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RE: [Xen-devel] IOMMU and AMD 890fx



Normally AMD will release a common BIOS module/interface to OEM vendors, who 
then cherry-pick features to fit their products. I will be surprised if AMD 
specifically disables IOMMU feature for ASRock. 

Andre Przywara's email tells how to find out the IOMMU support in system 
(device 0:0.2 and ACPI IVRS table). Please follow it and tell us your findings.

From our side, we will contact BIOS team to find out the truth. In the 
meanwhile, it is necessary to compile a list of 890FX motherboards, which 
support IOMMU, in Xen wiki. So people won't find a surprise in future.

Regards,
-Wei 

-----Original Message-----
From: Sander Eikelenboom [mailto:linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 6:12 AM
To: Jens Krehbiel-GrÃther
Cc: Joop Boonen; Leonardo Prosperi; Huang2, Wei; xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] IOMMU and AMD 890fx

So in principle they would like to support it , but they can't / don't know how.
Very interested at AMD's answer then, unfortunately Wei Huang seems to be on 
vacation until June 7th.

For what i understood in the past was that AMD's solution would not depend on 
cpu support (as intel's vt-d does).
And with vga passthrough, iommu on the desktop looks like a good use of an 
iommu in my opinion.
--
Sander


Thursday, June 3, 2010, 12:51:23 PM, you wrote:


> I got this answer from asrock support:



> <answer>

> So, I get more/final answer from Taiwan department:



> For H/W part:

> From chipset spec, RD890(890FX) did support IOMMU.

> But IOMMU also need CPU to support. Till now, AMD has no plan to support

> IOMMU on desktop CPU (AM3 socket).

> It only support with server CPU.



> For BIOS part:

> AMD has removed IOMMU related registers.

> So there is no chance to let IOMMU work on our 890FX board unless AMD can

> provide such a process, and registers.



> Best regards,

> ASRock Support

> </answer>



> So they say it is AMD's fault. :-(



> Regards,

>   Jens







> On Thu, 3 Jun 2010 11:23:10 +0200, Sander Eikelenboom

> <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> Thursday, June 3, 2010, 10:53:29 AM, you wrote:

>> 

>>> The ASRock 890FX Deluxe3 doesn't support the IOMMU technology too.

>>> http://forums.amd.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=383&threadid=134410

>> 

>>> I'm very disappointed that main board manufacturers don't enable all

>>> features for the processor and main board.

>> 

>> 

>>> On Thu, June 3, 2010 10:19 am, Sander Eikelenboom wrote:

>>>> Thx for the forum threads, i have changed the wiki about vt-d/iommu to

>>>> reflect these new experiences.

>>>>

>>>> I was hoping AMD would be able to do a better job than Intel, and have

>>>> learned from the BIOS missery Intel has with there VT-d, and

>>>> instruct/help

>>>> the manafacturers getting their bioses right.

>> 

>>> I have a feeling that it's not AMD but the main board manufacturers who

>>> don't enable IOMMU in the BIOS. (It might be a hidden feature, for

> people

>>> who want to hack the BIOS at your own risk).

>>> http://www.rebelshavenforum.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

>> 

>> Ofcourse you are right, but as chipset manufacturer I would be pretty

>> pissed and contact them.

>> Also I don't know how hard AMD and Intel make it to implement the

> feature

>> in the bios. Since most of the time it's or disabled or broken.

>> On the other hand, they only support "microsoft windows" and that

> doesn't

>> do a lot with an IOMMU. So in essence it's an unsupported feature.

>> 

>> It's too bad though, it seemed to be a very nice virtualization

> platform,

>> 6 cores, iommu, affordable ...

>> 

>> Hmm guess i'm going to write every manufacturer if they supported,

> and/or

>> if there are plans to support it.

>> Hopefully one will do it in the end ...

>> 

>> --

>> Sander

>> 

>>>> It's a pity that a nice feature isn't supported. No sense in upgrading

>>>> my

>>>> setup then to a six core and mobo with IOMMU. :(

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Sander

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>> Gigabyte motherboards don't support IOMMU:

>>>>>

> http://forums.tweaktown.com/f69/ga-890fxa-ud5-iommu-bios-switch-39801/

>>>>

>>>>> MSI boards have the same problems:

>>>>> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.xen.user/58630

>>>>

>>>>> ASUS Crosshair IV Formula has IOMMU, but I cannot find if it works

> with

>>>>> Xen.

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>> On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 11:38 PM, Sander Eikelenboom

>>>>> <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

>>>>

>>>>>> Hello Wei,

>>>>>>

>>>>>> I hope motherboard manufacturers do a better job with supporting

> this

>>>>>> iommu

>>>>>> in the bios than they did with intel's. Especially Asus made a mess

> of

>>>>>> it,

>>>>>> and hasn't fixed it in newer bioses for multiple motherboards.

>>>>>> And since all motherboard reviews don't mention nor test the iommu

>>>>>> it's

>>>>>> hard to know upfront if it's supported :-(

>>>>>>

>>>>>> --

>>>>>>

>>>>>> Sander

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > Leonardo,

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > I can confirm that AMD 890FX supports IOMMU v1.22. It was briefly

>>>>>> mentioned by external sites, such as

>>>>>> http://techreport.com/articles.x/18825. It looks like Asus, Gigabyte

>>>>>> and

>>>>>> MSI will ship motherboards with 890FX chipset. Xen 4.0 fully

> supports

>>>>>> AMD

>>>>>> IOMMU v1.2. Note that IOMMU needs support from BIOS (ACPI IVRS

> table).

>>>>>> Please pay a bit attention to this area.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > -Wei

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > From: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:

>>>>>> xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Leonardo

> Prosperi

>>>>>> > Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 1:02 PM

>>>>>> > To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>>>> > Subject: [Xen-devel] IOMMU and AMD 890fx

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > Hi,

>>>>>> > All the reviews for the AMD 890fx chipset reported that it

> supports

>>>>>> IOMMU

>>>>>> v1.2.

>>>>>> > But I cannot find any mention of that on AMD site.

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > Does 890fx support IOMMU?

>>>>>> > Do 890fx motherboards with IOMMU exist?

>>>>>> > Does Xen support 890fx?

>>>>>>

>>>>>> > Regards,

>>>>>> > Leonardo

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>>> --

>>>>>> Best regards,

>>>>>>  Sander                            mailto:linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>>>>

>>>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> --

>>>> Best regards,

>>>>  Sander                            mailto:linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>>

>>>>

>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>> Xen-devel mailing list

>>>> Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

>>>> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel

>>>>



-- 
Best regards,
 Sander                            mailto:linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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