am sure competitors would argue two different angles: (1) this PDF shares too much info; some should be hidden behind an NDA, (2) it's too hard to write (and maintain) this PDF.

pjjpo 1y ago
In terms of (2), I wonder if it's even possible to write a driver without such a document. In the end, the vendor is on the foot for the driver for major platforms (let's assume Linux) - if they can write a Linux driver without a similar spec to this doc, then the doc probably doesn't need to exist since the business wins from hobbyist drivers will be low. If they can't though, then it's just a matter of formatting an internal document for public consumption - the doc itself has to be maintained anyways so the cost seems lower and maybe reasonable. I have a feeling the doc is necessary but I am not specialized in the field. Assumptions, fair or not, about (1) seems more likely somehow.
- sour-taste 1y ago
  Didn't all the asahi Linux Mac m1 drivers essentially get reverse engineered with little to no support from apple and no public docs? If I'm remembering correctly then I guess it's possible with enough effort and reverse engineering skills
  - nicce 1y ago
    But it took 5 years. And since the first model, there are many others. It is huge work.
  - stefan_ 1y ago
    It was reverse engineered from a driver. With no driver and purely some PCIE device registers mapped into memory you might as well be trying to guess lottery numbers.
    - sour-taste 1y ago
      I guess the driver was the one that runs on Mac that they were able to refer to? Not sure you have any links to blog posts about this process it sounds so cool
      - morganw 1y ago

theideaofcoffee 1y ago

That's interesting that it's that short. I remember a long while ago I had aspirations of implementing a custom board for Prestonia-/Gallatin-era Xeons and the datasheets and specs for those was around 3000 pages, iirc. Supporting infra was about that long as well. So I'm surprised to see a modern ethernet controller fit into the same space. I appreciated all of the docs because it was so open, I felt like I could actually achieve that project, but other things took priority.