Re: [PATCH 3/3] KVM: PPC: Book3S: Add support for hwrng found onsome powernv systems

From: Gleb Natapov
Date: Tue Oct 01 2013 - 05:59:31 EST


On Tue, Oct 01, 2013 at 07:23:20PM +1000, Paul Mackerras wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 01, 2013 at 11:39:08AM +0300, Gleb Natapov wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 01, 2013 at 06:34:26PM +1000, Michael Ellerman wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 11:06:59AM +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> > > > Il 26/09/2013 08:31, Michael Ellerman ha scritto:
> > > > > Some powernv systems include a hwrng. Guests can access it via the
> > > > > H_RANDOM hcall.
> > > >
> > > > Is there any reason to do this in the kernel?
> > >
> > > It's less code, and it's faster :)
> > >
> > > > It does not have to be a particularly fast path;
> > >
> > > Sure, but do we have to make it slow on purpose?
> > >
> > We do not put non performance critical devices into the kernel.
>
> It's not a device, it's a single hypercall, specified by PAPR, which
> is the moral equivalent of x86's RDRAND.
>
OK. A couple of general questions. How guest knows when this hypercall
is available? Is QEMU enable it when KVM_CAP_PPC_HWRNG is available (I
haven't seen userspace patch that uses KVM_CAP_PPC_HWRNG)? What about
QEMU TCG does it implement this hypercall or it emulates hwrng directly?

--
Gleb.
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