[Qemu-devel] Access to specific isa card with Qemu???

[Qemu-devel] Access to specific isa card with Qemu???

[Djamel Hakkar]

Hello,

We have a software that runs on MS-DOS and must communicate with a specific card installed on port isa.
We  want to use this software in Qemu with a machine that runs XP.
Is it possible to access to the ISA port with Qemu in this case?

Do we have to do a specific development?
Can you help us in this development, how much would it cost?

Thank you,
Cordially

Re: [Qemu-devel] Access to specific isa card with Qemu???

[Jes Sorensen]

On 11/08/10 17:21, Djamel Hakkar wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> We have a software that runs on MS-DOS and must communicate with a specific card installed on port isa.
> We  want to use this software in Qemu with a machine that runs XP.
> Is it possible to access to the ISA port with Qemu in this case?
> 
> Do we have to do a specific development?
> Can you help us in this development, how much would it cost?

Right now I don't think there is any support for ISA pass-through, but
it could probably be done, even if it sounds pretty scary. There's a lot
of risk with ISA cards, they can easily take down the whole system, and
if it does DMA you are probably out of luck.

You might find someone on the list willing to do the work on a contract,
but I will let interested parties reply to you directly. I cannot do it.

Cheers,
Jes

Re: [Qemu-devel] Access to specific isa card with Qemu???

[François Revol]

Hi,

> We have a software that runs on MS-DOS and must communicate with a specific card installed on port isa.
> We  want to use this software in Qemu with a machine that runs XP.
> Is it possible to access to the ISA port with Qemu in this case?
> 
> Do we have to do a specific development?
> Can you help us in this development, how much would it cost?

I believe some people already implemented PCI pass-through, or ported it from other emulators (Bochs had one IIRC), you'd have to check the mailing list :
http://search.gmane.org/?query=pci+pass+through&group=gmane.comp.emulators.qemu

Essentially you'd have to write the same kind of thing but for ISA, except you'll have to specify the resources manually since the card isn't published as a specific entity on ISA busses (PnP ones excepted).

Passing through I/O ports should be easy, but IRQ forwarding or even DMA if you need it might require some more work.

François.