xpci(4) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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XPCI(4)               NetBSD/xen Kernel Interfaces Manual              XPCI(4)


NAME

     xpci -- Xen frontend paravirtualized PCI pass-through driver


SYNOPSIS

     xpci* at xenbus?
     pci* at xpci?


DESCRIPTION

     The xpci driver is the frontend part of the PCI pass-through functional-
     ity that can be used by Xen guest domains to communicate with PCI
     devices.

     From a guest point of view, xpci is similar to a pci(4) bus, except that
     the guest talks with the PCI backend driver instead of the real physical
     device directly.

     When the host domain is NetBSD, the xpci driver is backed by a pciback(4)
     driver within the dom0.


SEE ALSO

     pci(4), pciback(4), xenbus(4)


HISTORY

     The xpci driver first appeared in NetBSD 5.1.


AUTHORS

     The xpci driver was written by Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@NetBSD.org>.


SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

     As PCI passthrough offers the possibility for guest domains to send arbi-
     trary PCI commands to a physical device, this has direct impact on the
     overall stability and security of the system.  For example, in case of
     erroneous or malicious commands, the device could overwrite physical mem-
     ory portions, via DMA.

NetBSD 6.1.2                    January 8, 2011                   NetBSD 6.1.2