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@@ -2,22 +2,22 @@
\input{abstract.tex}
- Straightforward: Virtio devices use normal bus mechanisms of
+\begin{description}
+\item[Straightforward:] Virtio devices use normal bus mechanisms of
interrupts and DMA which should be familiar to any device driver
author. There is no exotic page-flipping or COW mechanism: it's just
- a normal device.
-\footnote{This lack of page-sharing implies that the implementation of the
+ a normal device.\footnote{This lack of page-sharing implies that the implementation of the
device (e.g. the hypervisor or host) needs full access to the
guest memory. Communication with untrusted parties (i.e.
inter-guest communication) requires copying.
}
- Efficient: Virtio devices consist of rings of descriptors
+\item[Efficient:] Virtio devices consist of rings of descriptors
for both input and output, which are neatly laid out to avoid cache
effects from both driver and device writing to the same cache
lines.
- Standard: Virtio makes no assumptions about the environment in which
+\item[Standard:] Virtio makes no assumptions about the environment in which
it operates, beyond supporting the bus to which device is attached.
In this specification, virtio
devices are implemented over MMIO, Channel I/O and PCI bus transports
@@ -27,11 +27,12 @@ between different transports.
}, earlier drafts
have been implemented on other buses not included here.
- Extensible: Virtio devices contain feature bits which are
+\item[Extensible:] Virtio devices contain feature bits which are
acknowledged by the guest operating system during device setup.
This allows forwards and backwards compatibility: the device
offers all the features it knows about, and the driver
acknowledges those it understands and wishes to use.
+\end{description}
\section{Terminology}\label{Terminology}