IRIX NVMe Driver

An NVMe driver for SGI IRIX 6.5, providing SCSI emulation to allow legacy IRIX disk drivers to work with modern NVMe SSDs.

Building

Prerequisites

Install the complete IRIX development environment:

• MIPSPro 7.4.4 compiler (install 7.4, then patch to 7.4.4m)
• Development Foundation 1.3
• Development Libraries February 2002 (latest version)

Configuration

Edit the Makefile and set the CPUBOARD variable for your target system:

CPUBOARD=IP30    # For Octane
# or
CPUBOARD=IP32    # For O2
# or
CPUBOARD=IP35    # For Fuel

Build and Install

make           # Build the driver
make load      # Load the kernel module
make ioc       # Run ioconfig to discover partitions
hinv -v        # Verify NVMe controller appears in inventory (as integral WDC33)

Partition and Mount

fx             # Partition your NVMe drive
mkfs           # Create filesystem
# Or use IRIX GUI administration tools to initialize and mount

Advanced: Boot from NVMe (IP30 only - live dangerously!)

⚠️ Warning: This will modify your system boot configuration. Ensure you have backups!

1. Prepare the NVMe drive as root:

   # Format NVMe drive and clone your existing root filesystem

2. Edit the Makefile:

   BUILTIN=1

3. Install and configure:

   make install

4. Edit /var/sysgen/system/irix.sm and add at the end:

   USE: nvme
   

5. Rebuild kernel and reboot:

   autoconf
   reboot

6. In PROM, set boot device:

   setenv root dks2d0s0
   auto
   

7. LOL (you're now booting IRIX 6.5 from NVMe!)

Tested with

• PLX and PERICOM PCI-PCIe bridges, (Sedna and Startech on Amazon), the PLX bridges are cheaper on eBay
• your favorite no name brand passive PCIe-M.2 adapter
• cheapo Liteon and Patriot NVMe SSDs. Samsung 990 EVO didnt show up on the bus though.
• R12K/300 O2 and Dual R14k/600 Octane with shoebox and Fuel (use two bottom PCI slots on Fuel for 66MHz).
• by author IRIX 6.5.22 on O2 and Octane, 6.5.30 on Fuel
• by others on O2, Octane, and O350

Project Structure

irixnvme/
├── nvme.h          - NVMe specification definitions (registers, commands, structures)
├── nvmedrv.h       - Driver-specific structures and function prototypes
├── nvmedrv.c       - Main driver (PCI, initialization, SCSI registration)
├── nvme_scsi.c     - SCSI to NVMe translation layer
├── nvme_cmd.c      - NVMe command construction and submission
├── nvme_cpl.c      - NVMe completion queue handling
├── Makefile        - IRIX make build file
└── README.md       - This file

Architecture

Component Responsibilities

nvme.h

• Pure NVMe spec definitions from NVMe 1.0e
• Register offsets, bit definitions
• Command/completion structures
• Status codes
• Portable across different OS implementations

nvmedrv.h

• IRIX-specific driver structures
• nvme_soft_t - Controller state and namespace information
• nvme_queue_t - Queue pair management
• Function prototypes for all modules

nvmedrv.c

• PCI driver registration (wildcard matching on class code 0x010802)
• Controller initialization and shutdown
• SCSI controller registration
• Hardware graph integration
• Interrupt handling

nvme_scsi.c

• SCSI CDB to NVMe command translation
• Implements standard SCSI commands:
  • INQUIRY
  • READ CAPACITY
  • TEST UNIT READY
  • READ (6/10/16)
  • WRITE (6/10/16)
  • MODE SENSE
  • SYNC CACHE
• Provides SCSI interface functions for dksc driver

nvme_cmd.c

• NVMe command construction
• Admin commands (Identify, Create/Delete Queues)
• I/O commands (Read, Write)
• Command submission to queues
• Doorbell ringing

nvme_cpl.c

• Completion queue processing
• Phase bit tracking
• Completion handler dispatch
• Doorbell updates

