Linux 3.20 To Land VirtIO 1.0 Implementation

The next version of the Linux kernel, which will be known as Linux 3.20 or Linux 4.0, will land VirtIO 1.0 support.

As announced by Rusty Russell with the newest virtio-next pull request, "OK, this has the big virtio 1.0 implementation, as specified by OASIS. On top of that is the major rework of lguest, to use PCI and virtio 1.0, to double-check the implementation. Then comes the inevitable fixes and cleanups from that work."

For those unfamiliar with the VirtIO 1.0 implementation see the OASIS specification, "This document describes the specifications of the 'virtio' family of devices. These devices are found in virtual environments, yet by design they are not all that different from physical devices, and this document treats them as such. This allows the guest to use standard drivers and discovery mechanisms. The purpose of virtio and this specification is that virtual environments and guests should have a straightforward, efficient, standard and extensible mechanism for virtual devices, rather than boutique per-environment or per-OS mechanisms."

This VirtIO 1.0 support is on top of many other changes and new features coming to this next Linux kernel release.