Re: paravirtual drivers?

[Tomasz Chmielewski <mangoo-Nem3ZqsbT/g@public.gmane.org>]

Avi Kivity schrieb:
> Tomasz Chmielewski wrote:
>> As I understand, fully virtualized KVM guests (on Intel VT or AMD-V) 
>> can perform with near native speeds only when it comes to the CPU - 
>> because the things like network or block device are basically emulated.
>>
>>
>> Among many changes, KVM in 2.6.21 has "Initial paravirtualization 
>> support, which has much faster performance", and is based on KVM-15.
>>
>>
>> At least two PV drivers are needed:
>> - network
>> - block device
>>
>>
>> What is the state of these PV drivers now? Is it usable on Linux now?
>>   
> 
> We (Qumranet) have Linux paravirtual network support working, but not 
> ready for general consumption yet.

Hmm, is the "general consumption" of the network support a matter of 
weeks, or months rather?
And what about the block device? As I understand, using SCSI emulation 
gives better results, but still, there will be a noticeable difference 
when compared to the "native speed".


>> Are Windows PV drivers planned, too? If yes, who is going to take the 
>> lead here (Qumranet, community, not decided yet etc.?).
>>   
> 
> We also have Windows network drivers.

Is it decided if these PV drivers will be open source/free, or rather 
have commercial model?


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://wpkg.org

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