[Qemu-devel] [virtio-dev][RFC v2 0/2] Signal Distribution Module virtio device specification

[Christian Pinto <c.pinto@virtualopensystems.com>]

Hi all,

This patch series proposes the specification of a new virtio device on which we
are working on, namely the Signal Distribution Module (SDM). 
The SDM routes inter-processor signals using a user-defined communication 
channel. A possible use-case of the SDM is an AMP system where the vairous processors
need to exhange signals (e.g., interrupts) to implement inter-processor
communication patterns. An example are RPMSG and remoteproc, both using
interrupts to kick the virtio queues used for communication (RPMSG), and a boot
signal to start the execution of a slave processor (remoteproc).

However the SDM is not limited to those use-cases and can be easily extended to
support user-defined signals and communication channels.

In addition to the virtio version, a platform device version is available as
well to be used for cases where a processor is not running Linux but another
OS/firmware that does not support virtio.

This patch series is related to :

[Qemu-devel][RFC v3 0/6] SDM Interface
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-06/msg05121.html

where you can find the latest RFC patch set for the QEMU code of the virtio SDM 
device.

Kernel code is publicly accessible from:

https://git.virtualopensystems.com/dev/qemu-het-tools

branch sdm_test_virtio_mod_v2.

QEMU code is accessible from:

https://git.virtualopensystems.com/dev/qemu-het-tools

branch sdm-dev-v3

At the current state the SDM is implemented as a QEMU device and 
provides a local channel, for intra-QEMU signals, and a channel based on  
sockets (UNIX or TCP) to exchange signals between processors in different
instances of QEMU. 
Each communication channel exports a common interface for the sake of ease of
extension and integration of new channels.


Thanks,

Christian

---
Changes since v1:
- Fixed some typos
- Removed dependencies from QEMU
- Added explanation on how SDM can be used in AMP systems
- Explained semantics of payload field in SDMSignalData struct
---

Christian Pinto (2):
  content: reserve virtio device ID
  virtio-sdm: new device specification

 content.tex    |   4 ++
 virtio-sdm.tex | 128 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 132 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 virtio-sdm.tex

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1.9.1