I found a nice thread of conversation that allowed me to see some of the history behind pci_alloc_consistent().
I read one thing noted on a man page for kmalloc that should be highlighted. "the GFP_DMA flag may be set to indicate the memory must be suitable for DMA. ***This can mean different things on different platforms.*** For example, on x86, it means that the memory must come from the first 16MB." For ppc arch, how about #define kmalloc pci_alloc_unconsistent /* just joking */ -----Original Message----- From: Johnson, Stephen Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 8:34 AM To: linuxppc-embedded at lists.linuxppc.org Subject: kmalloc vs pci_alloc_consistent I don't know the history behind pci_alloc and wanted to throw this out there to get some clarification. What's the benefit of pci_alloc over using kmalloc with flags for a cache-safe buffer? ** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/