How It Works

PCI Discovery

1. Driver registers with wildcard vendor/device IDs (-1, -1)
2. Attach function checks PCI class code for NVMe (0x010802)
3. Maps BAR0 (controller registers)
4. Reads controller capabilities

SCSI Emulation

1. Creates SCSI controller in hardware graph: /hw/scsi_ctlr/N
2. NVMe namespace 1 appears as SCSI target 0
3. IRIX dksc driver attaches to SCSI devices
4. SCSI commands are translated to NVMe commands

Device Paths

May be somewhat different on Octane
/hw/node/io/pci/9
├── scsi_ctlr/(probably)2/    <- NVMe driver creates this
    └── target/0/             <- Namespace 1
        └── lun/0/
            └── disk/         <- dksc attaches here
                └── dks2d1s0  <- Usable block device

SCSI to NVMe Translation Examples

SCSI Command	NVMe Translation
INQUIRY	Synthesize from Identify Controller
READ CAPACITY(10)	Get from Identify Namespace (NSZE field)
READ(10)	NVMe Read command with LBA/count from CDB
WRITE(10)	NVMe Write command with LBA/count from CDB
TEST UNIT READY	Check controller ready bit (CSTS.RDY)

Testing

The nvmetest.c program provides comprehensive testing of the driver via the SCSI layer:

# Compile test program on IRIX
cc -o nvmetest nvmetest.c

# Basic tests
./nvmetest -a                    # Run all basic tests (INQUIRY, READ CAPACITY, single read)

# Single operations
./nvmetest -i                    # INQUIRY test
./nvmetest -c                    # READ CAPACITY test
./nvmetest -r 0                  # Read single block at LBA 0
./nvmetest -w 100                # Write/read verification at LBA 100

# Sequential reads (tests PRP chaining)
./nvmetest -s 0 8192            # Read 8192 blocks (4MB) starting at LBA 0

# Random write/read stress test (DESTRUCTIVE!)
./nvmetest -R 100               # 100 iterations of random write/read tests
./nvmetest -R 1000              # 1000 iterations for extended testing

Random Write/Read Test Features

The -R option runs a comprehensive stress test that:

• Random LBA selection: Writes to random locations within first 10,000 blocks
• Random transfer sizes: 1 block to 1024 blocks (512KB) per operation
• Random buffer alignments: Tests 4KB page-aligned, 512B block-aligned, and random 4-byte alignments
• Data verification: Each write is followed by 2-5 overlapping reads with checksum verification
• Pattern generation: Uses reproducible random data patterns for verification

This test is DESTRUCTIVE and will overwrite data on the drive. Only use on test systems with no important data.

Example output:

=== Random Write/Read Stress Test ===
Max LBA range: 0-10000
Iterations: 100

--- Iteration 1/100 ---
WRITE: LBA 4523, blocks 128 (65536 bytes), align 4096 bytes
  Write OK (checksum=0x12345678)
  READ 1/3: LBA 4523, blocks 64 (32768 bytes), align 512 bytes
    VERIFY OK: overlap LBA 4523-4586 (checksum=0x0abcdef0)
  READ 2/3: LBA 4600, blocks 50 (25600 bytes), align 4096 bytes
    VERIFY OK: overlap LBA 4600-4650 (checksum=0x0fedcba0)
...

Hardware Requirements

• SGI system running IRIX 6.5
• PCI to PCIe bridge
• NVMe SSD
• Tested platforms: IP32 (O2), IP30 (Octane), IP35 (Fuel), others could work

Inspiration

This driver is equally stupid as the Windows 2000 NVMe driver (nvme2k), attempting to bring modern NVMe storage to a legacy OS that predates the NVMe specification by over a decade.

References

• NVMe 1.0e Specification
• IRIX Device Driver Programmer's Guide (useless)
• simple_irix_driver (basic loadable module example)

License

BSD 3 clause. Use at your risk, don't cry to me if it kills your cat or something.

Author

Bringing NVMe to IRIX, one ridiculous project at a time.