[Qemu-devel] [PATCH v4 1/3] Device specification for shared memory PCI device

[Cam Macdonell]

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+
+Device Specification for Inter-VM shared memory device
+------------------------------------------------------
+
+The Inter-VM shared memory device is designed to share a region of memory to
+userspace in multiple virtual guests.  The memory region does not belong to any
+guest, but is a POSIX memory object on the host.  Optionally, the device may
+support sending interrupts to other guests sharing the same memory region.
+
+The Inter-VM PCI device
+-----------------------
+
+BARs
+
+The device supports three BARs.  BAR0 is a 1 Kbyte MMIO region to support
+registers.  BAR1 is used for MSI-X when it is enabled in the device.  BAR2 is
+used to map the shared memory object from the host.  The size of BAR2 is
+specified when the guest is started and must be a power of 2 in size.
+
+Registers
+
+The device currently supports 4 registers of 32-bits each.  Registers
+are used for synchronization between guests sharing the same memory object when
+interrupts are supported (this requires using the shared memory server).
+
+The server assigns each VM an ID number and sends this ID number to the Qemu
+process when the guest starts.
+
+enum ivshmem_registers {
+    IntrMask = 0,
+    IntrStatus = 4,
+    IVPosition = 8,
+    Doorbell = 12
+};
+
+The first two registers are the interrupt mask and status registers.  Mask and
+status are only used with pin-based interrupts.  They are unused with MSI
+interrupts.  The IVPosition register is read-only and reports the guest's ID
+number.  To interrupt another guest, a guest must write to the Doorbell
+register.  The doorbell register is 32-bits, logically divided into two 16-bit
+fields.  The high 16-bits are the guest ID to interrupt and the low 16-bits are
+the interrupt vector to trigger.
+
+The semantics of the value written to the doorbell depends on whether the
+device is using MSI or a regular pin-based interrupt.  In short, MSI uses
+vectors and regular interrupts set the status register.
+
+Regular Interrupts
+------------------
+
+If regular interrupts are used (due to either a guest not supporting MSI or the
+user specifying not to use them on startup) then the value written to the lower
+16-bits of the Doorbell register results is arbitrary and will trigger an
+interrupt in the destination guest.
+
+An interrupt is also generated when a new guest accesses the shared memory
+region.  A status of (2^32 - 1) indicates that a new guest has joined.
+
+Message Signalled Interrupts
+----------------------------
+
+A ivshmem device may support multiple MSI vectors.  If so, the lower 16-bits
+written to the Doorbell register must be between 1 and the maximum number of
+vectors the guest supports.  The lower 16 bits written to the doorbell is the
+MSI vector that will be raised in the destination guest.  The number of MSI
+vectors can vary but it is set when the VM is started, however vector 0 is
+used to notify that a new guest has joined.  Guests should not use vector 0 for
+any other purpose.
+
+The important thing to remember with MSI is that it is only a signal, no status
+is set (since MSI interrupts are not shared).  All information other than the
+interrupt itself should be communicated via the shared memory region.  Devices
+supporting multiple MSI vectors can use different vectors to indicate different
+events have occurred.  The semantics of interrupt vectors are left to the
+user's discretion.
+
+Usage in the Guest
+------------------
+
+The shared memory device is intended to be used with the provided UIO driver.
+Very little configuration is needed.  The guest should map BAR0 to access the
+registers (an array of 32-bit ints allows simple writing) and map BAR2 to
+access the shared memory region itself.  The size of the shared memory region
+is specified when the guest (or shared memory server) is started.  A guest may
+map the whole shared memory region or only part of it.
-- 
1.6.0.6