diff options
author | Cam Macdonell <cam@cs.ualberta.ca> | 2010-07-26 18:10:58 -0600 |
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committer | Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com> | 2010-08-10 16:25:15 -0500 |
commit | b6828931ebac027b869e40ec9518a291078dafe5 (patch) | |
tree | 5c370e5d8b5173a6846af97d41a8e3bf18773142 /docs/specs | |
parent | 84b89d782f03b99770759f1d9d6e4e95a2641c35 (diff) |
Device specification for shared memory PCI device
Signed-off-by: Cam Macdonell <cam@cs.ualberta.ca>
Signed-off-by: Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/specs')
-rw-r--r-- | docs/specs/ivshmem_device_spec.txt | 96 |
1 files changed, 96 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/specs/ivshmem_device_spec.txt b/docs/specs/ivshmem_device_spec.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..23dd2ba89f --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/specs/ivshmem_device_spec.txt @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ + +Device Specification for Inter-VM shared memory device +------------------------------------------------------ + +The Inter-VM shared memory device is designed to share a region of memory to +userspace in multiple virtual guests. The memory region does not belong to any +guest, but is a POSIX memory object on the host. Optionally, the device may +support sending interrupts to other guests sharing the same memory region. + + +The Inter-VM PCI device +----------------------- + +*BARs* + +The device supports three BARs. BAR0 is a 1 Kbyte MMIO region to support +registers. BAR1 is used for MSI-X when it is enabled in the device. BAR2 is +used to map the shared memory object from the host. The size of BAR2 is +specified when the guest is started and must be a power of 2 in size. + +*Registers* + +The device currently supports 4 registers of 32-bits each. Registers +are used for synchronization between guests sharing the same memory object when +interrupts are supported (this requires using the shared memory server). + +The server assigns each VM an ID number and sends this ID number to the Qemu +process when the guest starts. + +enum ivshmem_registers { + IntrMask = 0, + IntrStatus = 4, + IVPosition = 8, + Doorbell = 12 +}; + +The first two registers are the interrupt mask and status registers. Mask and +status are only used with pin-based interrupts. They are unused with MSI +interrupts. + +Status Register: The status register is set to 1 when an interrupt occurs. + +Mask Register: The mask register is bitwise ANDed with the interrupt status +and the result will raise an interrupt if it is non-zero. However, since 1 is +the only value the status will be set to, it is only the first bit of the mask +that has any effect. Therefore interrupts can be masked by setting the first +bit to 0 and unmasked by setting the first bit to 1. + +IVPosition Register: The IVPosition register is read-only and reports the +guest's ID number. The guest IDs are non-negative integers. When using the +server, since the server is a separate process, the VM ID will only be set when +the device is ready (shared memory is received from the server and accessible via +the device). If the device is not ready, the IVPosition will return -1. +Applications should ensure that they have a valid VM ID before accessing the +shared memory. + +Doorbell Register: To interrupt another guest, a guest must write to the +Doorbell register. The doorbell register is 32-bits, logically divided into +two 16-bit fields. The high 16-bits are the guest ID to interrupt and the low +16-bits are the interrupt vector to trigger. The semantics of the value +written to the doorbell depends on whether the device is using MSI or a regular +pin-based interrupt. In short, MSI uses vectors while regular interrupts set the +status register. + +Regular Interrupts + +If regular interrupts are used (due to either a guest not supporting MSI or the +user specifying not to use them on startup) then the value written to the lower +16-bits of the Doorbell register results is arbitrary and will trigger an +interrupt in the destination guest. + +Message Signalled Interrupts + +A ivshmem device may support multiple MSI vectors. If so, the lower 16-bits +written to the Doorbell register must be between 0 and the maximum number of +vectors the guest supports. The lower 16 bits written to the doorbell is the +MSI vector that will be raised in the destination guest. The number of MSI +vectors is configurable but it is set when the VM is started. + +The important thing to remember with MSI is that it is only a signal, no status +is set (since MSI interrupts are not shared). All information other than the +interrupt itself should be communicated via the shared memory region. Devices +supporting multiple MSI vectors can use different vectors to indicate different +events have occurred. The semantics of interrupt vectors are left to the +user's discretion. + + +Usage in the Guest +------------------ + +The shared memory device is intended to be used with the provided UIO driver. +Very little configuration is needed. The guest should map BAR0 to access the +registers (an array of 32-bit ints allows simple writing) and map BAR2 to +access the shared memory region itself. The size of the shared memory region +is specified when the guest (or shared memory server) is started. A guest may +map the whole shared memory region or only part of it. |