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diff --git a/docs/pcie.txt b/docs/pcie.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9fb20aaed9 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/pcie.txt @@ -0,0 +1,310 @@ +PCI EXPRESS GUIDELINES +====================== + +1. Introduction +================ +The doc proposes best practices on how to use PCI Express/PCI device +in PCI Express based machines and explains the reasoning behind them. + +The following presentations accompany this document: + (1) Q35 overview. + http://wiki.qemu.org/images/4/4e/Q35.pdf + (2) A comparison between PCI and PCI Express technologies. + http://wiki.qemu.org/images/f/f6/PCIvsPCIe.pdf + +Note: The usage examples are not intended to replace the full +documentation, please use QEMU help to retrieve all options. + +2. Device placement strategy +============================ +QEMU does not have a clear socket-device matching mechanism +and allows any PCI/PCI Express device to be plugged into any +PCI/PCI Express slot. +Plugging a PCI device into a PCI Express slot might not always work and +is weird anyway since it cannot be done for "bare metal". +Plugging a PCI Express device into a PCI slot will hide the Extended +Configuration Space thus is also not recommended. + +The recommendation is to separate the PCI Express and PCI hierarchies. +PCI Express devices should be plugged only into PCI Express Root Ports and +PCI Express Downstream ports. + +2.1 Root Bus (pcie.0) +===================== +Place only the following kinds of devices directly on the Root Complex: + (1) PCI Devices (e.g. network card, graphics card, IDE controller), + not controllers. Place only legacy PCI devices on + the Root Complex. These will be considered Integrated Endpoints. + Note: Integrated Endpoints are not hot-pluggable. + + Although the PCI Express spec does not forbid PCI Express devices as + Integrated Endpoints, existing hardware mostly integrates legacy PCI + devices with the Root Complex. Guest OSes are suspected to behave + strangely when PCI Express devices are integrated + with the Root Complex. + + (2) PCI Express Root Ports (ioh3420), for starting exclusively PCI Express + hierarchies. + + (3) DMI-PCI Bridges (i82801b11-bridge), for starting legacy PCI + hierarchies. + + (4) Extra Root Complexes (pxb-pcie), if multiple PCI Express Root Buses + are needed. + + pcie.0 bus + ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- + | | | | + ----------- ------------------ ------------------ -------------- + | PCI Dev | | PCIe Root Port | | DMI-PCI Bridge | | pxb-pcie | + ----------- ------------------ ------------------ -------------- + +2.1.1 To plug a device into pcie.0 as a Root Complex Integrated Endpoint use: + -device <dev>[,bus=pcie.0] +2.1.2 To expose a new PCI Express Root Bus use: + -device pxb-pcie,id=pcie.1,bus_nr=x[,numa_node=y][,addr=z] + Only PCI Express Root Ports and DMI-PCI bridges can be connected + to the pcie.1 bus: + -device ioh3420,id=root_port1[,bus=pcie.1][,chassis=x][,slot=y][,addr=z] \ + -device i82801b11-bridge,id=dmi_pci_bridge1,bus=pcie.1 + + +2.2 PCI Express only hierarchy +============================== +Always use PCI Express Root Ports to start PCI Express hierarchies. + +A PCI Express Root bus supports up to 32 devices. Since each +PCI Express Root Port is a function and a multi-function +device may support up to 8 functions, the maximum possible +number of PCI Express Root Ports per PCI Express Root Bus is 256. + +Prefer grouping PCI Express Root Ports into multi-function devices +to keep a simple flat hierarchy that is enough for most scenarios. +Only use PCI Express Switches (x3130-upstream, xio3130-downstream) +if there is no more room for PCI Express Root Ports. +Please see section 4. for further justifications. + +Plug only PCI Express devices into PCI Express Ports. + + + pcie.0 bus + ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + | | | + ------------- ------------- ------------- + | Root Port | | Root Port | | Root Port | + ------------ ------------- ------------- + | -------------------------|------------------------ + ------------ | ----------------- | + | PCIe Dev | | PCI Express | Upstream Port | | + ------------ | Switch ----------------- | + | | | | + | ------------------- ------------------- | + | | Downstream Port | | Downstream Port | | + | ------------------- ------------------- | + -------------|-----------------------|------------ + ------------ + | PCIe Dev | + ------------ + +2.2.1 Plugging a PCI Express device into a PCI Express Root Port: + -device ioh3420,id=root_port1,chassis=x,slot=y[,bus=pcie.0][,addr=z] \ + -device <dev>,bus=root_port1 +2.2.2 Using multi-function PCI Express Root Ports: + -device ioh3420,id=root_port1,multifunction=on,chassis=x,slot=y[,bus=pcie.0][,addr=z.0] \ + -device ioh3420,id=root_port2,chassis=x1,slot=y1[,bus=pcie.0][,addr=z.1] \ + -device ioh3420,id=root_port3,chassis=x2,slot=y2[,bus=pcie.0][,addr=z.2] \ +2.2.2 Plugging a PCI Express device into a Switch: + -device ioh3420,id=root_port1,chassis=x,slot=y[,bus=pcie.0][,addr=z] \ + -device x3130-upstream,id=upstream_port1,bus=root_port1[,addr=x] \ + -device xio3130-downstream,id=downstream_port1,bus=upstream_port1,chassis=x1,slot=y1[,addr=z1]] \ + -device <dev>,bus=downstream_port1 + +Notes: + - (slot, chassis) pair is mandatory and must be + unique for each PCI Express Root Port. + - 'addr' parameter can be 0 for all the examples above. + + +2.3 PCI only hierarchy +====================== +Legacy PCI devices can be plugged into pcie.0 as Integrated Endpoints, +but, as mentioned in section 5, doing so means the legacy PCI +device in question will be incapable of hot-unplugging. +Besides that use DMI-PCI Bridges (i82801b11-bridge) in combination +with PCI-PCI Bridges (pci-bridge) to start PCI hierarchies. + +Prefer flat hierarchies. For most scenarios a single DMI-PCI Bridge +(having 32 slots) and several PCI-PCI Bridges attached to it +(each supporting also 32 slots) will support hundreds of legacy devices. +The recommendation is to populate one PCI-PCI Bridge under the DMI-PCI Bridge +until is full and then plug a new PCI-PCI Bridge... + + pcie.0 bus + ---------------------------------------------- + | | + ----------- ------------------ + | PCI Dev | | DMI-PCI BRIDGE | + ---------- ------------------ + | | + ------------------ ------------------ + | PCI-PCI Bridge | | PCI-PCI Bridge | ... + ------------------ ------------------ + | | + ----------- ----------- + | PCI Dev | | PCI Dev | + ----------- ----------- + +2.3.1 To plug a PCI device into pcie.0 as an Integrated Endpoint use: + -device <dev>[,bus=pcie.0] +2.3.2 Plugging a PCI device into a PCI-PCI Bridge: + -device i82801b11-bridge,id=dmi_pci_bridge1[,bus=pcie.0] \ + -device pci-bridge,id=pci_bridge1,bus=dmi_pci_bridge1[,chassis_nr=x][,addr=y] \ + -device <dev>,bus=pci_bridge1[,addr=x] + Note that 'addr' cannot be 0 unless shpc=off parameter is passed to + the PCI Bridge. + +3. IO space issues +=================== +The PCI Express Root Ports and PCI Express Downstream ports are seen by +Firmware/Guest OS as PCI-PCI Bridges. As required by the PCI spec, each +such Port should be reserved a 4K IO range for, even though only one +(multifunction) device can be plugged into each Port. This results in +poor IO space utilization. + +The firmware used by QEMU (SeaBIOS/OVMF) may try further optimizations +by not allocating IO space for each PCI Express Root / PCI Express +Downstream port if: + (1) the port is empty, or + (2) the device behind the port has no IO BARs. + +The IO space is very limited, to 65536 byte-wide IO ports, and may even be +fragmented by fixed IO ports owned by platform devices resulting in at most +10 PCI Express Root Ports or PCI Express Downstream Ports per system +if devices with IO BARs are used in the PCI Express hierarchy. Using the +proposed device placing strategy solves this issue by using only +PCI Express devices within PCI Express hierarchy. + +The PCI Express spec requires that PCI Express devices work properly +without using IO ports. The PCI hierarchy has no such limitations. + + +4. Bus numbers issues +====================== +Each PCI domain can have up to only 256 buses and the QEMU PCI Express +machines do not support multiple PCI domains even if extra Root +Complexes (pxb-pcie) are used. + +Each element of the PCI Express hierarchy (Root Complexes, +PCI Express Root Ports, PCI Express Downstream/Upstream ports) +uses one bus number. Since only one (multifunction) device +can be attached to a PCI Express Root Port or PCI Express Downstream +Port it is advised to plan in advance for the expected number of +devices to prevent bus number starvation. + +Avoiding PCI Express Switches (and thereby striving for a 'flatter' PCI +Express hierarchy) enables the hierarchy to not spend bus numbers on +Upstream Ports. + +The bus_nr properties of the pxb-pcie devices partition the 0..255 bus +number space. All bus numbers assigned to the buses recursively behind a +given pxb-pcie device's root bus must fit between the bus_nr property of +that pxb-pcie device, and the lowest of the higher bus_nr properties +that the command line sets for other pxb-pcie devices. + + +5. Hot-plug +============ +The PCI Express root buses (pcie.0 and the buses exposed by pxb-pcie devices) +do not support hot-plug, so any devices plugged into Root Complexes +cannot be hot-plugged/hot-unplugged: + (1) PCI Express Integrated Endpoints + (2) PCI Express Root Ports + (3) DMI-PCI Bridges + (4) pxb-pcie + +Be aware that PCI Express Downstream Ports can't be hot-plugged into +an existing PCI Express Upstream Port. + +PCI devices can be hot-plugged into PCI-PCI Bridges. The PCI hot-plug is ACPI +based and can work side by side with the PCI Express native hot-plug. + +PCI Express devices can be natively hot-plugged/hot-unplugged into/from +PCI Express Root Ports (and PCI Express Downstream Ports). + +5.1 Planning for hot-plug: + (1) PCI hierarchy + Leave enough PCI-PCI Bridge slots empty or add one + or more empty PCI-PCI Bridges to the DMI-PCI Bridge. + + For each such PCI-PCI Bridge the Guest Firmware is expected to reserve + 4K IO space and 2M MMIO range to be used for all devices behind it. + + Because of the hard IO limit of around 10 PCI Bridges (~ 40K space) + per system don't use more than 9 PCI-PCI Bridges, leaving 4K for the + Integrated Endpoints. (The PCI Express Hierarchy needs no IO space). + + (2) PCI Express hierarchy: + Leave enough PCI Express Root Ports empty. Use multifunction + PCI Express Root Ports (up to 8 ports per pcie.0 slot) + on the Root Complex(es), for keeping the + hierarchy as flat as possible, thereby saving PCI bus numbers. + Don't use PCI Express Switches if you don't have + to, each one of those uses an extra PCI bus (for its Upstream Port) + that could be put to better use with another Root Port or Downstream + Port, which may come handy for hot-plugging another device. + + +5.3 Hot-plug example: +Using HMP: (add -monitor stdio to QEMU command line) + device_add <dev>,id=<id>,bus=<PCI Express Root Port Id/PCI Express Downstream Port Id/PCI-PCI Bridge Id/> + + +6. Device assignment +==================== +Host devices are mostly PCI Express and should be plugged only into +PCI Express Root Ports or PCI Express Downstream Ports. +PCI-PCI Bridge slots can be used for legacy PCI host devices. + +6.1 How to detect if a device is PCI Express: + > lspci -s 03:00.0 -v (as root) + + 03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7260 (rev 83) + Subsystem: Intel Corporation Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 50 + Memory at f0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K] + Capabilities: [c8] Power Management version 3 + Capabilities: [d0] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ + Capabilities: [40] Express Endpoint, MSI 00 + ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting + Capabilities: [140] Device Serial Number 7c-7a-91-ff-ff-90-db-20 + Capabilities: [14c] Latency Tolerance Reporting + Capabilities: [154] Vendor Specific Information: ID=cafe Rev=1 Len=014 + +If you can see the "Express Endpoint" capability in the +output, then the device is indeed PCI Express. + + +7. Virtio devices +================= +Virtio devices plugged into the PCI hierarchy or as Integrated Endpoints +will remain PCI and have transitional behaviour as default. +Transitional virtio devices work in both IO and MMIO modes depending on +the guest support. The Guest firmware will assign both IO and MMIO resources +to transitional virtio devices. + +Virtio devices plugged into PCI Express ports are PCI Express devices and +have "1.0" behavior by default without IO support. +In both cases disable-legacy and disable-modern properties can be used +to override the behaviour. + +Note that setting disable-legacy=off will enable legacy mode (enabling +legacy behavior) for PCI Express virtio devices causing them to +require IO space, which, given the limited available IO space, may quickly +lead to resource exhaustion, and is therefore strongly discouraged. + + +8. Conclusion +============== +The proposal offers a usage model that is easy to understand and follow +and at the same time overcomes the PCI Express architecture limitations. |