Re: QEMU PIC indirection patch for in-kernel APIC work

Ingo Molnar
2007-04-05T10:55:40Z

* Ingo Molnar <mingo-X9Un+BFzKDI@public.gmane.org> wrote:

> * Rusty Russell <rusty-8n+1lVoiYb80n/F98K4Iww@public.gmane.org> wrote:
>
> > It's easier to write a kernel-space network driver, but it's not
> > obviously the right thing to do until we can show that an efficient
> > packet-level userspace interface isn't possible. I don't think
> > that's been done, and it would be interesting to try.
>
> yes, i agree in theory, [...]

let me explain my position a bit more verbosely:

i agree in terms of 'network driver' (and more generally in terms of
'device', which includes network, storage, console, etc. devices):
having a user-space driver option should still be possible and it should
be integrated well. Qemu is quite rich and flexible in these areas and
we dont want to throw away or isolate that body of code.

but i dont agree in terms of PIC code, which is the main argument in
this particular thread. There's little precedent for any add-ons for
PICs in user-space, nor any particular PIC handling richness in Qemu
that we'd like to preserve.

Ingo