Re: [Xen-devel] Supported hardware

[Julien Grall <julien.grall@xxxxxxx>]

Hello,

On 28/01/18 11:10, Pieter Dewachter wrote:
> Dear developers,
Hi Pieter,

Thank you for your interest on Xen.

> ​I'm doing my master thesis this year and I will be using the Xen 
> hypervisor for it. The domain for my thesis is more about the automotive 
> sector, but unfortunately the hardware is too expensive to actually use  > the automotive drivers for Xen.
>
> The goal is to set up a failover cluster by using two different 
> processors, but the first goal is to actually run Xen on them. Due to 
> the limited budget, we were looking at this development board specifically:
> https://www.mouser.be/productdetail/nxp-freescale/frdm-ls1012a-pa?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtw0nEwywcFgPq18vRUkOhrFGI4%252bz5xG70HM4YISmdecw== 
> <https://www.mouser.be/productdetail/nxp-freescale/frdm-ls1012a-pa?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtw0nEwywcFgPq18vRUkOhrFGI4%252bz5xG70HM4YISmdecw>
>
> This is a board based on a single Cortex A53 implemented by NXP, more 
> details can be found here:
> https://www.nxp.com/products/processors-and-microcontrollers/arm-based-processors-and-mcus/qoriq-layerscape-arm-processors/qoriq-layerscape-1012a-low-power-communication-processor:LS1012A 
> ​
>
> Now I have heard the biggest problem is generally the GIC interrupt 
> controller, so I was wondering if it is possible to run Xen on these 
> boards?
I would not consider the GIC as the main problem. Xen supports GICv2 and 
GICv3 and nothing should be necessary if the platform has one (this is 
assuming no workaround is required). However, if the platform has a 
second interrupt controller (such as on Tegra) you may need to add some 
logic in Xen to get the interrupt routed to a Dom0/DomU.
> Once I have confirmation I can make the purchase to continue my 
> thesis. It would be a shame to buy unsupported hardware to start with.
I am not aware of anyone booting Xen on that platform. From the spec, it 
looks pretty standard. It looks like the UART driver in Xen may need 
some update to be usable. Other than that, I believe it would not be too 
much trouble.
However, I don't see an IOMMU. This might make more difficult to assign 
a device to a domain if that what you are aiming.
I have CCed few more person to get more feedback.

Cheers,

--
Julien Grall

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