Re: [PATCH RFC] staging: Add driver to communicate with the T2 Security Chip

[Robin Murphy]

On 2025-03-09 8:40 am, Aditya Garg wrote:
> From: Paul Pawlowski <paul@xxxxxxxx>
>
> This patch adds a driver named apple-bce, to add support for the T2
> Security Chip found on certain Macs.
>
> The driver has 3 main components:
>
> BCE (Buffer Copy Engine) - this is what the files in the root directory
> are for. This estabilishes a basic communication channel with the T2.
> VHCI and Audio both require this component.
>
> VHCI - this is a virtual USB host controller; keyboard, mouse and
> other system components are provided by this component (other
> drivers use this host controller to provide more functionality).
>
> Audio - a driver for the T2 audio interface, currently only audio
> output is supported.
>
> Currently, suspend and resume for VHCI is broken after a firmware
> update in iBridge since macOS Sonoma.
>
> Signed-off-by: Paul Pawlowski <paul@xxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Aditya Garg <gargaditya08@xxxxxxxx>
> ---
> drivers/staging/Kconfig                       |   2 +
> drivers/staging/Makefile                      |   1 +
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/Kconfig             |  18 +
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/Makefile            |  28 +
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/apple_bce.c         | 448 ++++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/apple_bce.h         |  44 +
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/audio.c       | 714 ++++++++++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/audio.h       | 128 +++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/description.h |  45 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/pcm.c         | 311 +++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/pcm.h         |  19 +
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/protocol.c    | 350 ++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/audio/protocol.h    | 148 ++++
> .../staging/apple-bce/audio/protocol_bce.c    | 229 ++++++
> .../staging/apple-bce/audio/protocol_bce.h    |  75 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/mailbox.c           | 154 ++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/mailbox.h           |  56 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/queue.c             | 393 +++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/queue.h             | 180 +++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/queue_dma.c         | 223 +++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/queue_dma.h         |  53 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/command.h      | 207 +++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/queue.c        | 271 +++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/queue.h        |  79 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/transfer.c     | 664 +++++++++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/transfer.h     |  76 ++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/vhci.c         | 764 ++++++++++++++++++
> drivers/staging/apple-bce/vhci/vhci.h         |  55 ++
> 28 files changed, 5735 insertions(+)

I'm slightly puzzled why this was sent to the IOMMU maintainers when it 
doesn't touch any IOMMU code, nor even contain any reference to the 
IOMMU API at all...

Since I don't know enough about audio or USB code, all I can really say 
here is to echo Greg's comment that, judging by that diffstat alone, 
this probably wants to be at least 3-5 separate patches, adding each 
functional piece in manageable chunks.

Thanks,
Robin.