Re: [Xen-devel] 1 GPU multiple VMs

[Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 3 Feb 2012, Jacobs Jordi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am wondering how GPU sharing could/should be implemented for the Xen 
> Hypervisor.
> 
> I have come across several papers that explain many possibilities on GPU 
> sharing for multiple VMs but I'm not sure wich
> one would be the best solution for Xen.
> 
> API remoting (gallium3D) (ex. Xen3D project)
> Mediated passthrough (Multiplexing the GPU while maintaining the different 
> contexts.)
> 
> Can you guys give me your idea on the matter?
> Please also mention any existing projects you know that are related to this 
> problem.

My personal opinion is that the simplest thing to do is OpenGL
remoting. Gallium remoting could also be OK but considering that many
cards don't have Gallium drivers we would probably end up doing two
conversions instead of one (DirectX->Gallium in the guest,
Gallium->OpenGL in dom0).
Mediated passthrough is very card specific so I am afraid you would end
up writing virtualization specific drivers for all the cards you want to
support. Not to mention that you might need to access some videocard
interfaces that on Nvidia are not discosed.

I believe that virtualbox already supports OpenGL remoting in a decent
way, so I would start from there, port what they have to Xen, and
improve it.

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