linux-kernel - Re: Xen & VMI?

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Date:	Tue, 6 Mar 2007 10:10:06 +0100
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
To:	Zachary Amsden <zach@...are.com>
Cc:	Gerd Hoffmann <kraxel@...e.de>,
	Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org>,
	virtualization <virtualization@...ts.osdl.org>,
	Jan Beulich <jbeulich@...ell.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Roland McGrath <roland@...hat.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Xen & VMI?


* Zachary Amsden <zach@...are.com> wrote:

> > > reduces the QA effort.  You still have 5 Hypervisors you have to 
> > > test against.
> >
> > yes, just like we have thousands of separate PC boards to support. 
> > But as long as the basic ABI is the same, the QA effort on the Linux 
> > kernel side is alot more focused. (Distros still have 
> > 18446744073709551616 total combinations to QA, and have to make an 
> > educated guess to reduce that to a more manageable number.)
> 
> But hardware PC boards don't do anything as remotely complicate as 
> changing the semantics required for correctness in you MMU 
> implementation. [...]

ugh, PC boards are actually far worse and far more diverse than any 
variances between hypervisors, but i digress.

anyway, my point stands: the Linux kernel is significantly more 
maintainable and easier to QA if it has only a single 'external' 
hypervisor ABI to worry about - and that might as well be VMI. This is a 
really obvious point, i expected the discussion to center more around 
the specifics of such a move ;-)

	Ingo
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