kmalloc vs pci_alloc_consistent

[Johnson, Stephen]

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?


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