RE: [Xen-devel] PCI Passthrough using GART on AMD CPUs?

["Han, Weidong" <weidong.han@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Also can PCI hotplug work as with VT-d?

Yes. VT-d hotplug has been supported. docs/misc/vtd.txt tells you how to
use it.

Randy (Weidong)


Jeff Williams wrote:
> Hey everyone,
> 
> I realize that people asking about PCI passthrough has been
> thoroughly beaten to death many a time, however I couldn't find the
> answer to these questions anywhere (and I'd really like to know :P)
> so please just bare with me. 
> 
> I know the GART built into AMD chipsets can act as a "mini IOMMU" and
> do DMA translation but not protection/isolation. However, last I
> checked PCI passthrough only worked on Xen 3.2 (unstable) if a VT-d
> supporting chipset was detected.
> 
> So what I wanted to know:
> 
> 1) If PCI passthrough can be done using GART, then is this being
> worked on? Also can PCI hotplug work as with VT-d?
> 2) Are there any technological limitations which prevent the GART
> from being used with PCI passthrough or is this just not coded?
> 2) If it is not coded, is it a matter of someone not wanting to do
> this or is it a matter of such a patch never being merged into
> mainline because of potential stability issues due to lack of
> isolation? 
> 
> I would like to know since AMD's real IOMMU won't be in chipsets
> until 2010 and you can't get features like SLI on Intel's chipsets.
> If I can use the GART on a Phenom say, then I can get a nVidia SLI
> board and have the benefits of the more advanced features already
> present in the Phenom like RVI. 
> 
> What do you guys think? I really appreciate your work - keep it up!
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
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