What might be useful, on the other hand, would be device specific
tunables: an interface allowing device drivers to define a list of
tunables and their types for each device. It would be a generalization
of private flags. There is, of course, the risk that we could end up
with multiple NIC vendors defining the same parameters, each under
a different name and with slightly different semantics.

 
Hi Michal

I'm not too happy to let PHY drivers do whatever they want. So far,
all PHY tunables have been generic. Any T1 PHY can implement control
of master/slave, and there is no reason for each PHY to do it
different to any other PHY. Downshift is a generic concept, multiple
PHYs have implemented it, and they all implement it the same. Only
Marvell currently supports fast link down, but the API is generic
enough that other PHYs could implement it, if the hardware supports
it.

I don't however mind if it gets a different name, or a different tool,
etc.

I will let others comment on NICs. They are a different beast.

Andrew