[PATCH RFC] ARM: BCM5301X: Add /device_id property including device ID string

[Mark Rutland]

> > On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 11:14:48PM +0100, Rafał Miłecki wrote:
> >> Device vendors often assign IDs to their devices to allow comparing
> >> firmware image with device model. This is required to prevent users
> >> from flashing incompatible image and soft-bricking device.
> >> Add device_id property to DTs to allow user space (and optionally
> >> bootloader) verifying firmware images.
> >
> > This sounds like exactly what the "model" property is meant to be (per
> > ePAPR) -- a string that specifices the manufacturer's model number of
> > the device, ideally in "manufacturer,model" format.
> 
> What if manufacturer decided to use some totally unfriendly ID for
> their low-level (firmware upgrade) model identification? I can't
> really see us using
> model = "U12H245T00_NETGEAR"
> which would mean nothing compared to the current friendly:
> model = "Netgear R6250 V1 (BCM4708)"

If it uniquely identifies the model, it's fit to be a model string. If
being "friendly" means that we lose that, then the property is useless
anyway.

Note that both examples above deviate from the recommended format, and
something like: "netgear,U12H245T00" would better align with the
recommendation.

Mark.