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authorPeter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org>2016-01-28 18:54:57 +0000
committerPaolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>2016-02-09 15:46:55 +0100
commit5056c0c3de73c4d804a62d473039bc439718777d (patch)
tree306b5d0b057923e27d91afe1563877bde7f09d62 /docs/memory.txt
parent37eebb8693368d890b700cca6e39ec31c7e980e5 (diff)
docs/memory.txt: Improve list of different memory regions
Improve the part of the memory region documentation which describes the various different kinds of memory region: * add the missing types ROM, IOMMU and reservation * mention the functions used to initialize each type, as a hint for finding the API docs and examples of use Signed-off-by: Peter Maydell <peter.maydell@linaro.org> Message-Id: <1454007297-3971-1-git-send-email-peter.maydell@linaro.org> Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/memory.txt')
-rw-r--r--docs/memory.txt26
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/docs/memory.txt b/docs/memory.txt
index 2ceb348942..8745f7603f 100644
--- a/docs/memory.txt
+++ b/docs/memory.txt
@@ -26,14 +26,28 @@ These represent memory as seen from the CPU or a device's viewpoint.
Types of regions
----------------
-There are four types of memory regions (all represented by a single C type
+There are multiple types of memory regions (all represented by a single C type
MemoryRegion):
- RAM: a RAM region is simply a range of host memory that can be made available
to the guest.
+ You typically initialize these with memory_region_init_ram(). Some special
+ purposes require the variants memory_region_init_resizeable_ram(),
+ memory_region_init_ram_from_file(), or memory_region_init_ram_ptr().
- MMIO: a range of guest memory that is implemented by host callbacks;
each read or write causes a callback to be called on the host.
+ You initialize these with memory_region_io(), passing it a MemoryRegionOps
+ structure describing the callbacks.
+
+- ROM: a ROM memory region works like RAM for reads (directly accessing
+ a region of host memory), but like MMIO for writes (invoking a callback).
+ You initialize these with memory_region_init_rom_device().
+
+- IOMMU region: an IOMMU region translates addresses of accesses made to it
+ and forwards them to some other target memory region. As the name suggests,
+ these are only needed for modelling an IOMMU, not for simple devices.
+ You initialize these with memory_region_init_iommu().
- container: a container simply includes other memory regions, each at
a different offset. Containers are useful for grouping several regions
@@ -45,12 +59,22 @@ MemoryRegion):
can overlay a subregion of RAM with MMIO or ROM, or a PCI controller
that does not prevent card from claiming overlapping BARs.
+ You initialize a pure container with memory_region_init().
+
- alias: a subsection of another region. Aliases allow a region to be
split apart into discontiguous regions. Examples of uses are memory banks
used when the guest address space is smaller than the amount of RAM
addressed, or a memory controller that splits main memory to expose a "PCI
hole". Aliases may point to any type of region, including other aliases,
but an alias may not point back to itself, directly or indirectly.
+ You initialize these with memory_region_init_alias().
+
+- reservation region: a reservation region is primarily for debugging.
+ It claims I/O space that is not supposed to be handled by QEMU itself.
+ The typical use is to track parts of the address space which will be
+ handled by the host kernel when KVM is enabled.
+ You initialize these with memory_region_init_reservation(), or by
+ passing a NULL callback parameter to memory_region_init_io().
It is valid to add subregions to a region which is not a pure container
(that is, to an MMIO, RAM or ROM region). This means that the region