XPCI(4) 						 BSD/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 functionality 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 arbitrary 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 physi-
     cal memory portions, via DMA.

BSD
								  January 8, 2011							       BSD