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Linux currently has two models for block devices:

- The classic request_fn based approach, where drivers use struct
  request units for IO. The block layer provides various helper
  functionalities to let drivers share code, things like tag
  management, timeout handling, queueing, etc.

- The "stacked" approach, where a driver squeezes in between the
  block layer and IO submitter. Since this bypasses the IO stack,
  driver generally have to manage everything themselves.

With drivers being written for new high IOPS devices, the classic
request_fn based driver doesn't work well enough. The design dates
back to when both SMP and high IOPS was rare. It has problems with
scaling to bigger machines, and runs into scaling issues even on
smaller machines when you have IOPS in the hundreds of thousands
per device.

The stacked approach is then most often selected as the model
for the driver. But this means that everybody has to re-invent
everything, and along...