From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Javier Guerra Subject: Re: [PATCHv5 3/3] vhost_net: a kernel-level virtio server Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:16:56 -0500 Message-ID: <90eb1dc70909170716i5de0b909tf69c93e679f5fbc8@mail.gmail.com> References: <4AAFF437.7060100@gmail.com> <4AB0A070.1050400@redhat.com> <4AB0CFA5.6040104@gmail.com> <4AB0E2A2.3080409@redhat.com> <4AB0F1EF.5050102@gmail.com> <4AB10B67.2050108@redhat.com> <4AB13B09.5040308@gmail.com> <4AB151D7.10402@redhat.com> <4AB1A8FD.2010805@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Avi Kivity , "Michael S. Tsirkin" , "Ira W. Snyder" , netdev@vger.kernel.org, virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org, kvm@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, mingo@elte.hu, linux-mm@kvack.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, hpa@zytor.com, Rusty Russell , s.hetze@linux-ag.com, alacrityvm-devel@lists.sourceforge.net To: Gregory Haskins Return-path: In-Reply-To: <4AB1A8FD.2010805@gmail.com> Sender: kvm-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: netdev.vger.kernel.org On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 10:11 PM, Gregory Haskins wrote: >=C2=A0It is certainly not a requirement to make said > chip somehow work with existing drivers/facilities on bare metal, per > se. =C2=A0Why should virtual systems be different? i'd guess it's an issue of support resources. a hardware developer creates a chip and immediately sells it, getting small but assured revenue, with it they write (or pays to write) drivers for a couple of releases, and stop to manufacture it as soon as it's not profitable. software has a much longer lifetime, especially at the platform-level (and KVM is a platform for a lot of us). also, being GPL, it's cheaper to produce but has (much!) more limited resources. creating a new support issue is a scary thought. --=20 Javier