[OASIS Issue Tracker] (VIRTIO-154) Document VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM reserved feature bit (33)

[OASIS Issues Tracker <workgroup_mailer@lists.oasis-open.org>]

Michael S. Tsirkin created VIRTIO-154:
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             Summary: Document VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM reserved feature bit (33)
                 Key: VIRTIO-154
                 URL: https://issues.oasis-open.org/browse/VIRTIO-154
             Project: OASIS Virtual I/O Device (VIRTIO) TC
          Issue Type: Bug
    Affects Versions: virtio 1.0 cs04
         Environment: Reported-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
            Reporter: Michael S. Tsirkin
            Assignee: Michael S. Tsirkin
             Fix For: virtio 1.1 cs01


On most virtio systems, physical addresses are provided from the driver
to the device and subsequently used to access memory directly. However,
some systems feature an IOMMU that complicates things slightly:

  - The IOMMU might require configuration for DMA to work at all. Once
    configured, the driver must pass bus addresses to the device, which
    are then translated by the IOMMU into physical addresses in memory.

  - The IOMMU might be bypassed by virtio DMA. In this case, physical
    addresses must still be provided to the device by the driver, even
    though an IOMMU appears to be present.

This has been solved by the addition of a new reserved feature bit,
VIRTIO_F_IOMMU_PLATFORM, to describe the two cases above. Legacy systems
will not negotiate the feature, and therefore continue to operate
directly on physical addresses.




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