spu_create(2)

1SPU_CREATE(2)              Linux Programmer's Manual             SPU_CREATE(2)
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NAME

6       spu_create - create a new spu context
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SYNOPSIS

10       #include <sys/types.h>
11       #include <sys/spu.h>
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13       int spu_create(const char *pathname, int flags, mode_t mode);
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DESCRIPTION

16       The  spu_create  system call is used on PowerPC machines that implement
17       the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture in order to  access  Synergistic
18       Processor  Units (SPUs). It creates a new logical context for an SPU in
19       pathname and returns a handle to associated  with  it.   pathname  must
20       point  to  a  non-existing directory in the mount point of the SPU file
21       system (spufs).  When spu_create is successful, a directory  gets  cre‐
22       ated on pathname and it is populated with files.
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24       The  returned  file  handle can only be passed to spu_run(2) or closed,
25       other operations are not defined on it. When it is closed, all  associ‐
26       ated  directory entries in spufs are removed. When the last file handle
27       pointing either inside  of  the  context  directory  or  to  this  file
28       descriptor is closed, the logical SPU context is destroyed.
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30       The  parameter flags can be zero or any bitwise or'd combination of the
31       following constants:
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33       SPU_RAWIO
34              Allow mapping of some of the hardware registers of the SPU  into
35              user space. This flag requires the CAP_SYS_RAWIO capability, see
36              capabilities(7).
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38       The mode parameter specifies the permissions used for creating the  new
39       directory  in  spufs.   mode is modified with the user's umask(2) value
40       and then used for both the directory and the files contained in it. The
41       file permissions mask out some more bits of mode because they typically
42       support only read or write access. See stat[4m(2) for a full list  of  the
43       possible mode values.
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RETURN VALUE

47       spu_create  returns a new file descriptor. It may return -1 to indicate
48       an error condition and set errno to  one  of  the  error  codes  listed
49       below.
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ERRORS

53       EACCESS
54              The  current  user does not have write access on the spufs mount
55              point.
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57       EEXIST An SPU context already exists at the given path name.
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59       EFAULT pathname is not a valid string pointer in  the  current  address
60              space.
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62       EINVAL pathname is not a directory in the spufs mount point.
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64       ELOOP  Too many symlinks were found while resolving pathname.
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66       EMFILE The process has reached its maximum open file limit.
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68       ENAMETOOLONG
69              pathname was too long.
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71       ENFILE The system has reached the global open file limit.
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73       ENOENT Part of pathname could not be resolved.
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75       ENOMEM The kernel could not allocate all resources required.
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77       ENOSPC There  are  not  enough  SPU resources available to create a new
78              context or the user specific limit for the number  of  SPU  con‐
79              texts has been reached.
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81       ENOSYS the functionality is not provided by the current system, because
82              either the hardware does not provide SPUs or the spufs module is
83              not loaded.
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85       ENOTDIR
86              A part of pathname is not a directory.
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NOTES

89       spu_create  is  meant  to  be used from libraries that implement a more
90       abstract interface to SPUs, not to be used from  regular  applications.
91       See  http://www.bsc.es/projects/deepcomputing/linuxoncell/ for the rec‐
92       ommended libraries.
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FILES

96       pathname must point to a location beneath the mount point of spufs.  By
97       convention, it gets mounted in /spu.
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CONFORMING TO

101       This call is Linux specific and only implemented by the ppc64 architec‐
102       ture. Programs using this system call are not portable.
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BUGS

106       The code does not yet fully implement all features lined out here.
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AUTHOR

110       Arnd Bergmann <arndb@de.ibm.com>
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