Re: xen 3.0 for AMD Pacifica

[Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>]

Dave Feustel wrote:

>>We intend to add support for x86 h/w virtualization extensions 
>>as information about them becomes available.
>>    
>>
>
>What information is needed beyond the Pacifica documentation already
>provided by AMD and the Vanderpool docs provided by Intel?
>  
>
I don't know where you're quoting from, but both specs are out publicly.

As Mark mentions, there's quite a bit of work to go from specs to 
implementation though.

Both VT and Pacifica are pretty similiar in the basic idea that they 
allow the processor to be put in a mode where 30 or so events that 
normally don't trap actually do trap.

Just having the processor trap though doesn't get you virtualization 
:-)  Each of those events has to be handled, and often emulated.  Throw 
in shadow paging and IO emulation and it's all rather complicated.

Plus, there's not much that can be done without having the hardware at 
this point.

>Is there any possibility of setting up a mailing list directed specifically at
>xen 3.0 hardware supported virtualization?
>  
>
There are an awful lot of Xen mailing lists at this point.  What would 
be *really* useful is having some content on the wiki that went into 
more depth about VT/Pacifica.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

>Thanks,
>Dave Feustel
>
>
>  
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