SIBA(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 SIBA(4) 💖

okay bestie so we're doing the kernel interfaces manual for siba — the Sonic Inc. Silicon Backplane driver. yes it's a whole thing and yes you're gonna understand it. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

siba — Sonic Inc. Silicon Backplane driver

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so like, you wanna compile this driver into the kernel? add these lines to the kernel configuration file:

device bhnd
device siba

orrr if you'd rather load it as a module at boot, add this line to loader.conf(5):

siba_load="YES"

pick your fighter, both slay 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

siba is the driver that gives you bhnd(4) support for devices built on the Sonic Inc. Silicon Backplane — which is this whole interblock communications architecture situation found in earlier Broadcom Home Networking Division wireless chipsets and embedded systems. it's giving legacy but make it iconic.

so here's the tea: a common interconnect connects all of the Silicon Backplane's functional blocks together. and those functional blocks? they're known as cores ✨ and they use the Open Core Protocol (OCP) interface to talk to agents attached to the Silicon Backplane. the way they communicate... obsessed honestly.

each core can have:

  • an initiator agent — passes read and write requests onto the system backplane
  • a target agent — returns responses to those requests

but here's the thing bestie, not all cores contain both. it's not a package deal. some cores are out here with just one, living their truth.

initiator agents show up in cores that contain host interfaces (PCI, PCMCIA), embedded processors (MIPS), or DMA processors associated with communications cores. main character energy fr fr 💫

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read them, they're part of the lore 📚

👑 HISTORY 👑

siba first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0. then it got a whole rewrite for FreeBSD 11.0 so it could support the common Broadcom bhnd(4) bus interface. glow-up era, honestly 💅✨

🎀 AUTHORS 🎀

  • the siba driver was originally written by Bruce M. Simpson <bms@FreeBSD.org> and Weongyo Jeong <weongyo@FreeBSD.org>
  • the driver was rewritten for FreeBSD 11.0 by Landon Fuller <landonf@FreeBSD.org>

icons, all of them 👑

💀 okay one last thing before you go — this page is from the Debian distribution, dated September 13, 2017. that's the version and date, bestie, consider yourself informed. bye love u, go read bhnd(4) 🌸🦋💖
📦 where this page comes from